I don't know about Blount County but the restaurants in Gatlinburg are full of east European college kids working here during the Summer. They work hard and have good communication skills. Not to knock the locals, but man, the girls are very nice to look at. Plus, in Sevier County we need to diversify the gene pool.

What does he care? College Republicans don't work.
Personally, I'd like to see the Russian gals over some 250lb, bleach-blond, tub of goo with the dental profile of a hockey player.

Ahhh.... auburn hair, green eyes, slim bodies and looking for American hubbies. :)

I'll hire one right now.

"The mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open."

Had the opportunity to stay at the Jackson Lake Lodge in the Grand Tetons National Park over Labor Day weekend this year and they had a number of employees from Romania. One college-age Romanian woman at the front desk was especially friendly, courteous, and set up our tours of Jackson Lake and suggested other scenic places to visit. Easily the most helpful person we encountered the entire trip.

That editorial letter echos anti-immigrant rhetoric that's been around more than a century.

Is Jerry Cunningham such an idiot to believe that the current Russian government - objectionable as it might be - is the same thing as the Soviet government that backed North Vietnam?

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College Republicans don't work.
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Crap! I wish someone had told me that before I worked 40+ at Kroger while in school.

A piece of advice for Mayor Cunningham from none other than Major T. J. "King" Kong:

Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days' concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.

Wearybottom Associates

Looking at this from the outside, the main point of the Mayor's letter seems to be fairly obscured in the Daily Times' story. Most of the letter seems to be about the Mayor being irritated that his schedule, as well as that of a number of other folks, was completely disrupted by a presumptuous group who didn't communicate well. The parts about employing Russian kids and grudges from Vietnam are really mentioned in the letter in a "and while I'm thinking about it..." sense, not as a central issue.

Imagine if you were sent a schedule presuming significant use of your time, then heard nothing else until people show up at your door on a day that was already busy. I think you'd be irritated, too.