The mystery is at last revealed: why does the field of candidates for president score so uniformly low in trust, credibility, likability? Why are there no candidates of real substance, principle, and especially of real…
Posts published in “Essays”
Saturday afternoon the blusters of the North plains blasted the Ohio valley relentlessly. Our chickens loitered on the leeward sides of buildings, with sustained gusts maintaining a minimum of 30 MPH for hours, speeding up…
As I write this, we are smack dab in the midst of March Madness — the NCAA basketball tournament, for those of you disinclined to the sporting life, not pollen induced insanity — and I…
The first week of April marked the centenary of legendary San Francisco columnist Herb Caen, a journalist who mastered social networking before it had a name. Nothing goes stale faster than newspaper copy. Wrap a…
THE NUMBER is 686. That’s how many registered nonprofits we have in Mendocino County today. One for every 127 people. As opposed to 2,975 in Sonoma County. One for every 166 people. All of theirs report revenue. All but six show assets. Where poverty is eleven percent. With all the nonprofits here, we should be kicking ass. But we’re not. 385 of our nonprofits — over half — report no revenue and no assets. Our economy ain’t doing so hot either. The poverty level here is nineteen percent.
“Take the back roads instead of the highway.”
Minnie Pearl was right. If you want to take the pulse of America, forsake the interstates of commerce and the stately boulevards where the big shots live. Try a back road to see what’s what.
"Nixon's Drug War Was (and Still is) a Racist Tool to Disrupt and Neutralize Black Communities" was the headline of an article published this week by Melissa Franqui, communications director of the Drug Policy Alliance.…