Opinion

These three wooden crosses tower over Tallulah Road, near the county’s department of transportation office. Photo by Eric Reece/The Graham Star

These three wooden crosses tower over Tallulah Road, near the county’s department of transportation office. Photo by Eric Reece/The Graham Star

Tale of the 3 crosses

Eric Reece
Friday, September 22, 2023
Have you ever traveled on a southern road and saw three mysterious, tall, colored crosses on the side of the highway? The center cross is taller and colored gold and the two on each side are light blue. I used to see many of these crosses traveling across the southeast.

Give me liberty, or give me death

Scott Kamps
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Sept. 17 is Constitution Day. It’s a great time to reread our Constitution and remember the freedoms we enjoy and the responsibilities of our political leaders.

Does religion grow through life?

Eric Reece
Thursday, September 7, 2023
As a person grows older, do they get more religious? One reason I asked is Graham County is growing older -- and the projections are it will continue. Our friends at the U.S. Census Bureau have our median (midpoint) age as 46 years old, as compared to 39.4 in North Carolina.
Former staff photographer Art Miller took this photo on my first official day as editor of The Graham Star: Aug. 8, 2019. I wish 2023 me would go back and tell my 2019 self to be prepared for the onset of gray hair just 1 ½ years later; local elections director Teresa Garland told me after the fact that her first impression of meeting me was simple: “He’s just a kid.”

Former staff photographer Art Miller took this photo on my first official day as editor of The Graham Star: Aug. 8, 2019. I wish 2023 me would go back and tell my 2019 self to be prepared for the onset of gray hair just 1 ½ years later; local elections director Teresa Garland told me after the fact that her first impression of meeting me was simple: “He’s just a kid.”

4 years (and 1 month) later

Kevin Hensley
Thursday, September 7, 2023
My 4-year anniversary over The Graham Star came and went without a single thread of recognition: no candle, no cake, not even an “attaboy.” Oh, I thought of it, no doubt. “How on Earth … four years?

Pintos and cornbread out west

Marshall McClung
Thursday, September 7, 2023
I recently wrote a column about a 1974 fire detail in Utah and meeting a Romanian shepherd (“Summer with a Shepherd,” Aug. 24). Any time I was in a place I had not been before, I always watched to see where the home folks ate. It turned out to be just across the street from where I was staying.

Sex, drugs and COVID

Scott Kamps
Thursday, August 31, 2023
An article written by Adrianna Rodriguez appeared on the front page of the Aug. 21 edition of USA Today, about sending kids back to school. This revealing journalistic piece communicates a lot about where our society is and where the cultural elites want to take us.

Summer with a shepherd

Marshall McClung
Friday, August 25, 2023
I spent most of the summer of 1974 on the Ashley National Forest in Utah, on a fire-prevention detail. I was assigned to the Duchesne Ranger District and the ranger station was in a town of the same name that was about the size of Murphy back then. This ranger district covered over 157,000 acres.

Celebrating establishment of Labor Day

Eric Reece
Friday, August 25, 2023
Labor Day became an official federal holiday in 1894. Since that time, communities across America have celebrated the sweat and hard work of people who have built our country. Like many in North Carolina, I grew up in a mill town that had hosiery, textiles and furniture factories.
The recent surge in rainfall across the area has inflicted costly damage. Trees and power lines were downed as part of a Saturday thunderstorm; another heavy outpour late-Monday resulted in a section of the Cherohala Skyway at Tennessee mile marker 4.5 being washed away.

The recent surge in rainfall across the area has inflicted costly damage. Trees and power lines were downed as part of a Saturday thunderstorm; another heavy outpour late-Monday resulted in a section of the Cherohala Skyway at Tennessee mile marker 4.5 being washed away.

Stormy summer

Marshall McClung
Thursday, August 17, 2023
The 1933 song “Stormy Weather” would certainly be a fitting one for Graham County this summer. Between June 1 – Aug. 14, there has been rain on 34 days – with storms on 23 of those days. Saturday was no exception, as rescue squads, the N.C.

Ideology often undermines expertise

Scott Kamps
Thursday, August 17, 2023
Many bemoan that the death of expertise will lead to destruction of democratic society – but is it possible an overemphasis on specialization will actually be our undoing? I’m grateful for much expertise. In our day of gadgets, conveniences and medical progress, we rely on many experts/specialists.