By ROD WILLIAMSON NASHVILLE, Tennessee, Sept. 27, 2019 — From 1983 through 1994, I selected the National Anthem singers at Vanderbilt University athletic events. On the surface, this might appear to be a mundane task, but when your school’s home base is Nashville – “Music City USA” – the National Anthems are more scrutinized than…

Chuck Offenburger’s college pal Tom Bailey and his wife Hunter, of Charlottesville, Virginia, have been on a cruise ship in the Persian Gulf during the recent time of high tensions in the Middle East between the United States, Iran and Iraq. The Baileys have shared the following observations and photos. By TOM BAILEY STRAITS OF…

By PAUL KURTZ OMAHA, Nebraska, June 16, 2019 — My friend of long standing (I think 50-plus years qualifies as “long standing,” right?), Chuck Offenburger, has graciously invited me to report my thoughts as I follow our “VandyBoys” competing for the NCAA Division I baseball championship in the College World Series now underway here. To…

By CARYL P. PRIVETT BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, March 7, 2019 — Reading the new book “Bending Toward Justice,” written by my friend U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-Alabama), brings back so many memories for me. This book is focused on the last two trials of the perpetrators of the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church here…

Douglas T. Bates III, great friend of Chuck Offenburger since their college years, was asked to preach the sermon on Sunday, Oct. 21, at the United Methodist Church in the middle Tennessee town where he was born, raised and now lives in semi-retirement. He’s not a member of the Methodist Church anymore, or any church,…