Even in Sonoma, it’s a stretch getting through this worldwide pandemic. Death by Covid stares us in the face everywhere – at the grocery store, with every conversation, mask over the nose, eyeglasses fogging. It's getting old – and so am I. Next comes the... Continue
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Mid 1940s • 104 Green Street -- Chapter Three. My father first took a job managing the Sprouse-Reitz on Washington Street in Sonora. Mom came in and helped out. Ten years younger, with jet-black hair like her mother’s and grandmother’s, she wore red lipstick and... Continue
Usually, I write about the county budget in May, but like so many other things that have been turned upside down with this pandemic, so has the budget. Generally, in May the Board of Supervisors holds budget workshops, with budget hearings in June. A budget... Continue
We've recently celebrated another July 4th, America's independence from Great Britain. To be honest, I've never been much of a fan of nationalism. It's not that I don't appreciate the various freedoms and opportunity that living here provides; I'm well aware that life in many... Continue
Writing about anything has become just short of impossible for me lately, partly because I am not publishing daily. Issues seem to flare up and stay current for a week or two before our champion showman comes up with some new attack on all we... Continue
In spite of fire season, politics, pandemic, police, and panic, there are moments of serenity in Sonoma. We look like bank robbers – masked, with eyeballs and hair sticking out -- but the new silence is soothing. I’m calmed by birds singing sweetly and by... Continue
This Plague thing has clearly upended everything anyone thought about anything, and the world is awash in punditry. With spelling and grammar that often defies autocorrect, anyone with opposable thumbs is tapping out anguished reactions to The Greatest Calamity Ever. Fortunately, their commentary can be... Continue
The ongoing national protests against police violence have entered a stage similar to the Occupy Movement in 2011. As a labor-based democratic socialist, I am not too romantic about leaderless street-action mass movements, because I know from historical evidence that they follow an inevitable arc... Continue
The doorbell rings and outside the door is a well-dressed young white man. How do you feel? Or, outside the door is a well-dressed young black man. Do you feel differently? Or, in either case, the young men are poorly dressed. How does that affect... Continue
Emerging from the crown of Highway 49 and a mile from end to end, Sonora is tucked into the foothills and ravines of the Sierra Nevada, the gateway to California’s gold-mining region. In its frenetic gold rush heyday, the sounds of miners blasting the hillsides... Continue