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
Columnist
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
The tax deadline of July 15, 2020 for filing and paying for 2019 income taxes, and paying the first two vouchers of 2020 estimated taxes, is fast approaching. The traditional due dates were extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This postponement provided temporary tax relief... Continue
In describing the bureaucratic workings of Fascism, political theorist Hannah Arendt famously referred to "the banality of evil." She was making reference to the workaday style of Adolph Hitler's genocide machine, an apparatus of many ordinary parts employing ordinary people to carry out extraordinary horror.... Continue
My brother Larry was under the illusion our mother was a good mother, but he had a different childhood than we did. My sisters believed otherwise: Carleen complained Mom was thoughtless and self-centered, Betty hated her for abandoning us, and Claudia simply thought she was... Continue
My question is this: why, oh why, do humans, century after century, continue their violence, slaughter, torture, neglect, cruelty, and prejudice? Black Lives Matter forces us to face racism rooted deeply in society with its brutality and hatred. And, we have discord and fighting in... Continue
As police chiefs nationwide rush to the cameras to disavow the chokehold and 'take a knee,' one can’t help thinking it’s just a PR stunt to mollify public outrage over defenseless deaths at the hands of those sworn to Protect and Serve. Constantly told to... Continue