Opinion
Normally I try to stay out of these us vs. them conflicts, or at least weigh in gently. But this time it’s too important to be anything but clear: this proposed special election is a colossal waste of money.
There is a movement afoot to collect the 99 required signatures of residents of Claremont Unified School District’s District 4 to force a special election to fill the vacant school board seat. That special election will cost CUSD $273,000. That’s right, the school district foots the bill for that special election.
There is also real value in stability, and the CUSD Board of Education could really use some right now. The Llanusa spectacle seems to be behind it now, but it has certainly has left a bad taste in the mouths of many constituents. The last thing this board needs is more drama. A drawn-out, expensive special election — which could result in no change at all — just does not fare well in the cost/benefit analysis. That $273,000 buys a lot of iPads.
Like everyone else I breathe a sigh of relief that the Laemmle Claremont 5 theater has not been dimmed. Claremont prides itself on its art and cultural connections, and how can any self-respecting college town not have the greatest of popular cultural art venues — a movie theatre?
Helping immigrants and refugees get settled, educated, employed and acclimated to American culture is spiritual work in action.
Ideally, bars, taverns, and pubs can occupy both physical and emotional territory. For me, like many, Upland’s Blackwatch Pub — which will celebrate its 40th anniversary Saturday — is such a place.
Wait. Is it okay for me to be doing this? Is it okay for me to be out here on this nice, crisp fall day? Am I supposed to be this far from home, on my own, in my wheelchair? Am I supposed to be going home from the colleges by myself, going along with all the students walking and skateboarding by, instead of getting a ride back?
“Hello, my name is Jenny, and I am from Claremont, California.” Prior to attending the annual Student Diversity Leadership Conference, this short introduction sufficed in making a stranger understand partially who I am, a driven high school girl who’s eager to dive deeper into her academic passions and get involved in her community. However, when I boarded the plane with five fellow students and 15 faculty members and flew off to San Antonio, Texas, I unknowingly embarked on a transformative journey that would allow me to, for the first time, examine each facet of my identity with a compassionate and grateful lens.
So long, 2022. You sure were a year of bracing contrasts. As I’ve written repeatedly this year, life is both exhilaratingly beautiful and heartbreakingly sad, and 2022 provided those extreme backstops and everything in between. Covid took so many. We also lost friends to cancer, accidents, heart attacks, and suicide. There’s the yin. Babies were born, folks fell in love, and even in the face of hateful rhetoric and regressive, discriminatory legislationenacted or proposed across much of our country, I believe we inched closer to becoming more welcoming to the marginalized and underrepresented. Yang for the win.
By December 10 on one Llanusa thread alone I’d hidden a half dozen. By December 12, it was about a dozen. The reason? Some commenters were comparing shirtless men and some ill-advised looseness with monitoring alcohol with “pedophilia,” and “grooming,” a particularly abhorrent and relatively new homophobic trope. Some Facebook users said Llanusa should register as a sex offender. Another said he should be castrated. Really?
This past Saturday I sang a song at a wedding, attended a memorial for an old friend, then finished the day off with a birthday party for my youngest daughter, who turned 17. If I’d thrown in a birth and a graduation, I would have covered nearly all of life’s major milestones. It was an epic day full of big feelings.
Recently I visited the medical center near where I live to have my right hand, knee, and foot examined. My aim was to have X-rays ordered and get referrals there rather than traveling to Fontana via Metrolink to see my primary doctor. I waited in the reception area with other gray-haired people. Then a nurse called my name and led me into the office. “Put your backpack over there,” she said, pointing to a table. It was my first time in this office, so I took a quick peek around as I walked to the table. “I said, put your backpack there,” the nurse then ordered, sounding like a drill sergeant, adding, “And go faster. There’s not a lot of time. Now come here and sit down.”
At the Q and A following the November 19 Laemmle Claremont 5 screening of “Only in Theaters,” the surprisingly moving documentary about the Laemmle family’s long history in the film industry, third generation CEO Greg Laemmle told a near capacity crowd the Village theater’s fate was unknown.
Often referred to as the oldest form of hate, antisemitism has been around for 2,000-plus years.
I sat down to write a (hopefully) humorous column about how I have come to loathe the manufactured pomp and grueling parental labor of the holiday season.
I understand why people bristle at the idea of entitlement. As a white male, I have been advantaged.