Not in our valley

When the Medford paper prominently reported on the appearance of a new "official" white supremacist headquarters in the small town of Phoenix, I wondered who would pay attention. That was the spark for this week's column.
It turns out a whole lot of folks were paying attention, and were quick to take a stand. In these swirling times, I took that as an encouraging sign that there are some things that we don't make too complicated.
Thanks to those who stand up.

Hand me a teabag

There were some odd, even ridiculous aspects to the "Tea Party" Protests on Tax Day last week, and some cynical political tactics, too.
There was also an opening to a transpartisan political conversation about what's wrong with our economy and financial system, the kind of conversation we badly need if we're going to move through all this to a tolerable economy and society. As per the title of the column I wrote to expand on the point, we can think better than this.

Persistence

I've persisted in making the point that persistence is the most important quality missing from political and social activism. We haven't overcome the big obstacles to realizing democracy because, with few exceptions, we haven't kept at it the way, say, big-money lobbyists do.

Well, here's an exception. He proves the point.

Food fighting in Ashland, again

Were you around for the battle over the Ashland meals and beverage tax in 1993? It made much of the struggles we've seen since look like high tea. And there's probably a reunion tour coming up, the topic of last week's column.

In it I vented some skepticism that the meals tax is much of a problem for many people. What's it been like for you?