Columbia news, view & reviews’ readers periodically send emails that are not for publication … and some that are. Not always will all of them be published here.

But over the past week or two, we received these two; we decided to share them with your for review and comments, if you like.

The first is allegedly written by former football coach, Lou Holtz. It begins “The Democrats are right, there are two Americas. The America that works, and the America that doesn’t. The America that contributes and the America that doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the haven not’s, it’s the dos and the don’ts. Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don’t.  That’s the divide in America.” Click here to read the contents of entire email sent to us.

You can read the second, which begins: “A few years ago, stirred by a local Thanksgiving ritual I shared with some friends, I wrote this essay on Arlo Guthrie, his Thanksgiving song about ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ my role in the trial of the ‘Chicago Eight’ antiwar activists in 1970, and a yarmulke.

“I think sharing this story each year, particularly in the midst of another war, new pressures on free speech, and new corruptions of the Department of Justice and the courts, may be a useful Thanksgiving ritual of its own.

“With blessings of thankfulness and the vision to make a world even more deserving of our thanks than the one we see around us, … ”

You can read the entire here: “Thanksgiving, Arlo Guthrie, ‘Alice,’ and my first yarmulke” here.