In grade school I can only remember one Black member of my classes. Her name was Virginia and we always stood next to each other for our class photo. We were the tallest in our classes. She was a bad reader, so I had no interest in her. Since February is Black History Month, I’ve […]
Blog
Letter: Bowed, But Not Broken
As the victim read her impact statement in the final stage of a sentencing, a young man in the courtroom bowed his head. His pencil rolled off his notepad and dropped to the floor. As new and inexperienced news reporter, his beat had been to report on crime, cops and courts. But not today; this […]
Valentine's Day Morning – February 14
I sat down at the breakfast table on Valentine morning and scowled at the window at the reflected person looking back at me with his sleep-tossed, creative Mohawk. Looking down I cut in half my Hillshire Farm thinly sliced ham, fried egg, grated Parmesan and bleu cheese curds with stone ground mustard on excellent seedy […]
Letter: The Key To Trust
The case of the Titanic illustrates how often failures result more from a succession of omissions and missteps than one big mess-up. Like the Titanic, the Clover Park School District Board of Directors is navigating treacherous waters and there have been recently what appear to be a succession of omissions and missteps. According to researchers, […]
Valentine's Day Remembrances
Keepsake: Something kept or given to be kept as a memento. Presents sometimes fall into the category of a keepsake . . . some do . . . some don’t. My grandmother once sent me an Oral Roberts bible with my name stamped on the cover in gold: Donnie Doman. Although it stayed in the […]
Letter: Censorship and the CPSDB
Censorship is understood to be the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information, on the basis that such material is considered “inconvenient.” At the February 8, 2021 Clover Park School District Board meeting, Director Paul Wagemann asked his fellow board members to amend the December 21, 2020 meeting minutes to include his comments. In […]
Letter: Silver Dollars, Gum Wrappers And Hard Work
When I was a youngster, occasionally my grandfather would give me a silver dollar. Collectors’ coins today, these silver minted gifts now serve as part of my recollection of lessons he taught me. One of those lessons involved gum wrappers. Growing up poor, many of us in our community wanted to go to a weeklong […]
Across the Fence: Salt On Our Tongues
As a kid, I heard of oversalted soil on which nothing would grow anymore. In ancient times, sometimes, the winners of a battle would salt the earth of their defeated enemy in order to prevent future harvests; Roman general Scipio Aemilianus Africanus did this to Carthage after the third Punic War. You wouldn’t believe, therefore, […]
Westside Story – Governor Welcomes Joe Boyle
In late 2010, I met Ben Sclair for some FREE Starbucks coffee and an exploratory conversation. We agreed to test my writing skills by having me submit a few columns. Ben agreed to publish my test columns in The Suburban Times (TST). Our plan allowed Ben to cease publishing my work if he or our […]