To the Editor,

Just want to let this wonderful town know about how the coach of the Chilhowee Middle School deserves the job he’s got. My daughter made his team at tryouts. Then I took her al the way to Georgia two days in a row, considering how gas is so cheap that it meant nothing, just to get to watch all the other kids play ball and her sit and cry in the dugout in the 96 degree weather. I then took her to the tournament at Athens Regional Park two days in a row – same thing again, she got to sit and cry and it was like he didn’t even see her.

She has been playing ball since she was five and is now 13 and in the last year of getting to play for the team, he overlooked her and played the 6th graders. Is it her name, where she’s from, I still haven’t figured it out, but I want you to know one thing. She has feelings too and is still upset about the way she has been treated, thrown off the team in front of the whole team for eating French fries, and it wasn’t even time for the game to start. What kind of person is he? When I asked him about what went on he said that she just didn’t show interest in his team and she was the only one he had to ever tell she couldn’t play ball. He doesn’t know a thing about interest in ball.

If she had no interest she wouldn’t have tried out and I think the interest she had showed dripping down her face while she sat and watched all of his picks from the team play ball and I watched them whisper about her and look at her like she was nothing.

I am mad about it. I had to ride all the way home with her while she cried and was so upset she couldn’t talk about it, knowing she had to face all those girls on Monday and feel like she wasn’t good enough. Well, I think he needs thrown off the team himself, and let him feel like she did, but I guess all his wonderful better pillars of the community feel the way he does.

Yours very truly,
Tammy Swann
Benton

Dear Editor,

In Polk County, TN there is a facility which is a jewel in health circles, a jewel of which many people are not aware. It is the Therapy Department of the Life Care Center of Copper Basin in Ducktown, TN. In very limited space, full of therapy equipment, there works a group of highly skilled specialists. This group of five to eight people works what seems almost like magic in this small area.

This is not hearsay or an advertisement. I know how expert they are because I have been their patient. In 100 days they brought a pain-ridden, depressed old woman of 84 to a pain-free energetic person who feels ten years younger. Not only do they work seeming miracles with their expertise, but they do it with compassion, patience, lots of hugs, and large doses of laughter. Most patients who come in discouraged or cross are smiling and working whatever they are asked to do in a few weeks. This is no accident. It is the result of the therapists’ skill, caring, and good humor. I have never met a more dedicated group of people.

These few words are my way of saying “Thank You” to a group I have come to love.

Sincerely,
Jenny Friedel

Dear Editor,

To all my faithful family and friends who have been there for me the last 28 years. Whether it was calls, visits, gifts prayers, or whatever you did, it is deeply appreciated. You are my special angels. Your continued support is deeply appreciated. Always good to hear from you.

August 14, 2008 marked 28 years that I took my first strong chemotherapy treatment at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, GA, for lymphoma cancer. I had a stem-cell bone marrow transplant at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, June 27, 1997. Since all of this, I’ve various reoccurrences. It’s been up hill, down hill on a daily basis. Thank God I’m still alive and raised both my children and I love my five grandchildren.

I’ve had so many people who have called me who has cancer or a family member has it. The disease itself is very frustrating and the medicine has so many side effects that it’s unbelievable, but I took my chances. I don’t know if I’d still be alive if I hadn’t took it. At this time my lymphoma is in remission. I am a diabetic, I have fibromyalgia which is very painful and many other health conditions but I’m alive and thankful. I’ve had the best doctors. Dr. Sylvia Krueger and staff are really taking good care of me. They are all my special angels.

Just put your troubles in God’s hands, have faith and he’ll get ya through. Call me if you need someone to talk to (423) 338-7690.

Stella Crump

To the editor:

Is anyone mad other than me? You know with property taxes going up, gas out of site, now TVA is going up on electric bills. My electric bill has already gone up around $40 and if it goes up again it will probably be $20 or $40 more.

Heating fuel is so high you can't afford it, and if you try to use electric heaters this winter you're in trouble.

People please start raising your voice to our government. Start writing your Senator and Representative. Let’s tell them the trouble we are in. High fuel may just be a minor aggravation to them, but to the rest of us, especially the low and middle class, seniors, minimum wage workers, it is a lot more than a minor thing. Let them know that we are mad when we have to choose food or fuel and how to stretch the money that's left after we pay our gas bill for our cars to get to work.

Let’s send them the message that we put them in office and we can put them out. Friends, this is not a Democratic or a Republican problem -- this is a problem for all of us. So please join me in starting letters to our Government officials. It may not help, but we can sure let them know we don't like it.

Sincerely
Dorothy Chancey
Turtletown, TN

Dear Editor:

I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank Sheriff Bill Davis and his trustees for cleaning up the old cemetery on Cemetery Hill. It is not often that politicians make promises and keep them, and Sheriff Davis came through on his promise to have the trustees help us. I have been working long and hard for about a year to have the cemetery recognized on the National Historic Registry and we received certification in July. The sheriff has promised to help keep these old graves clean and I appreciate everything he has done.

Barbara Beaver
Copperhill