By John J. Duncan Jr. Joe Biden will be sworn in as president this week, and I hope for the sake of this country that he does a good job. As I said in my last column, he has been very nice to me every time I have been around him, but I really thought […]
By John J. Duncan Jr. Thanks to the kindness of the people of East Tennessee, I had the privilege of working in our Nation’s Capital for over 30 years. I have walked the halls of that Capitol building and have participated in meetings there thousands of times. So, you can probably imagine my shock at […]
By John J. Duncan Jr. James V. DeLong was magna cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School and, while now retired, had a very distinguished legal career in Washington. He wrote a recent article for the American Thinker called “The Honor of the Legal Profession.” I wish every lawyer would read it. He wrote […]
By John J. Duncan Jr. George Will, the longtime conservative columnist, once wrote the neo-conservatives were “magnificently misnamed” and were really the “most radical people in this city,” meaning Washington. The most “magnificently misnamed” people today are the so-called “progressives.” The people who now call themselves “progressives” are those who more honestly and accurately should […]
By John J. Duncan Jr. We are blessed beyond our comprehension to live in this country, and we should be especially thankful at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I read not long ago that almost half the people in this world have to get by on $4.00 or less a day and that about three-fourths have to […]
By John J. Duncan Jr. My brother and sisters and I were very fortunate to have parents who put great pressure on us in a kind, loving, but strict, way to do well in school. Good schools are very important, but I think it is also true that most people learn just as much […]
By John J. Duncan Jr. One of my sons-in-law, Jason Brown, recently sent me two articles about the dismal results of online education. The reports were from two school systems very far apart but strikingly similar in their findings. Dr. Joe Gothard, superintendent of schools in St. Paul, reported that nearly 40% of St. Paul […]
By John J. Duncan Jr. It was very sad to see the news reports on the loss of lives and the homes and even entire small towns that were burned in the recent fires in California, Oregon and Washington State. What made it even sadder is that much of this loss could have been prevented […]
By John J. Duncan Jr. Many years ago, when my son John was in the fourth grade at Sunnyview Elementary School in East Knox county, I had lunch with him and some of his fellow students and was then supposed to speak to his class. At lunch, I got two of his friends to agree […]
By John J. Duncan Jr. Donald Trump lost the presidential election because of the extreme bias of the national news media. This bias was the main cause of the extreme hatred that millions developed for the president. The hatred was so strong that one analyst said that most who voted for Joe Biden would have […]
The opinions expressed by Focus columnists and those providing comments are theirs alone, and may not reflect the opinions of The Knoxville Focus or any employee thereof.