March 16, 2026 Editor, The News-Gazette: A few recent stories in The News-Gazette have reminded me once again of how much I appreciate and admire your paper. I’m thinking specifically of the piece by Ed Smith (Jan. 21) with the headline, “Principled Foreign Policy Recalled.” The quote by Mattie Webb, “The more I dug into the sources, the more I realized how rare it was for a president to stand on principle at the expense of popularity,” could not be more relevant to the current state of the presidency.
I’m also thinking of the article by Eric Wilson, “I Too Serve America,” about black World War II soldiers and workers in Rockbridge. Neither of these insightful and well written stories are the sort of thing one would expect to read in a small town, independent newspaper. So again, thank you.
I’d also like to ask who thought it would be a good idea to bring another Sheetz here? Isn’t it obvious that all it’s going to do is bring more traffic off the interstate to further choke the already congested arteries of Lexington, as if “Wawa” wasn’t bad enough? As if U.S. 11 north of Lexington weren’t already a nightmare?
Finally, regarding two letters in the March 11 edition of The News-Gazette urging voters to “vote no” on the upcoming redistricting referendum: I find it hard to take either of these letters seriously because neither writer acknowledged that the reason for the referendum is because Republicans, at the president’s insistence, have been busy for the past year redistricting all over the country in order to improve their chances of winning congressional seats. Surely they must have foreseen a backlash. PHILLIP WELCH Rockbridge County.
