Opinion

As one of the founders and a driving force of Mission Valley Animal Shelter for over 30 years, I am not hopeful about our future. The problem of stray dogs and dog packs in our area has worsened significantly and MVAS, as a small, privately-operated animal shelter, does not have the facility or funding to be a solution to this problem alone. Our kennel space is limited and we are at or over capacity all the time, unable to handle the large number of stray dogs, I fear a real tragedy in the making. Dogs are killing animals, biting children, and attacking people. For several years, we have suffered from understaffing at both the animal shelter and the thrift store. Currently, we have close...

Editor, It’s time for those of you who are responsible gun owners to help find a solution for the problem of mass shootings in this country. Instead of focusing on what we do or do not have the “right” to do, let’s focus on responsibility. Let’s focus on the “well-regul...

Editor, With all the talk about the 2nd amendment, you’d think there might be more about what the words actually mean. Do they mean one thing to legal scholars and another to most Americans? “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to ...

Editor, The killings in this country continue. And in this country, we pride ourselves in our freedoms.  These freedoms can make it difficult for our nation’s control over malicious actions. Our freedoms do provide an avenue to those who have malicious tendencies to perpetrate horrible actions ...

Editor, Make no mistake: opposition to legal abortion is about controlling women, taking women’s rights away, and imposing religious law. If we follow this anti-abortion movement to its logical conclusion, women will be compelled to have babies and will lose the autonomy and equality they have worke...

Editor, I’m appalled by the fact that an 18-year-old can just walk into a gun shop and buy two A-15 assault rifles, then walk into a elementary school and barricades himself in a classroom of innocent children, and start shooting to kill 19 children and two adults - well three, if you count the gun ...

I was flying home after facilitating my Difficult Conversations workshop at Idaho State University. It was the first leg of my return journey, a puddle-jump on a small turbo-prop from Pocatello to Seattle. It was a short flight, but long enough to teach me something. During the boarding process, I had swi...

Paparazzi - love them or hate them, they have become a fixture of our modern world. The word “Paparazzi” evokes images of pushy hordes of photographers crowding celebrities, all angling to get the best shot. While it might feel like this is a normal part of celebrity culture, it hasn’t alwa...

Lately, I’ve been learning a lot about plants. I’m late to the party, I know. A few thousand years late, really. I’ve always appreciated plants for their beauty and nutrition, but that was always where my attention stopped, despite the vast wealth of plant knowledge available from centuries...

I remember a book from early childhood written by Charles Schulz. It was titled, “Happiness Is” and it caused quite a stir amongst the preschool crowd (and beyond). For good reason. Its message was simple, meaningful, ageless, and timeless. So timeless, in fact, that its simple idea remains me...