On Nov. 19, the Humboldt Progressive Democrats voted to admonish state Assemblyman Jim Wood for failing to “take steps to move forward” Senate Bill 562, the single-payer, universal healthcare bill for California that is currently stalled in the Assembly Rules Committee by order of Speaker Anthony Rendon. Wood has supported this suspension even while insisting […]
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Posted inLetters + Opinion
Democracy Needs Diverse Local Media
Diversity, competition and localism are the necessary conditions for media to serve democracy — so they are protected under U.S. communications law. But where there is a profit to be made or special interest power to consolidate, these basic conditions are at risk. People must be diligent to ensure liberty and justice for all. Consolidated […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
I Passed Notes
I believe that the Journal has raised a couple very important points in its lawsuit and accompanying editorial (“Stop Passing Notes!,” Nov. 2). The first involves the transmittal of otherwise personal communication during an official’s “public” working hours. On this subject I believe the Journal is incorrect in its assertion that these communications are disclosable […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Dark of Night Edits to a Sungrown Ordinance
Well, the secret’s out. As Thadeus Greenson headlined in the Oct. 5, 2017 Journal, there’s “Way. Too. Much. Weed.” He reported that a recent state Department of Food and Agriculture study “found that while California consumes about 2.5 million pounds of cannabis annually, it’s producing more than five times that amount, some 13.5 million pounds.” […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Pity and Fury
The first time I set foot in the Mateel Community Center was in the late 1990s to attend a benefit for a local woman who, it later would turn out, was terminally ill. The venue teemed with people, friends and neighbors who had gathered to provide both emotional support and financial assistance. Toward the end […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Mending the Mateel
When the counterculture — the barefoot, longhaired back-to-the-landers — poured into the hills and valleys of the Mattole and the Eel River watersheds in the 1970s, they needed a gathering place to enfold their new community. At first, they fixed up an old building in Garberville, the Fireman’s Hall, but when that burned down in […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Grow Local, Grow Natives
Local Food Month promotes local food, local food production and local farms and community gardens. It is meant to promote a sustainable local food system for our local area. The main problem I have is that our truly local foods — the native foods — are not included in solving our local food problems. Instead, […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
‘Overlooked’
Permit me to deliver myself of a considerable amount of pent-up feeling regarding the whole cannabis issue. I’ve seen it all, having lived in SoHum for 45 years. Phase I, the Age of Innocence, when hippies sat naked in the sun with a toke under their skin, thanking God for the wonderful life amidst natural […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
A Restoration Prayer
As I walked into the Arcata Police Department, I was immediately aware of the posters on every wall of David Josiah Lawson. His smiling brown eyes and kind face reawakened the unanswered questions that I’ve had the privilege of placing in a dusty corner of my brain all summer, covered in white skin and blond […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Don’t Live in a Murder House
Last week on Facebook I came across a post from the Wiyot Tribe in which it tagged my friend Rachel Sundberg. The tribe was thanking her for helping members learn about cultural protocols, dance regalia and continuing ceremonial practices. The Wiyot children in the photos were happy and in one photo a young girl was […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Our Shrinking Habitat
For too long now, Humboldt County has encouraged the reckless and destructive expansion of black market marijuana in forest habitat. The recently proposed commercial marijuana ordinance continues this dismal policy. Rather than learning from the massive failure of the medical marijuana ordinance, the proposed commercial marijuana ordinance continues to coddle black market growers. Rather than […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Black Lives and Good Faith
Last week, the Humboldt Bay Fire District Joint Powers Authority told firefighter Matt McFarland after a hearing that he can’t wear a small Black Lives Matter pin on his uniform. McFarland may just want to wear that pin, but the rest of us need him to. This is for all of our safety. I live […]