Like many of my Democratic friends, I initially was fairly impressed with our new governor, Republican Ron DeSantis. At least he's better than Rick Scott, we said to each other, and when he held press conferences to tout the environment (while not necessarily doing anything), we thought there was hope that he would be better than the string of Republican governors we've had since Jeb took office twenty years ago, in 1999. I'm not of that mind about DeSantis anymore, though. Read More
Doris writes a weekly column for LaGaceta, the nation's only trilingual newspaper, which has pages in English, Spanish, and Italian. Begun in 1922 for Tampa's immigrant community, it continues to thrive more than a century later. Her column is titled "In Context," as it aims to put contemporary issues in the context of the past.
Back to the Present
September 23, 2019
After two columns mentally exploring Africa in 1932, I'm back to today. Congress is in session again, and the pace is picking up, especially on impeachment investigations. As I've said before, I don't want that too soon and be stuck with Mike Pence as an incumbent at this time next year. That would be doing a real favor for Mitch McConnell and other Republicans, so let's calm down, slow dance, and follow Nancy's Pelosi's pace. Instead of jumping off too soon, we should keep on keeping on for most of another year, giving Trump plenty of rope to hang himself. Let's defeat him and his congressional enablers fair and square at the polls, and then there will be endless time for the courts and the many corruption cases. Read More
Hollywood Meets Uganda
September 16, 2019
Because some of you inquired what happened with last week's truncated column, I'm going to return to the final sections about "Olivia's African Diary." You may remember that this is a journal of a 1932 trek from South Africa's Cape Town to Cairo, which many people think of as more the Middle East than Africa. When we left off, they were in what then was termed French Equatorial Africa -- and to my surprise, film companies already in 1932 were using its locales for tropical scenes. Author Olivia Stokes was accompanied by photographer Mary Marvin Breckinridge, who was called "Marvin" and who brought both still and moving cameras on the trip. The book contains many of her photos.
African Diary Continued
September 9, 2019
Except for jokes about presidential Sharpies, things are relatively quiet in the political world, so I'm continuing the mental break from contemporary news that I began last week. I quoted then from "Olivia's African Diary," the day-to-day journal of a six-month trip through southern and eastern Africa in 1932. The writer was Oliva Stokes (later Hatch), and the photographs that accompany the published diary were by Mary Marvin Breckinridge (later Patterson). Read More
I'm Taking A Break
September 2, 2019
from the reality TV show that is our daily life. Although we LaGaceta columnists do not coordinate our topics, I'm trusting that my dear colleague Joe O'Neill will do the necessary ranting and raving about the latest outrage from the White House. I'll just say that never in my life have I been so eager to see Congress go back into session after their August break. There is much to be done, and I'm grateful that Nancy Pelosi will lead the doing. Read More