Pam Sohn is the Times opinion editor, representing the left-leaning side of the Chattanooga Times Free Press opinion pages. Sohn has been reporting or editing Chattanooga news for 30 years. A Walden's Ridge native, she began her journalism career with a 10-year stint at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. She came to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 1999 after working at the Chattanooga Times for 14 years. She has also been a city editor, Sunday editor, wire editor, projects team leader and assistant lifestyle editor. As a reporter, she covered the police, courts, health, education and environment beats. She has won dozens of writing and editing awards in both Alabama and Tennessee, including first-place honors for breaking news, investigative news, public service, features, reporting without a deadline and editorial writing. During her tenure as Sunday editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the paper received the 2002 first-place honors for Best Sunday editions and Sweepstakes Award — Best Paper in the State. She has been married for 41 years to photographer, Louis Sohn. They have a grown son, Mitch, as well as three dogs and a grand cat. When not working, Pam gardens, researches family roots and plays piano. Contact her at psohn@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6346.
Can we talk? Just talk. Comfortably and uncomfortably. But thoughtfully. Truthfully.
by Pam SohnBeing disingenuous seems popular with public officials these days. Even local ones. Even some in law enforcement and in the judicial system.
by Pam SohnPlease, please, please Hamilton County folks! Please get your free, safe and readily available COVID-19 vaccinations as soon as possible.
by Pam SohnThere was so much going on last week that you may have missed this stunningly clear Associated Press headline: "Republicans promote pandemic relief they voted against."
by Pam SohnWe all know - or should know - that legacies persist. That's why we call them legacies. They have persisted.
by Pam SohnWe've all heard the sayings about seeing things right in front of us. Chief among them: "We can't see the forest for the trees."
by Pam SohnTennessee's Republican lawmakers are mounting a last-minute effort to ban public schools' teaching of certain concepts involving systemic racism, with the bill's sponsor saying citizens "must take a stand against hucksters, charlatans and useful idiots peddling identity politics."
by Pam SohnTrust our Tennessee legislators and governor to continue devising ways to ignore our votes and our wishes. This time, they want to thwart elected judges - whose decisions they don't condone - by creating a kangaroo court of their own liking. They have dubbed their would-be proxy as a statewide "super" chancery court.
by Pam SohnWho could be against learning more about the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol with a 9/11 style commission and probe? U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, that's who.
by Pam SohnCountries are often judged by the way they treat their children, so the fact that the richest country in the world - the United States of America - has one of the highest, if not the highest, child poverty rate of all developed nations does not reflect well upon us.
by Pam SohnWhat a pleasure it was to watch a real president give a truly thoughtful address to Congress, America and the world on Wednesday night.
by Pam SohnIt used to be that we called the weeks and months running up to Election Day - any election day - the silly season. Now we just call all of our days the silly political season.
by Pam SohnWe often lament that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
by Pam SohnSurely Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is confused.
by Pam SohnTrust in police and our justice system is a tenuous thing right now.
by Pam SohnIt is so disheartening that too many people in Tennessee - and in fact in most "red" states - still seem to be allowing themselves to be wagged by political dogma as they shrug off COVID vaccines and other simple protections.
by Pam SohnChattanooga has new opportunity today after electing a new mayor and three new council members to breathe new life into its cast of leaders.
by Pam SohnOn edge as we all are, it is increasingly disconcerting to watch the clips of the Derek Chauvin trial in Minnesota while even more police-involved deaths and assaults continue to play out across our nation — even one at a school on Monday in Knoxville.
by Pam SohnIf one shocker of our COVID-19 pandemic era has been the enthusiastic embrace of fixing up our homes, a second and related shocker has been the skyrocketing cost of lumber.
by Pam Sohn