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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.
Ruminations and provocations.
Filtering by Category: Politics
Today, we face a situation that seems like a replay of 1876: the prospect of a close election in which the underdog, relying on a nearly all-white party base, has already threatened to contest the vote if he loses. In fact, he’s pre-emptively declared that any vote he doesn’t win will have been “rigged.” If history holds any precedent, the prospect of such a contested election should scare you.
Read MoreWe live in a country where people go around punching, spitting on, and cussing out their fellow citizens who wear masks to keep from getting sick. How much different would it be to punch someone out because they dared to be a designated driver? Or to purposely get drunk, get behind the wheel of a car, and drive it head-on into another vehicle just to prove a point?
Read MoreThe ideals in the Declaration of Independence were, and are, worth aspiring to. These rights were worth preserving. But if we neglect to strive for them, they lose their power. Throughout our history, we’ve often ignored them — through slavery, voter suppression, misogyny, “manifest destiny,” and in many other ways. Now, though, we’re doing something worse: we’re abandoning them.
Read MoreTrump’s presidency has reinforced our natural tendency to rely heavily on labels and “not ask too many questions.” He’s the consummate snake-oil salesman, taking us back to the late 19th century, when “miracle cures” filled with do-nothing contents made millions of dollars.
Read MoreThe internet depersonalizes our interactions and, in doing so, keeps us from seeing people as human beings. Instead, we see them as targets or obstacles or followers. As in war, this reinforces the “us vs. them” mentality that fuels continued hostility and conflict. Peace and understanding? They’re condemned as compromise and disloyalty.
Read MoreYes, Trump will fire up his base with racist fears. But when it comes right down to it, more people are scared of COVID-19 and economic ruin than they are of losing Confederate flags and statues, or of largely peaceful protests. Even when Trump, by his own actions, goads protesters into violence, that violence doesn’t directly touch most people’s lives. The virus and paychecks do.
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