Opinion

The headline reads simply “Funny Papers June 18 2025.” Below the headline there is a blank page where on the left margin, expecting to go to work, the cursor waits, and waits, and waits. A quick glance at the clock on the wall lets...

Fifteen years is a long time; but is it? Time compresses and expands like an accordion, often catching you off guard. A memory popped up, as they do in the infinite world of social media memory. It made me stop and examine that face....

Happy June! At Monterey County Free Libraries (MCFL), we are really excited because it’s time for the Summer Reading Club. Summer is the best time of year at the library since we have so many fun programs and prizes. When you sign up for the...

“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world.” I don’t recall whose words those are, if I...

For decades in the Salinas Valley, the short-handle hoe, known as “El Cortito,” was used for weeding and thinning rows of crops that kept farmworkers stooped over for long hours each day. Workers were only able to stand and stretch when they reached the...

I received an email from a fellow who lives out Jolon way, in which I was asked about a situation I had never really considered and I found that I was probably too close to the subject to have ever had the notion enter...

It is our family custom, after the passing of a loved one, that we gather together and celebrate the life of that person. Whether it be in church or not, this ceremony of sorts provides closure, for want of a better word. The breaking...

In rural America, hospitals are more than healthcare providers — they are pillars of their communities. They deliver essential medical services, create jobs and support the overall wellbeing of thousands of residents who might otherwise face insurmountable barriers to care. As the CEO of Mee...

It is a little after 4 a.m. Monday morning and I don’t have a column written for the noon deadline. In fact, I have only the words you are now reading on paper and no more in my head to follow with. So, I...

Hello, Neighbors. A couple of things have happened the past couple of weeks that boggles the mind or at least in my mind anyway. Powerful things that snuck up on me and filled me with hope that our little town as well as our...