Opinion
“I tell my kids to stand up to bullies, that doing what’s right is often not the easy thing, and that speaking up when something is wrong is not only okay, it’s a requirement. I’ve also told them that when things do go wrong to be sure to look in the mirror before lashing out, that we have to own up to our own shortcomings before we look outward. I haven’t always followed my advice. I’ve a list of parenting regrets a mile long. This disconnect — otherwise known as ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ — was something I heard a lot growing up. I always despised it. But I get it now; it’s complicated, this adulting.”
I suspect though that probably more significantly and importantly, more than Claremont has changed. There are no doubt plenty of teenagers and young adults who think that Claremont is dullsville, who think that nothing goes on here, especially during the summer, who put up with the freeway traffic to escape to LA and the beach and plot how to bust out of here someday. As I heard a student speaker say at the Pomona College commencement years ago, Claremont is “a nice place to live when you retire.”
A Kiwanis Fourth of July breakfast. So simple, yet so good!
by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com At press time, scores of protesters remain camped out at Pomona College’s commencement plaza, with the school’s graduation ceremony still scheduled for this Sunday. The encampment is only growing, and the kids say they aren’t moving. Something has to give, and I fear it will be ugly. Regardless, the Courier is committed […]
by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com “Please mind the gap when alighting from this train.” This was by far the most oft-heard phrase throughout our recent 10 day Scotland Wander. I appreciated the encouragement. After all, “alighting” sounds so much more optimistic, poetic even, than the uninspired alternative, “disembarking.” It was a good way to start the day, […]
I have moments of overwhelming dread. Usually, I can keep it in check, but this morning it got the best of me. As we were out for our morning walk, my husband John and I came across a pro-Trump flag flying alongside the Stars and Stripes proclaiming “F**k Biden” for all who might pass by.
On Wednesday, February 21, at 8:20am, I was the victim of a distracted driver. My friend and I were on our way to Pasadena. She was driving, I was the passenger. It had rained the night before, and the roads were still slick. We were stopped at a red light meter on the on-ramp to the 210 freeway at Towne Avenue when we were struck from behind by a vehicle traveling at least forty miles per hour. Photo/courtesy of Zoe Brin
Editor’s note: Northwestern University continues to be a leader on tracking the state of local news in the United States. In 2023, they were able to report about more specific trends related to the impact of ‘ghost newspapers’ with no staff reporters. Sounds absurd but unfortunately, it does exist. The good news is that promising […]
On Thursday, 350 California publishers (including the Claremont Courier) reaffirmed their support of the California Journalism Protection Act after Google announced it would stop showing news to some California residents in its search results. This is an undemocratic and unprecedented attack on journalism.
“Getting away has become a necessary regular thing for my wife and I. In today’s parlance, it’s our ‘self-care.’ We both need the time to reset/reboot. I’ve been beat up and battered ‘round, as George Harrison wrote, and time far away from the battle is my prescription for remaining somewhat sane. It remains to be seen whether this 10-day regimen will have the same palate cleansing effect of last year’s near three week ‘green dream’ tour of Ireland. I’ll let you know.”
The days are getting longer. The elms on Indian Hill are beginning to leaf out along with the sycamores in Memorial Park. Spring has arrived and with it the metaphors that the season promulgates.
By the Rev. Thomas Johnson “What is the truth?” That question has echoed through the generations and continues today. Lies and manufactured propaganda can be so dangerous. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor and professor, encountered lies and propaganda as Hitler’s Nazi regime brainwashed the German people with a false narrative of nationalism and patriotism. […]
I just finished reading Sassenberger’s first book, a moving, clear-eyed, and rollicking memoir, “Toxic Shock Records, Assassin of Mediocrity: A Story of Love, Loss and Loud Music,” which was released last month by Fluke Publishing. It tracks both his monumental love affair with Towns, who died in 2019 of complications from series of strokes that began in 2011, and his heroic championing of what was once called “underground music.”
I think most of us fear being irrelevant. We spend our early years building a life, a career, a circle of people who care about us, a philosophy we hope to follow until our time is up. We want people to like us. Sure. We want our friends to respect us. And we don’t really think what we create will ever end.
By Peter Weinberger | pweinberger@claremont-courier.com It seems like it was long ago when Martin Weinberger was writing yet another Courier column on state or national politics, usually slamming the GOP for feeding the rich at the expense of the middle class and poor. There were dustups with the city that could get quite tense on […]
I really loved the first woman I ever met. I could just tell mom was good people from the outset. She raised me by herself, made untold sacrifices, most of which I’ll never know about, and taught me nearly all the stuff that’s good in me.