Opinion

Have you ever asked yourself, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” For those of you who know me, you might say I’m still trying to figure that out. I come from humble means and always wanted to make my mom...

By my reckoning 140 years, give or take, of my family’s timeline was spent in prisons; the years accumulated by my parents, a brother and his wife, a niece and myself. And it seems the family occupation within the California Department of Corrections (CDC;...

Each fall, the start of classes brings renewed energy and optimism to Cal State Monterey Bay. This year was no exception. From the first-day excitement to our Otter Plunge tradition in the waters of Monterey Bay, our campus is once again alive with purpose...

Well, if I thought there was lots to do last week, we were even busier this week. First, there was a party for Taylor, this is the young lady my younger calls his sweetie. She has studied to be a counselor to high school...

Dear Salinas Valley Fair Livestock Auction Buyers; Let me take a few lines to tell you about a young man named Kevin and his pig named Malcolm. I have lived next door to Kevin’s family for about a decade now and have always found them...

The good and bad aspects of choosing a title line (see above) for a column is once up there, the writer is bound to it throughout the piece. If the writer adheres to the subject of the title throughout all is well, but if...

Something just crept up inside my tiny brain and said, “Oh, you have vacation coming up next month with a lot of moving parts. Maybe you should check on some of those pieces?” I do listen these days when the female intuition kicks in,...

Have you ever met a hero? I haven’t met many, but I have had my heroes. The first one that I can think of was a little older than me, but he was for sure my hero. I can even remember the first time...

For those of us who are now in our seventh decade, and those of decades more, there are certain times in history that may influence us in often-profound ways. It stands to reason, then, that any news story which gobbled up precious air time...

With the advent of 24-hour news coverage by numerous networks, we now have a multitude of current events coverage; coverage that invariably comes with opinion-fueled rhetoric offered up by everyone from professional pundits to amateur analysists and simpering sycophants to determined detractors. And with...