These days the media is awash in rants about hate speech. It seems everyone is saying how nasty things have become, how hate speech is tearing our country apart, provoking widespread violence and spitting, and that ‘it must be stopped!’ Easier said than done. Certainly... Continue
Columnist
There’s a convoluted conversation unraveling through the shadowy corridors of political conversation about the need to tone down hateful rhetoric as violence bleeds out of the twisted psyches of deeply tortured people with guns. Which brings us first to Charlie Kirk, whose assassination by a... Continue
When I was a small boy I cried a lot. By all reports, I was an affable, joyful little guy, sensitive and always smiling, but as the years passed, I came under the shadow of my older brother who took out all his resentments on... Continue
Hilary Campbell is a New Yorker Magazine cartoonist who just happens to have been born and raised in Sonoma. Continue
Capitalism is a hot topic at the moment, its successes and failures, its potential and limitations, and its impacts on culture and the environment. Any examination of capitalism requires its definition, however. While it has many facets, for the purposes of this discussion, I am... Continue
Once in a while in the course of a lifetime one meets a person different from the usual, who stands out from the pack and sticks in the mind. For me, such was Marilyn Goode. She was her own person, set her own courses, spoke... Continue
Through Any Given Door – Part II After finishing my family memoir some years back, including the account of my sister Betty’s rape, I connected with Betty’s childhood friend, Lorna Harrington, who read it and then wrote me about their friendship. I combined two of... Continue
In his song, “American Tune,” Paul Simon wrote it well: “When I think of the road we’re traveling on – I wonder what’s gone wrong.” I hear everyone guessing, none of us knows for sure; how did we get ourselves into this mess? Seriously, we’re... Continue
At one time or another, and often several times at the same time, readers have felt completely overwhelmed by Everything Going On These Days. No wonder we forget where we put the keys. Just walking from car to the front door, we can simultaneously ponder:... Continue
Vintage Festival sneaking up on us Yes, our annual Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival, now organized by the Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Alliance, is next weekend, September 25 through 27. No parade around the plaza. No water fight on Spain Street. But still... Continue