What I Saw Outside Delaney Hall on Labor Day

Welcome to ON THE BUS: a weekly podcast that provides a dosage of community and connection, of people traveling together through a time of Donald Trump and MAGA darkness with determination and resilie...

https://gretchenkwing.com/2026/08/23/guiding-lights-part-iv-marc-elias-spotlight-for-democracy-or-bat-signal/

High school teacher for 20 years, in central North Carolina and in Tacoma, WA. Now a writer and baker on Lopez Island. Former runner, now walker and biker. Click to read Gretchen K Wing on Substack. L...

From the wonderful online news source Salish Current in Bellingham, WA comes this heartening story by Nancy DeVaux. I promise you'll find inspiration here. Read, then tell me what you think!

At the Raleigh QuiltCon, the medium's radical history took center stage, with works that commented on corruption and called for change.

On the role of empathy in the rule of law.

I approve this bunny

No, this post isn't about Zohran Mamdani. (Well, maybe a little.) I'll skip straight to the moral of the story: if your adult offspring sends you a link, read ALL of it before reacting. That said, sometimes reactions can lead somewhere positive. Let me explain that statement...and also, for those of you who don't follow my blog, why I'm sending this to you.

Join our Community Food Drive to support those in need while nurturing faith and fellowship. With your help, we can extend a helping hand and foster a sense of community.Your contribution will go towa...

This morning, I stumbled across an amazing poem by a wonderful man named Michael F.

Writing from Minnesota

Do you recognize this man? Rev. Dr. William Barber If we were back in my childhood of the 1960s-70s, all watching the same 3 or 4 channels, everyone would know this preacher. Everyone would have seen him preaching, heard him cajoling or roaring from the pulpit. Though his accent is eastern Carolina, not Atlanta, we would have known him the way we knew that other Rev.

Keith Porter should still be here...to raise his daughters, to love his mother, to fish with his uncle, to bring joy to rooms, and light to community. Black fathers...Black sons...Black people...matte...

"I've tuned out," your adult son, your cousin, your sister-in-law tells you. "Politics is too f**cked up for me bother. And there's nothing I can do anyway." I hope the first thing you do is to support your loved one for prioritizing self-care. But then I have a question for you to ask them. What does the word "harvest" mean to you?

Authoritarians do not accept the democratic ideas of peaceful assembly or legal observation, and anyone can become an enemy of the state

Fifteen years ago, I interviewed my LA-based cousin, Susi Kaminski Klein, about her experiences as a child survivor of the Holocaust. Over the course of four days, hanging out here on Lopez Island and visiting beautiful Victoria, BC, I recorded Susi narrating her story. Susi & I taking a break from history in Butchart Gardens, 2010 Nine years ago, I blogged about Susi's story as depicted in…

December 7, 2025

Dear Ford CEO Jim Farley, My name is Ol' Blue. I'm a 2003 Ford Explorer. In case you were wondering about my name... I've asked one of my humans to write this letter for me, as writing is a challenge--me being an SUV and all. After what happened in the Oval Office on December 4, my humans wanted me to tell you they'll "never buy another Ford!" But I just wanted to ask you, CEO Jim Farley...

‘We Ain’t Buying It’

(Though it is a really good T-shirt slogan.) Really good shirt, too--thanks, Etsy!) This was my birthday present to myself, fresh from my Virginia-canvassing-and-family trip, and amped up--only a week later--by democracy's powerful showing in the November 4 elections. Notice I didn't say Democrats (though they did well, and I'm glad). Nine months in to this presidency, people on all sides of politics--including no politics at all!--are starting to coalesce around the basic idea that…

Not that Joyce. Nothing against Dubliners or Ulysses; I just don't think they'll help get you through another week of our current presidency. I mean Joyce Vance, author of this book that was waiting for me, hot off its October 21st release, when I got home from my canvassing trip this week: Mine's autographed! 🙂 To judge a book by its cover, this one looks boring.

No, The Mate and I were not touring a college campus in a fit of nostalgia for our parenting days. We had someone to visit. Meeeee! No, Oliver--Ollie to his friends, which we now are!--did not invite us to Vancouver. But Ollie's "dad", a former student of The Mate's, now practically family--just took an important job @ UBC. Apart from all the other good reasons to, um, get away to Canada just now...we couldn't WAIT to come visit and see firsthand the new Canadian life of our friends.

You're halfway up Vancouver Island. You only have a few days before heading back to the mainland--not enough time to get out to the Wild West Coast, nor down to Victoria. Where do you go? How 'bout here? This is Englishman Falls Provincial Park, just a hop & skip off the main highway between Campbell River and Nanaimo. And yes, that disappearing waterfall is even more insane in real life.

Fight back with one simple action.

