Recent evidence reveals that California has surrendered to the climate crisis, so prospects for our grandchildren’s future look grim. For example, this year the Assembly and state Senate passed no effective climate legislation. Lawmakers ignored climate’s effect on wildfires, floods, drought and soaring temperatures. Worldwide temperatures are now 1.2 degrees Celsius above historic levels, headed […]
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Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Overturning of Roe and What to Do Now
We knew it was coming and still the news launched a million expressions of fury across the media landscape and onto the streets. We’ve known this was coming for years, decades. The steady march of the Republican party as it took over school boards, rallied candidates for local offices, blocked judicial appointments at all levels […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
‘Step into Your Power’
Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down Roe v. Wade was a massive blow to reproductive rights and a direct attack on the health and safety of women, people with uteruses and basic human rights. This ruling will affect all people, however, Black people stand to be disproportionately impacted by the court’s ruling. According […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
It Might Be Time to Get Totally Motherfucking Unhinged
We have voted and we have debated. And here we are with 120.5 civilian guns per 100 people and an endless stream of gun violence and school shootings. Gunshot wounds are now the leading cause of child death in the United States. Peaceful marches are powerful and energizing. But even after children who survived the […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Bad Women Like Me
When I was 24 years old, I worked the graveyard shift at a youth hostel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It was fine, sometimes even fun. I rarely felt unsafe in that neighborhood, but I often felt unsafe while doing my job. There was the long-term resident, a student, who would call me at the front […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Views: Klamath Basin Dam Removal Needs a Science-Driven Oversight Plan
The Klamath Basin is on the cusp of the most ambitious dam removal effort ever attempted. If all goes to plan, efforts will get underway by next year to bring down the four aging hydropower dams that divide the basin in half. Are we ready for this? The ramifications of this dam removal effort are […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
It’s Time for Government Investment in Urban Indian Communities
Strong urban Indian communities today are the legacy of survivors who refused to let the colonizers win. Tribal people from across our lands were sent to boarding schools and forced to relocate to cities, all in the hopes of disconnecting them from family, home and culture. Generations of U.S. politicians worked to slowly “kill the Indian, […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Fascism 101
I’ve never been much of a history student, but lately I’ve been reading up on fascism, prepping for a course I’ll be delivering through Cal Poly Humboldt’s OLLI program for people 50 and older. Here are the basics of what I’ve learned. Much of this is from Robert O. Paxton’s The Anatomy of Fascism. Lest […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Is Medicare a Public Good or a Market Commodity?
Seniors, beware: Traditional Medicare is under attack. It was established 56 years ago for the health benefit of all seniors and those with chronic disabilities. It is already almost half gone — and without public outcry it will never return. Medicare disintegration started with a program with the misleading name of Medicare Advantage, run by […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Put the Earth on Top
The Earth flag flies on the Arcata Plaza. That is good. But wait! The plaza flagpole order is not logical. The American flag flies at the top, the California flag beneath it and the Earth flag at the bottom. Doesn’t the Earth encompass all nations and all states? Isn’t the well-being of the Earth essential […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
No Peeking Behind the Nuke’s Fence
After a modest burst of self-congratulation upon finishing the physical decommissioning of its Humboldt Bay nuclear plant in November of 2021, PG&E has gone deeply silent in answering the Journal’s follow up inquiries into the long-term safety of the highly toxic radioactive waste now ensconced 44 feet above Humboldt Bay at Buhne Point. The lack […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Zero Waste and New Year’s Resolutions
What do the Zero Waste philosophy and New Year’s resolutions have in common? They both come from hope for a better future. Researchers say about 60 percent of us make New Year’s resolutions, but only about 8 percent are successful in achieving them. In terms of reducing waste that contributes to global warming, this is […]