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).
No one is coming to save us.
by David CookWell, this isn't the birthday we imagined for you.
by David CookI broke down. A few days ago. I was doing something small around the house, so small I won't even mention it.
by David CookThis, too, shall pass.
by David CookOn Monday, Lauren Robinson Neal looked at her pots of orchids — red, white, and pink blossoms exploding from green stems — and declared that they, and she, had seen enough of winter.
by David CookYes, I'm voting.
by David CookIt is time we memorialize the five Chattanoogans — five African American women — shot in an act of domestic terrorism in 1980.
by David CookA few years ago, Tiffany Herron was standing on M.L. King Boulevard, listening to stories she'd never heard before.
by David CookA Chattanooga landmark is under attack.
by David CookThis is Super Bowl Sunday, the apex of our American football season. (Chiefs by six.)
by David CookWho are we? Who are we not?
by David CookIt can be difficult building and organizing community.
by David CookIn 1969, one year after Martin Luther King was assassinated, the Hon. Bennie Harris — our city's first African-American city court judge — called together a group of local black men.
by David CookNot long ago, the door to the music store opened. And a deaf man walked in.
by David CookOn Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump.
by David CookIt was a wonderful sight.
by David CookWhen did you first realize you were black?
by David CookJust yesterday it was a crib. Or a bike with training wheels. Then, a bike without.
by David CookYou're all county commissioners, and last Sunday, you each no-showed one of the most important events of the year.
by David CookDon't want to talk impeachment. Not yet.
by David Cook