Actually, Cortes Islanders would probably prefer that "quirky" label, while we found Quadrans (Quadrants?) plenty cordial. Either way, both islands, between BC's mainland and big Vancouver Island, became big highlights of our British Columbia wanderings in 2018, and we were overjoyed to wander back. Whale-com back to Quadra! With a week to spend, between our Bella Coola adventures and our visit with our friends in Vancouver, we headed over to Horseshoe Bay for the big ferry to Nanaimo.

For those of you who read my 2023 post on the various meanings of "BC"--don't worry, I won't subject you to more of that. I just couldn't resist a nod to one more extraordinary BC discovery. This place: Bella Coola, BC Since The Mate & I learned that a close friend got an amazing admin job at UBC in Vancouver--just up the road from us--we've been itching to go visit.

Trump’s FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened ABC affiliates with fines & license revocation to pressure Disney/ABC into taking Kimmel off the air. This is an inexcusable infringement on free speech.

On August 18, I wrote to you about Trump’s “Truth”—his social media post—about voting.

My name is Graham Platner. I'm the oysterman and Marine veteran running against Susan Collins. In 10 days we raised $1 million and signed up 3,000 volunteers. Please share this. Spread the word. Help us build something strong enough to defeat the billionaire class. https://t.co/CJSjITyM4H

If you are earnest about your desire to get to heaven, we would be glad to meet with you to talk about it.

I hereby refuse to apologize for any granite puns. When you're in Tuolumne ("too-ALL-um-mee"), in the high country of Yosemite National Park, you'll know why. That's why. (Half Dome in the distance) The Mate and I hadn't been to Yosemite for--yikes, had it really been 11 years??? But that last trip, in spring of 2014, was only to the Valley. Tuolumne, at 9,000 feet, was still buried deep in snow then.

Tonight’s piece runs longer than I like to, especially on a Saturday night, but the issues are serious, and incumbent upon us all to stay caught up.

You've probably heard of it, even if you haven't read the memoir Wild, or seen the movie, or hiked part of the PCT yourself. 2,650 miles, it stretches from the Mexican border to the Canadian. Think this is gorgeous? Wait till the larch trees turn golden and the shrubs turn red! There's so much to love about the PCT: it runs deliberately across the most dramatic stretches of western mountain (the "Crest"); it's pretty accessible in places (like this, the Cutthroat Pass portion); and it's blessed by a uniform "PCT grade" of 6%, meaning that it's never too ridiculously steep (looking at YOU, Appalachian Trail!).

If you believe in a “Free DC” and the fight to protect our democracy, take a moment to read this powerful piece by Mustafa Santiago Ali — then pass it on. Like it. Share it. Let the truth travel farth...

"Throwing shade" on someone is bad. So is calling something "shady." But in July in Alabama, the shade is where you want to be. Once my Amazing Mom had finished her track meet and we'd all gone out to brunch (at Waffle House, where else?), the five of us--me, parents, sister, brother-in-law--found ourselves with several hours of free time before their flight back to North Carolina, and nowhere in Huntsville's 95-degree humidity that we wanted to be.

Look carefully at the number on my mom's back. USATF Master's Nationals, Huntsville, Alabama, July 19 2025 That "W 90" means what you think it means: the person wearing that number is a woman at least 90. I only saw one other "90" at the meet, and that was a man. All weekend, people kept approaching my mom, Martha Klopfer, to tell her how inspirational she is.

Here’s what my mom, Martha Klopfer, said about the upcoming USA Track & Field Masters meet in Huntsville, Alabama: “My intention is to show up and run my best on that day.” Th…

Here's what my mom, Martha Klopfer, said about the upcoming USA Track & Field Masters meet in Huntsville, Alabama: "My intention is to show up and run my best on that day." This time a year ago, at 89, she set an American record in the 1500m: 10:55.45. Now she's 90. New age group. I repeat: NINETY. Will that mean a world record, in the 800m?

That's what we were told we might see, driving the Cabot Trail around Cape Breton. As it happened, we saw neither. But in our week up there, we never stopped believing we might. Here's why: To left: whale habitat. Center: moose habitat (and The Mate). To right: the road. For this part of the journey, having said goodbye to Son One and our New England cuzzies, we flew to Halifax, rented a campervan, and drove to Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

“I have a week’s vacation, use it or lose it,” said Son One from Costa Rica. “But getting to Lopez Island and back would take 2 days out of that. Wanna meet somewhere else?&…

"I have a week's vacation, use it or lose it," said Son One from Costa Rica. "But getting to Lopez Island and back would take 2 days out of that. Wanna meet somewhere else?" "Way too long since we've seen our New England cousins," I mused. Next thing you know... NOT an actual cousin...but cousin-adjacent! One branch of our family (on The Mate's side) runs a sheep farm in southwestern Vermont.

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