Nov 14OTTERS Thank President CarterFor the past several years I’ve been meeting on zoom with a group of old women trades workers and organizers as we discuss and record our collective history. We call ourselves the OTTERS (Old Tradeswomen Talking Eating and Remembering Shit). Since the 1970s we have fought to open jobs for…Tradeswomen4 min readTradeswomen4 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·Nov 1Racism and Fascism Target Us All: Gay, Trans, Cis, StraightThis letter from a friend helps explain why I’m angry — The letter: With all due respect, with incidents like Proud Boy types storming the San Lorenzo library because a trans lady storyteller was holding story hour, to the latest murder of a Black man, Jason Walker, by the police with no consequences (what a surprise, not) the continuous denial from…Racism4 min readRacism4 min read
Oct 29Who Put the We in Halloween?My Regular Pagan Holiday Greeting — Samhain 2022 Dear Friends, Halloween might be the one pagan holiday that neither the Romans nor the catholic church could suppress or usurp, even after centuries of trying. The Celt holiday of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) celebrated the end of summer and the start of winter. Celts believed that on the…Pagan Holiday4 min readPagan Holiday4 min read
Sep 20The Middle Way and the EquinoxMy Regular Pagan Holiday Post Autumn Equinox 2022 Dear Friends, I’m writing this during a gentle rainstorm that has elicited delight among denizens here in Santa Rosa. Our weather station says it has brought a little less than an inch of rain. We are humbled when we think of raging…The Middle Way3 min readThe Middle Way3 min read
Jul 30Dancing at LughnasaMy regular pagan holiday post — I first learned of the August Celtic harvest festival, Lughnasa, from the play Dancing at Lughnasa. Written by the “Irish Chekhov” Brian Friel and first produced in Ireland in 1990, the play examines the cultural war between the catholic church and the old pagan religions it sought to destroy. …Lughnasa4 min readLughnasa4 min read
Jun 21Sirius and the SolsticeMy Regular Pagan Holiday Post Summer solstice 2022 Dear Friends, I think of summer solstice as the start of the dry season here in NoCal, but in ancient Egypt it presaged the start of the wet season when the Nile River began to flood. Nile Valley civilizations acknowledged and celebrated the solstice, when the sun…Summer Solstice2 min readSummer Solstice2 min read
Jun 16Who We KillSonoma County Sheriff Election Dear Readers, Votes are still being counted but it’s clear now that the regressive forces of the police and sheriff unions and right wing organizations who have rallied against police oversight have won the June 7 sheriff election. The killing of 13-year-old And Lopez by a sheriff deputy in 2013…Police Oversight2 min readPolice Oversight2 min read
May 1Beltane and a Black HeroineMy Regular Pagan Holiday Greeting Dear Friends, Beltane, May 1, is a pagan holiday celebrating the spring at its peak and the coming of summer. It is halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Driving by the Beltane Ranch, I’ve always wondered about its history and its association with…Mary Ellen Pleasant6 min readMary Ellen Pleasant6 min read
Apr 25Mom Kept Her Abortions SecretSolving a WWII-era mystery The most personal most shocking secret my mother never told me I had to find out from my cousin Sandy. In 1974 Sandy had just returned from a decade working for the U.S. Army in Germany. She came home and she came out, returning with a female lover and a…Abortion9 min readAbortion9 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·Mar 24Remembering My Lesbian Communist Friend: What Happened to the Revolution?Shelby Morgan 1949–2017 — The Soviet Experiment 1917–1992 My latest favorite T-shirt shows two punks of indeterminate gender kissing. Its message is in Cyrillic script. I once asked my friend Shelby, who lived in Russia for a year, to translate but she couldn’t make sense of it. …Russia9 min readRussia9 min read
