Here in the Pacific Northwest, acknowledgments that recognize Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of the land have become de riguer. They are spoken at the beginning of public and private gatherings, from live performances to sporting events to town halls. Before actors take the stage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, for example, a spokesperson announces: “We would like to acknowledge …

Late this August, as a red sun descended in the smokey sky above Grants Pass, an hour’s drive to my north, more than 50 citizens in lawn chairs gathered outside the county courthouse. Under the headline  “COVID Outbreaks in Southern Oregon Among the National’s Worst” local reporter Savannah Eadens recounted: To start the county commissioners’ public meeting, the group — mostly …

Like so many Americans, Tony and I longed this year to break out of our pandemic-narrowed life. We set our sights on a 4,000-mile August road trip ending in Brooklyn, where we would bequeath our Subaru Forester to our older son and his growing family.  Our travels began in a remote corner of northeastern Oregon nestled high in the 9,000-foot …

Food is the ingredient that binds us together.  — Author unknown Paul Giancarlo remembers reading an article in the Ashland Daily Tidings, a few weeks after Christmas in 2009, about food bank “blues”: how shelves stand precipitously bare after the holiday food drives end. Explaining to his six-year-old twin boys that hunger does not rise and fall with the holidays, that …

Note: This post was inspired by a stunning recent announcement by the publisher and owner of our two local newspapers, letting readers know that he would no longer publish or support liberal points of view. It is part of the much larger story of the demise of local journalism nationwide. I offer more a report than a story, the result of …

“Can you see where you’re going?” I asked Tony as we crept onto Interstate 5, our car headlights glaring back at us in the thick, night fog. Three minutes earlier, when we left our house (elev. 2,200 feet) and headed downhill to the Interstate entrance (elev. 1,900 feet), a crescent moon hung in the sky. Now, 300 feet lower, a …

Living in Ashland, you wouldn’t know there was much of a Latino community here. Salvador, who mows our lawn, laughs and tells me, “We’re invisible to you, but we’re here!”  A tourist town, thanks to the nine-month long Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland boasts over 50 restaurants and 100 lodging options. Predictably, the kitchen workers and cleaners who make up the …