It was with great dismay that I read the recent ill-informed letter from Robert Vetter regarding the planned improvements at Moore County Airport. The facts are different:

During this season of thankful reflection I would like to share my thoughts on my health and this place I call “home.”

I recently read the letter to the editor published in The Pilot titled “We’re Changing.”

President Washington is reputed to have said, “I cannot tell a lie.” President Lincoln was nicknamed “Honest Abe.” President Carter promised American citizens, “I will never lie to you.”

David Sinclair’s Oct. 30 article set forth the views of the candidates on protecting Pinehurst’s National Park Service historic landmark. They suggest that all we need to do is to establish better communications with the National Park Service and come to a better understanding of its positions.

Many of you are aware that the Given Memorial Library and the Pinehurst Village Council and staff have been exploring the future of library services in Pinehurst. Representatives of the library made a presentation to the council in 2017, requesting assistance.

For many years I have subscribed to the Sunday New York Times. Each week The Times reports on a number of weddings that occurred recently. And one thing that seems to be unique to this paper is that it always names the person who officiated at the marriage.

A couple of weeks ago I literally came within a heartbeat of dying. As I was performing my normal workout in the gym, my heart apparently stopped.

Four hundred years ago a ship arrived at Point Comfort, in the British colony of Virginia, here in the “New World.” Its cargo contained 20 to 30 enslaved Africans, people who had been forcibly separated from their families and carried to this country, where they would become the nucleus of o…

Editor’s Note: Jerry and Kathy Constantino have spent more than 11 years making an impact with their therapy dogs at First Health Moore Regional Hospital, First Health Hospice and Palliative Care House, nursing homes and schools in Moore County. For a number of years they have also volunteer…

Churches are, and always have been, the backbone of rural North Carolina. Places of hope, fellowship, spiritual comfort, they are also often heartbeats of a community, providing food, clothing and other direct aid to their neighbors.

Visit about any civic club in our fair state, including your weekly ones in Moore County, and chances are during the meeting you’ll find folks holding a 50-50 raffle or another fun game to raise money for a good cause.

Thank you … for holding the door for me. Thank you … for removing your golf cap upon entering the restaurant. Thank you … for slowing and allowing me ample opportunity to enter the Traffic Circle. Thank you … for not despoiling our roadways by throwing trash from the window of your car. Than…

I was raised in a military family in Pinehurst. My parents were both loving, and they were both conservative. They took me to church, and I memorized the 10 Commandments.

I’m going to give you some words from a song and, chances are, you’re going to recognize it and it’s going to stick in your head for a while. Here goes: “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.” You know the rest.

Democracy has no flawless solutions, no foolproof guarantees of perfect fairness. It’s messy. But what unites us as a state and nation is a shared conviction that despite those imperfections, we have an obligation to constantly improve our nearly 250-year grand experiment in self-governance.

Imagine a small ATM in an old Food Mart just south of Carthage. Besides working people, senior citizens and those on disability stop by to withdraw limited amounts of their hard-earned cash to pay for overpriced medicines, cold Gatorade and hot fried chicken. This Food Mart stands in for a l…

BY GOVS. JAMES MARTIN, JAMES HUNT JR., MICHAEL EASLEY

In a recent column in The Pilot, Robert Levy used Malcolm X to expose the hypocrisy of white liberalism. Levy shared the quote, “The white liberal is the worst enemy to America and to the black man.”

I have been a small business owner in Moore County for 30 years and have been co-owner of Southern Pines Equine Associates for the past 25 years.

As chairman of the Moore County Democratic Party, I cannot remain silent and witness State Rep. Jamie Boles, in his July 31 column, providing inaccurate information about the budget standoff in Raleigh.

Normally I try to stay away from politics in this column, but today I may come close.

As we enter the fourth week of the new fiscal year, the budget standoff continues. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the budget because it did not expand Medicaid. This action blocked critical funding for projects all over the state, specifically several million dollars that would go directly to Moore …

I’d like to take a survey: How many of you have trouble negotiating your technology of choice, specifically personal computers and smartphones, or should I say not-so-smart phones?

If you are like me, you’re concerned about all the rawest of rhetoric emanating from Washington and our leaders there. It has infected everything.

The United Way of Moore County recently sent notices to 17 local nonprofit organizations representing 18 programs that they would be receiving grants this year.

July is usually the peak time when families get in their cars and hit the road. I remember the first time my family took a long-distance car trip.

There is only one living species of alligator in the United States, alligator mississippiensis.

Fifty years ago this month I reported for duty aboard the USS Sutter County (LST1150), a ship that would be my home for the better part of the next two years.

On Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress and the American people about an incident that had shocked the nation. “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked…

In its May 12, 2019 editorial “Time to Change Charter Funding,” The Pilot endorses a Moore County Board of Education proposal to the county Board of Commissioners to create a separate fund to cover “the per-pupil cost for all (public) charter students who never attended Moore County Schools.”

Until I looked it up, I had no idea who Roe and Wade were, but their names are on top of the news.

Editor’s note: This is the third of three columns dedicated to education funding in Moore County.

Reprinted with permission by The News & Observer of Raleigh

There is no manual provided on the day of your birth on How to Navigate Life: The Pathway to Living. Life is not one size fits all; each experience is as different as each person.

On a beautiful day last week, our community was struck by tragedy. It was the last day of class at my alma mater, UNC Charlotte. Seniors were preparing for graduation, and underclassmen were anticipating the summer break when suddenly gunshots rang out.

Most wars have names — the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the World Wars, the Gulf War, even the Cold War. But there is a war that has been going on throughout history and has been the justification of every war ever fought. It’s the real war between the people and the oligarchs.

Her T-shirt announced, “I’m giving up religion!” As she turned around, the text on the back explained, “Now I’m on a true search for God.”

Last May, local voters gifted the families of Moore County with three new elementary schools. This was a dream unimaginable only a few years ago.

The Roman Catholic Church has been striving for survival for the past 10 years or more. We are all familiar with reports of priests, and even bishops, who for decades have sexually abused children who were members of their parishes.

If you are like me and going on a trip that involves the use of an airplane — despite the security procedures one must go through at the airport — you get excited about flying and, if it’s a clear day, seeing the passing landscape below.

There is an assault on the power and authority of local governments in North Carolina. The perpetrators are the state legislature and special interest groups.

As my husband and I leave North Carolina — we’re moving closer to grandchildren — I must say good-bye to the column I’ve been writing for the Point/Counterpoint series.

Editor’s Note: These remarks are derived from the author’s introduction last week of New York Times best-selling author Amor Towles at his Pinehurst appearance.

Last week, 684 rural advocates from 89 North Carolina counties travelled to Raleigh to let their voices be heard by our state leaders.

The “dead cat” lies at the door of the Congress when it comes to budgeting and appropriating. It’s broken under the dome.

Reprinted with permission by The News & Observer of Raleigh.

I read Steve Bouser’s recent column regarding his perceived need to correct our founding fathers’ terrible mistake of incorporating an Electoral College “layer” into the selection of president.

March 28, 1979 —Forty years ago this month, the people living near the Three Mile Island nuclear energy plant in Pennsylvania experienced a crisis that could have been a complete disaster. My own experience was devastating but it could have been much worse. It seems a proper time to revisit …