And So It Begins

As 2025 slipped away and 2026 came into view, I was surrounded by perhaps 50 revelers counting down the last few seconds of the old and cheering the arrival of the new.

Everyone raised their glass to toast one another as fireworks lit up the sky to our west. The explosions reflected the wet vegetation around our neighborhood, as New Year’s Eve was a rainy affair here in Northern California.

Today is rainy as well.

The first thing I want to say in 2026 is thank you to everyone who subscribes to my newsletter. I’ve been doing this for the past six years since I retired from a 54-year career in journalism. A few days from now will mark the 60th anniversary of my first published story, which was in the Michigan Daily.

I remember going to a newsstand on campus that wintry day and seeing people pick up the paper and thinking, “I wonder what they would do if they knew I was the author of one of the stories they’re reading.”

On the other hand, it was unlikely that very many would even notice my story, which was a short item about the wrestling team buried near the back of the sports page. Yes, it was a modest beginning, but also a useful lesson in arrogance and modesty.

Most of the time, readers neither notice nor care who the author is — what they care about is the story. What this newsletter has always been about is the story of the times we are living through together, informed by the stories from the past half-century that provide the context for today’s headlines.

And speaking of headlines, there is one news item that bridged the news cycles overnight on this New Year’s that brought a ray of hope onto the bleak political landscape confronting us.

Quoting the New York Times, “President Trump said Wednesday that he would abandon for now his efforts to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. The president made his announcement shortly before a federal appellate court ruled that the Trump administration had to return hundreds of California National Guard troops to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s control.”

In the battle to preserve our democracy, chalk one up for the “No Kings” movement. And BTW, my newsletter has its own New Year’s Resolution for 2026: 

No Kings!