Contact Us

Use the form on the right to contact us.

You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right. 

PO Box 3201
Martinsville, VA 24115
United States

Stephen H. Provost is an author of paranormal adventures and historical non-fiction. “Memortality” is his debut novel on Pace Press, set for release Feb. 1, 2017.

An editor and columnist with more than 30 years of experience as a journalist, he has written on subjects as diverse as history, religion, politics and language and has served as an editor for fiction and non-fiction projects. His book “Fresno Growing Up,” a history of Fresno, California, during the postwar years, is available on Craven Street Books. His next non-fiction work, “Highway 99: The History of California’s Main Street,” is scheduled for release in June.

For the past two years, the editor has served as managing editor for an award-winning weekly, The Cambrian, and is also a columnist for The Tribune in San Luis Obispo.

He lives on the California coast with his wife, stepson and cats Tyrion Fluffybutt and Allie Twinkletail.

Biden pushes us back to the office — even if we don't want to go

On Life

Ruminations and provocations.

Biden pushes us back to the office — even if we don't want to go

Stephen H. Provost

Donald Trump often claimed credit for things he didn’t do.

Now, that Joe Biden is doing something a little different: He’s so keen to make political points for good news about COVID that he’s snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Biden used his State of the Union address to call for “Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again.”

First of all, this is insulting. We HAVE been working, and if Biden hasn’t noticed, he hasn’t been paying attention. Second, how and where employees work should be a decision made by those workers and their employers — not by government. Third, it’s just plain clueless.

In fact, it’s one of the most clueless things Biden has said. Maybe he’s living in the past. (Most of our downtowns haven’t been great in a very long time.) And maybe he hasn’t noticed, but...

  1. We’re in the midst of soaring gas prices. Now is NOT the time to be putting more gas in our tanks, or for employers to be placing another financial burden on strapped workers.

  2. Spewing more emissions into the air while sounding the alarm against global warming makes absolutely no sense.

  3. Many employees actually prefer working from home and are more productive there.

  4. Working from home saves employers money they would otherwise be spending to rent office space and pay for utilities — money that could be spent to hire more workers or increase salaries for those already on the payroll.

Biden obviously wants to make things look “normal” again in the wake of COVID. But gas prices are anything but normal, and some of the pre-COVID normal (accelerating climate change, the aggravation of rush-hour traffic heading to and from those offices) was anything but optimal.

In this age, though, making political points appears to be a higher priority than anything else. For Republicans. For Democrats.

But not for independent thinkers and problem-solvers. We need more of those. 

Stephen H. Provost is a former journalist and the author of more than 40 books. He works from home. He likes it.

categories Business, Politics
tags Work from home, remote work, back to work, Joe Biden, Biden, working from home, global warming, climate chane, State of the Union, COVID