Kqeds Perspectives

As vaccinations climb and pandemic restrictions ease, many are contemplating how to make up for lost time and missed opportunities. Marilyn Englander has this Perspective. It’s been a year of fear, trimming expectations and hoping to control fate. Chastising my kids to be careful, scolding when someone forgets the mask, scowling at rule-breakers – it’s been exhausting. And pretty much fruitless: people will do what they will do. Now, two dear 80-something friends in Philadelphia, exhilarated by their vaccinations, announce they’re embarking on a 6000-mile road trip in a big rental RV. They’ll help their adult daughter and boyfriend move east from California. Never mind they haven’t driven anywhere in five years, let alone in a 32-footer. Overlook recent health crises and other frailties. Ignore the prospect of a crowded return trip with four adults, plus the couple’s four dogs and five rats —in one RV. They’re off— East Coast to West and back in three weeks. White line fever! Of course, I protested. Then I ca

Hank Smith struggles to live up to the simple words from his autistic son.

Andrew Lewis seeks to protect the fragile, miraculous life of a wounded Monarch butterfly.

Jim McClelland turns to an ancient Japanese art for hope that a broken country can be repaired, and better for it.

Vaccines are ramping up and with them, of course, the conspiracy theories. Tom Moriarty finds one of them especially ironic. My favorite conspiracy theory about the coronavirus vaccine is that each shot contains a tiny microchip designed to track our every move. I admire this particular piece of nonsense because it overlooks the fact that most of us have already been tagged and can be tracked down by Bill Gates or the government pretty much at will. Big business and other nefarious actors can also use the device to read our minds and accurately predict which products we’ll buy and who we’ll most likely vote for. And to make matters worse, these masters of the dark arts of persuasion can even nudge us toward certain brands or candidates or ideas, and not only predict what we are going to do, but almost make us do it. All with just the push of a button. The microchip delivered via the vaccine is allegedly so small that it’s all but impossible to detect. The device I’m talking about is much bigger, and if you

Teacher Alisa Peres says she gets through the stress of teaching in a pandemic with a lot of help from her colleagues.

Wearing a mask shouldn't be a big deal, but to some it apparently is, and that has Shantha Smith mystified.

Paul Staley says there's a whole lot of mutating going on.

Sara Alexander discovers the perfect way to make better Hamantaschen — together with friends.

Funerals are occasions to express thoughts never expressed to the dearly departed. Mike Hall says, "Why wait?"

Larry Lee says the same racist pigeonholing that casts Asian Americans as the model minority makes them vulnerable to attack.

A long-neglected tent provides Lev Kushner and his boys with a strategy for coping with the prolonged bout of stay-at-home.

As the anniversary of the first stay-at-home order looms, Richard Levitt counts what he misses and doesn't miss.

Isabella Montano Ponce struggled with depression but it was the inability to talk about it that slowed her recovery.

Academic learning may be taking a hit, but Bryan Gillette thinks his children are learning important skills in the pandemic.

Susie Meserve has always been a worrier, but the pandemic has thrown anxiety into high gear.

Michael Ellis considers the seldom-seen, well-defended porcupine.

YR Media's Tenzing Chosang celebrates the new year, Tibetan-style.

Ellen Greenblatt considers the profound personal loss of the people behind the statistics.

As Connie Champagne contemplates leaving San Francisco, a mysterious, forgotten tomato bush steels her resolve.