Opinion

To the Editor: On Cesar Chavez Day, March 31, during National Farmworker Awareness Week, I pause to appreciate his commitment and historical accomplishments. Meanwhile, many questions remain.  Why are there no mandates regarding public notification of intent to use toxic pesticides, fungicides and fumigants? Why can’t...

In a rare case of a column running too long, I offer this story as a two-parter… One day I came home from school, it was 1964 and I was in the sixth grade in Greenfield Elementary School, and my father handed me a book...

I want to write today to speak to you about what I have been thinking as this old world of ours starts spinning out of control. We can all hold hands and pray, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, but let’s try to trust...

He became quite the character of sorts, a fixture on the rather rough and tumble Nestles Road in Soledad, surrounded by rough ground and abandoned buildings. If you happened to pass by during the latter part of an afternoon, you might see him sitting...

To the Editor: Last week’s paper contained a letter detailing one way in which government agencies have failed (“No Happy Ending for Bridge Plaque,” March 23). I’d like to share a story that balances that experience with this letter about how they are succeeding. Last Thursday...

By my reckoning 140 years, give or take, of my family’s timeline was spent in prisons; the years accumulated by my parents, a brother and his wife, a niece and myself. And it seems the family occupation within the California Department of Corrections (CDC;...

I’m sure that I have written often about my trusty old Ford pickup. It is an F-100 that I bought about a month after I got out of the Army. I had been looking for a pickup just like this one. Of course, I...

I have set aside my regular column this week, a little story about me and my dog in Arroyo Seco, nicely told in my humble opinion, but still just a little story; it will wait for another time. What prompted the change was my...

To the Editor: Once upon a time there was a farmer named John. He noticed the narrow bridge that connected Soledad to the Mission District was badly in need of an upgrade. After years from the 1960s forward, talking to each new county supervisor, the...

I’m going to tell you a secret. Oh, it’s nothing nefarious or secretive. It’s just something I decided to do a few years ago and it hasn’t been a tremendous success. I’m getting older you know. People usually are nice enough that they say,...