Opinion
The grandmother related how the granddaughter had attended very conservative schools, where she was told such “lifestyles” were sinful. As a gay man who came out in the 1990s when same-sex relationships were beginning to be accepted and same-sex marriage was about to be a hotly contested issue here in loosey-goosey California, I could relate. As a severely disabled person used to being stared at and sometimes made fun of, and who people constantly make the wrong assumptions about, I could relate. A bit. At least enough so that my eyes began to well up.
St. Patrick’s Day isn’t celebrated for the same reasons it once was. Times change, and holidays take on different meanings.
Before last week, the last time I covered a city council meeting was in 1993, when I was a young reporter in my first full-time job in journalism at the long gone North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, in Incline Village, Nevada.
We worked with women who had never attended school, including some who had not been allowed to leave their homes. They were unaware of their rights and lacked skills beyond household chores. Our goal was to educate them to the best of our ability. Many eventually joined schools and later, universities. But sadly, history repeated itself: on August 14, 2021 I was on my way to work when a man dressed in the garb of a Taliban member stood in front of me and shouted, “If you don’t want to die, go back home; a woman’s place is at home.” Photo/by Hamed Painda
I don’t count sheep, but I count lots of other things. While out for my walk, when it isn’t too hot, too cold, or too wet, I find myself counting my steps. I count calories, but more often count the number of cookies I have in a day’s time. Suffice it to say, too many.
What keeps people from getting the help they need? Too often it’s the stigma around mental illness. When people are afraid, ashamed, or just don’t understand mental illness, it makes it hard to talk honestly about this incredibly important health issue. When they can’t talk about their struggles with those closest to them, it makes it hard for them to seek help. These challenges can increase when dealing with more severe mental health issues. There are programs and services available to help those with severe mental illness heal with compassion and dignity. And the first step toward healing is to reach out for help. Photo/courtesy of Priscilla Du Preez
As publisher of the Claremont Courier, the financial decisions I make come with enormous highs and lows. When times are difficult, weighing the needs of the individual with the needs of the company can be excruciating. And there are rarely any good answers.
“Most young musical hobbyists opt out early, understandably discouraged by that inevitable, bruising first wave of disappointment and degradation. Others soldier on. Why? Some because it’s the only remotely marketable skill they possess. Most toil away at related day jobs and keep their dreams alive by night. And though a few of my contemporaries have risen up the ranks to respectability and acclaim, most of us are still kicking around the lower rungs, if not content with our lot, resigned.” Photo/Christopher Lockett
By Pamela Casey Nagler An overflow crowd — a broad interracial coalition of Muslims, Jews, Christians, residents, professors, and students — showed up at the February 13 Claremont City Council meeting […]
Make sure to keep up with physician check-ups and preventive screenings. It’s important to “know your numbers” when it comes to your health.
For many, being tasked to write a column about healthy living would be a welcome chance to offer personal tips on how they have kept Father Time, Mother Nature, and/or gravity at bay.
“For more than 10 years, St. Ambrose Episcopal Church has served our houseless neighbors in Claremont by offering showers and hot meals several times a week. This has been a meaningful and life-changing ministry for us and for our guests. But, as the parable goes, ‘We shouldn’t just be pulling people out of the river. We should go upstream to find out who’s pushing them in.’ So, our congregation began asking some bigger questions about the struggle of our houseless guests.” Courier photo/Steven Felschundneff
“As a campus community devoted to openness, learning and mutual respect, we need to find our way to common ground in the face of sharply divergent commitments. We must affirm our values, recommitting to what unites us, and rather than heeding a call for repudiation and isolation, we must open inquiry, and reassert our human ties. Pomona opens doors, we don’t close them.” Photo/courtesy of Pomona College
“The caregiver at Claremont Manor, aptly named ‘Mercy,’ was back for what would be her final check up on my 84-year-old father-in-law Glyn at about 9 p.m. Tuesday. ‘Yes,’ was all she said, after seeing that his breathing had become very shallow, his gasps for air inconsistent and further apart. It was time. The room was hushed when he finally let go about 10:15. Then it wasn’t. His daughter, who’d been holding his hand since Saturday, and who I’d seen cry only twice in 10 years, loosed decades of grief and worry.”
“As I tumble into my 60s, it’s becoming clearer with every passing day that “everything hurts and I’m dying” is just the way it’s going to be. And among the many surprises of aging has been the realization that some of us are just over it, ‘it’ meaning, well, most everything, including going to bars, parties, lunches, concerts, shows, etc. And I get it: it’s hard out there.”
The pandemic’s onset and the subsequent performance of financial markets reinforce two points investors should always keep in mind: First, the future is unknowable; Second, even if you could foretell the future like some Greek oracle, the markets’ response to that future would repeatedly confound you.