We always clearly label Opinion Columns to ensure they won’t be mistaken for news. We accept Guest Opinion submissions that meet our standards for promoting innovative thought and encouraging healthy discourse.Our Guest Opinion writers agree to participate in a process of identity-verification, fact-checking and editorial feedback prior to publishing.
"When we stop in this place we pray 'Come this way.' We pray and we sing, remembering that first time at the confluence, when the runners arrived in the dark, stars sparkling on the river. We could only hear the lapping of the water against the shore. And then in the hushed darkness, up and down the river where we stood lining up on the shore, all the songs started being sung."
Local community group, Shasta County Mutual Aid, describes how excessive heat and lack of accessible shelter and cooling are impacting community members. They fear that the city's newly planned “sweeps” of the unhoused living within the Nur Pon Open Space will exacerbate the current crisis and worsen the danger to life and health.
Troy Hawkins, a longtime Redding resident and patron of Club 501, shares some of his poignant memories of the bar many affectionately called “the 5,” and describes what its recent closure means to many of its loyal customers.
Societal issues emerge through a confluence of societal factors shaped by individuals. We exist in communities, we share society, and together, we make America what it is. That’s why effective solutions to the social problem of mass shootings must address the interconnected societal factors that lead to gun violence.
Stigma around abortion ends when we can talk about it like any other health care choice we make for ourselves – a surgery, a biopsy, physical therapy, a pill. Compassion emerges on both sides when abortion is associated with the faces and names of people you know, love, and care about.
Meth gave me the voice that I needed to be heard, the look I needed to be seen, the strength to be fearless, and the power to be strong. I honored and respected meth for what it gave me! Meth controlled every iota of my life. Meth was my mother, father, brother, sister, adviser, friend, and lover. Meth told me where to go, what to do, and how to do. I did not move unless meth said so.
Opinion writer Susanne Baremore says that a recent closed session performance evaluation of Public Health Officer Karen Ramstrom is a form of harassment that is out of line with accepted policy and practice. Drawing attention to how Ramstrom has appropriately fulfilled her role in the county, Baremore calls on the Supervisors to fulfill theirs, by learning to govern as a body, while maintaining their individual perspectives, in service to their community.
Put simply, finding fault is easy. Doing the work you’ve criticized, isn’t.
After losing someone she loves to suicide this fall, Sharon Brisolara reminds the community of the dangers of stigma and the power of acceptance. The words we use, including our choice to use appropriate pronouns, are powerful. Brisolara explains why.
We, the undocumented youth of America are living on borrowed time. We are neither from here nor there. We are wanderers in perpetual purgatory and yet we dream of the highest heavens. But as the well-known phrase goes, “they tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.” And so, we rise.
Until Dec. 31, all donations will be doubled, and new donations will be matched 12x.
Thanks for putting the COMMUNITY in community news.
