We always clearly label Opinion Columns to ensure they won’t be mistaken for news. Our Op-Ed writers apply their professional expertise to our community’s unique challenges to promote innovative thought and encourage healthy discourse.
Local program evaluator, educator, writer, and resilience & equity coach Sharon Brisolara introduces a new monthly column focused on providing a window into the mindsets and worldviews of the unseen, ordinary people who are doing good in Shasta County.
After the Carr Fire ravaged Shasta County, Elena Nim dove headlong into investigating the cause of catastrophic wildfires, learning how they are inextricably tied to the forced removal and genocide of local Indigenous peoples, whose traditional practices had long maintained the health of forests. California’s wildfire crisis can’t be solved, Nim writes, without changes to how we all relate to the land.
In this Opinion column, Salter provides a window into the world of an anonymous Shasta County school board member who says she's struggled to balance the sometimes-competing interests of parents, teachers, students, and the State since COVID began. In the process, Salter helps us all examine how to make values-based decisions that take all perspectives into account.
As the nation awaits a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), Fawn Robinson, a 22 year old tribal member of the Susanville Indian Rancheria, writes about the ICWA's purpose and value and explains how it has positively impacted her tribal identity.
Sarah Fielding is an attorney who provides low-income people in Shasta County with free legal aid to prevent homelessness, including responses to threatened eviction. Despite her best efforts many of her clients still end up homeless, Fielding says, because current programs and services in Shasta County, including Redding, are both uncoordinated and not nearly enough to address housing needs.
Hailed by local musicians as a “genius,” Alissa Johnson is an accomplished cellist and an activist for the human rights of autistic people. She is also homeless. In this piece she argues that her dual experiences as an autistic, and being without shelter, have repeatedly exposed her to interwoven stigma. Supportive systems are needed, she says, not to “fix” people but to partner with them as unique human beings with vibrant dreams.
Local leadership coach, educator and PhD neuroscientist, Irene Salter, introduces a new monthly column focused on providing a window into the workings of government, at a human level.
Troy Hawkins is a fixture in Redding’s vibrant Drag Queen scene. He uses this Opinion piece to explain that drag is more than flamboyant performances and ornate wardrobes, it’s a form of activism that he uses to build community and create spaces where people can be their true authentic selves, free of oppression, judgment and the pressure to conform.
A research group working with Bethel Church to prove that prayer heals people, cites studies that lack evidence-based reasoning. If prayer really works, it’s worth taking the time and money to provide scientific evidence. If we can’t, we shouldn’t be offering false hope.
"Faith leaders, parishioners, atheists, and total strangers, have expressed their indignation that this kind of hate was left on their doorsteps, and distributed in our community. Instead of feeling isolated, we feel wrapped in the warmth and kindness of strangers."
