At a recent concert featuring Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. and the M.G.’s fame, the 74-year-old Jones reminisced a bit regarding his long career, specifically his work at Stax Records in Memphis, Tenn. The music produced at the makeshift studio– it was a converted movie theater– was special for a variety of reasons. The […]
Letter: Some perspective on history
Some perspective on history The study of history is important, if for no other reason than it may help us to avoid repeating it. However, at times it is most important for those of us who have experienced history to take the time to be sure that whatever those lessons may be are not lost. […]
Benicia artist designs MLK statues throughout United States
A statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. stands in a park in Kalamazoo, Mich. It has been there for the past 29 years and can find its roots to one Benicia artist. Lisa Reinertson, a resident of Benicia for the past decade, grew up regal in the stories of her parents marching with Dr. […]
Matt Talbot: The absurdity of despair
“Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact But maybe everything that dies someday comes back.” –Bruce Springsteen, “Atlantic City” Have you noticed how green the hills across the water are? I take Mom to lunch on Wednesdays, and afterward this week we took a drive around the Bay Area, and everywhere we went the hills were […]
Bobby Richardson: Camp Diversity USA
They say familiarity breeds contempt. Whether you subscribe to this philosophy, or not, please allow me to vent. To be different is to be blessed. What if we were all the same? Can you imagine the bigger mess? Imagine much more madness, than we currently have now. It would manifest exponentially. I mean wow!! I […]
Matt Talbot: Some thoughts on Black Lives Matter
A common objection I have heard to the Black Lives Matter movement is, “Well, don’t ALL lives matter?” The thing is, I doubt very many people in the movement would disagree with that. In fact, that is the point of the movement: that all lives, including black lives, matter. A few years ago, a woman […]
Matt Talbot: Resisting empire
IS THE UNITED STATES AN IMPERIAL POWER? I would say that it is, and that the evidence for this view is overwhelming. We spend more on our military than all of our main rivals — combined. Our troops garrison the world, we have bases on every continent, our Navy rules the waves, and so on. […]
50 years later: Benicia reflects on Civil Rights Act
The nation had tried to address civil rights as far back as 1875, and and at its founding a century earlier leaders had pondered what to do about slavery. But most now think of the Civil Rights Era as the 1960s, beginning in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy called for a bill that would […]