David Cook is the award-winning city columnist for the Times Free Press, working in the same building where he began his post-college career as a sportswriter for the Chattanooga Free Press. Cook, who graduated from Red Bank High, holds a master's degree in Peace and Justice Studies from Prescott College and an English degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. For 12 years, he was a teacher at the middle, high school and university levels. A Marshall Memorial Fellow, Cook published in magazines (The Sun, Utne Reader, Geez), academic journals, an anthology on homelessness ("Personal Struggles, Professional Lives: Ethics and Advocacy in Research on Homelessness" — Lexington Press) and an anthology on grandparents and grandchildren ("Grandparenting with Heart" — North Atlantic).
The large swastikas spray-painted on the Walnut Street Bridge and art district are gone now.
by David CookThis isn't really about the books.
by David CookLet's forgive David Smith.
by David CookHow are the voices of Black women received in this city and county? Especially outspoken, unapologetic Black women?
by David CookThis week, Hamilton County returned to school.
by David CookOn Friday, July 31, hundreds of local Republican leaders attended an annual fundraiser at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
by David CookI asked a friend — she's Black — what John Lewis meant to her. "Hope," she said.
by David CookFear hurts. It's not like love, which opens and embraces. Fear tightens, constricts and hardens, the spirit's form of arteriosclerosis. When I feel afraid, my abdomen and chest feel like they're being squished and squeezed into a too-small box.
by David CookWe have reached the end of privatized prisons in Hamilton County.
by David CookWhy aren't we all wearing masks?
by David CookIn July 2019, after a video surfaced of white officers beating, kicking and strip-searching a handcuffed Black man, 50 or so Black leaders stood on the Hamilton County Courthouse steps with one clear message for the sheriff.
by David CookCan I see them as I see my own children? Trayvon? Ahmaud? Emmett? As a white father, can I see George Floyd as a brother or son?
by David CookIn these very difficult days, many of us have deepened our spiritual practices, like prayer and meditation. And yoga.
by David CookWhite Chattanooga, I know so many of you. Love so many of you.
by David CookMinneapolis is burning. Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for all things, even burning.
by David CookOn Memorial Day, I think of my grandparents; he fought in World War II Italy and she, at home, raised two baby boomers, one of whom became my mom. My grandparents are buried at the National Cemetery, which will remain flagless Monday, a jarring pandemic image.
by David CookFor 30 years now, running has been part of who I am and what I do. There's freedom: on trails, at races, through neighborhoods and downtown. I've run thousands of times with hundreds of people in dozens of cities.
by David CookIn mid-March, as the pandemic hit Chattanooga and hard times got harder, Troy Rogers bought $100 in groceries and called his friend, Tony Oliver, with a challenge:
by David CookGo back? To normal? I'm not sure I want to.
by David CookMay 1 will not only be a reopening. It will be a sacrifice and gamble, a very big game of Hamilton County roulette.
by David Cook