Opinion

It’s kind of strange to start a column like that, but I have been struck with a book I have been reading and I haven’t even finished the first chapter. It’s called “Hillbilly Elegy,” by J.D. Vance. This is the guy the Republicans have...

It’s been a cold, dark year. But now, after a global pandemic brought unthinkable trauma and heartache, Covid-19 vaccines represent a bright, warm ray of sunshine — more than a glimmer of hope. The entire team at Mee Memorial Healthcare System is excited to witness...

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...

Below is what happens when a writer is somewhat confined to his immediate surroundings; that writer reads a lot of books and views a lot of documentaries and then sits down at the keyboard and just lets the fingers go where the imagination, and...

“The Arroyo Seco River begins its life far atop the Santa Sierra Range of Monterey County where its headwaters rapidly flow downward through gorges of solid rock cut deep by millennia of erosion then wends its way eastward along beaches lined by sycamore and...

It is an uncommon occurrence in my own life to find myself in a situation where I become distinctly and acutely aware that I am—in that moment—a minority. This once occurred when I attended a young adult LGBTQ organization in Long Beach, where black...

Happy February! In February, we have Valentine’s Day, President’s Day and so many things to celebrate. 1. February is one of our favorite months because it is also Library Lover’s Month! Do you love your library? There are many ways to show your library love....

For members of previous generations, a “wakeup call” meant having a hotel employee ring their room at a certain time to rouse them from bed. Today the term is used when we’ve been doing something self destructive for some time (perhaps without realizing it)...

For those of us with multiple decades behind us as we continue our personal journeys toward some inevitable end, it seems the compulsion increases to reminisce about the time known as the Holiday Season. Or maybe it is just me. How the marked days at...

I have mentioned often about my young life in Wasco and the field work I did before I left for the military. Well, it occurred to me this morning that you might have thought I was a deprived young man. To the contrary, I...