Skip to main content
Tuesday, November 10, 2026Nov 10

Greeson: Unlimited breadsticks, salad and kindness at local Olive Garden

This Monday, June 27, 2016, photo shows an Olive Garden restaurant, a Darden brand, in Methuen, Mass. Darden reports financial results Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
This Monday, June 27, 2016, photo shows an Olive Garden restaurant, a Darden brand, in Methuen, Mass. Darden reports financial results Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) This Monday, June 27, 2016, photo shows an Olive Garden restaurant, a Darden brand, in Methuen, Mass. Darden reports financial results Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Monday morning, there was a slew of bigwigs getting together to have the serious conversation about safety in our schools.

As a parent of two Hamilton County school students, I am encouraged by the effort, interest and engagement evident from events like this one. It’s an important topic, one everyone from Sheriff Jim Hammond to Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger and all of the other elected officials who participated, to national experts and local organizers seems committed to doing something about.

Sadly, a reality is that every preventive measure we can take as a community could be sidestepped by those determined to sacrifice their lives in efforts to kill.

photo Jay Greeson

And it’s the variable that no one can calculate when dealing with the nightmares that go as far back as Columbine and have continued to echo through Parkland, Fla., and Marshall County, Ky.

Well, while there may never be a universal answer to stop deadly school violence, here in Chattanooga over the weekend we saw the ultimate cure if we can never find the ultimate solution.