Opinion

Today is a day when my dad would greet everyone he met with the most common phrase in the farmers lexicon. “Hot enough for you?” Actually, he didn’t say that very often. When you wake up over in the San Joaquin Valley, summer is...

Two weeks ago I opened the Rustler to a long article whose headline proclaimed, “Western Flyer Sets Sail With Weekend Celebration and Send-Off Festivities.” I immediately ordered tickets online to what was described as an “enchanting evening titled ‘Tales from the Western Flyer’ celebrating the...

Election Day 2024 is in 19 days and I have already marked my ballot, sealed it in the postage paid envelope and have it setting here atop my little work table. Today, I will deposit it in the ballot box located at the south...

I told you I’d come back, and I did. I did not say that I would keep coming back. I miss you being here, translating for me. I miss you laying down the law and providing the guidelines over here. I miss you. Period. I...

I don’t know if I will see you or speak to you before Good Old Santa comes sliding down the chimney. I like to tell folks “Merry Christmas” during this holiday. I sometimes forget to say it if the conversation is short. But most of...

I have been watching our local politicians as they try to govern the unruly County of Monterey. One week the county supervisors said they wanted to make everyone outside and in wear a mask to cut down on the rate of transmission of this...

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoke these profound words to an audience in Montgomery, Ala., back in 1957 — and they still ring true today. We all have the power to...

I would like to tell you that we can come out of hiding from the virus. I’d like to tell you that we can walk around without a mask; that we can fling open the doors and play with our kids, come out of...

I haven’t tried to hide the fact that I have no admiration for our present President. I could just sit here and write down all the ways he has let us down as a nation. However, I’m not going to do that today because...

Local column by Joanne Banuelos