By Lois Requist As I look at a photo I have in my hand, I turn it over and on the back is written Christmas, December 25, 1900, followed by a list of some the nine people standing outside in front of a building with two pillars forming a porch. In black and white, of […]
Dennis Lund: Obama and Farrakhan; The Congressional Black Caucus gets a pass
In late January of this year a previously unreleased photo of then Sen. Barack Obama schmoozing it up with Louis Farrakhan was made public. The photo had been kept away from public view to protect the political aspirant from potential negative fallout for associating with the racist and anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam […]
The A Cappella Handyman: Thursday’s Ramble
Senior Exercise Class Sincerest thanks to long-time Benician, Mary Frances Kelly Poh, she read one of my poems recently on Facebook about the atrophying physical condition of this 75-year old and responded by email, that I should join her exercise class. I did! Wow! Am I outta shape! Later today Wednesday, as I now write […]
Mrs. B’s Blather: Have you begun your descent into binge watching?
I found out about binge watching somewhere in the middle of my discovering the plethora of made-for-TV movies. I had only, naive me, known of the word bingeing when it came to food. Checking the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries I learned that bingeing is defined as a short period devoted to indulging in an activity […]
Benicia Letters Once More: Mom
The following “letter” is part of the continuing series from the unpublished novel by James Garrett, “Benicia Letters Once More”. He does not plan to publish the book but instead is choosing to share the letters with the readers of the Benicia Herald. The letters continue the storyline of Garrett’s first novel “Benicia and Letters […]
A Different Drummer: How my oilfield days ended abruptly
It was 1977. I was standing in the Dog House with the driller on an Oklahoma oil rig, about to start working as a roughneck, a job I knew nothing about. It was summer work during my junior year at Penn State. My ride, Chris, a guy I just met that morning, had driven me […]
Write Away: Generation Y Work?
Colin has never liked school, mostly because he feels he could use the time in better ways. I get that. School is a lot of hours, and Lego construction is shockingly absent from the new Common Core. Before he started, I naively thought he’d love school, but I should have realized he’d hate it. When […]
Voice of the Village: The Generosity Economy
By Judie Donaldson Have you ever heard of “the generosity economy”? I hadn’t until I became familiar with Buddhism. It’s pretty darn impressive. Let me explain. In the Buddhist community, learning about the Buddhist philosophy and principles is a central activity. Needless to say, then, Buddhist teachers are valued. And can you imagine this? They […]
Poetry Corner: Katrina Monroe “No More (Dedicated to the Parkland School Victims)”
Their young bones cry out to the world, “Why?” Their please echo down the corridors of a building so anguished it closed its doors forever, its sounds of laughter extinguished. The learning and camaraderie gone, a symbolic tomb for those whose tender bodies were carried away. The young man in his loneliness cries, “Why?” Hearing […]
Benicia Forum on Nuclear Power: New nuclear posture, old justification
By Ryan Swan Special to the Herald The 2014 Ukraine crisis, the 2016 election meddling and the ongoing developments in Syria are all surface representations of a waxing tension with Russia, revitalized from its brief post-1991 latency. The recent imagery of Russian rockets allegedly impervious to anti-missile defense systems raining down on Florida, however, brings […]