By Steven Nourse If you’re reading this someday, it means I’ve finally joined that club I once thought only belonged to grandparents. Funny how life sneaks up on you. One minute you’re young and invincible, and next you’re standing on your porch at 78, realizing that a 50-year roof warranty is more of a joke…
Island Voices, Letters to the Editor, March 2026
AMERICANS: MAGA VOTERS ARE YOUR NEIGHBORS
About 155,000,000 United States citizens voted in the 2024 Presidential election. About 64% of eligibles! Millions & millions is an amazing number of our US citizen-neighbors: each somehow made the independent decision to vote for a person they never met for lunch, perhaps saw mostly on TV, heard some promises made by practiced politicians that…
Island Voices, March 2026
“Comes the Revolution …
By Michael Shook “… we all eat strawberries with cream – whether we like strawberries with cream, or not.” My mother had a number of sayings she was fond of, and this was a standard around the house, used when one of the three of us kids would whine about something not being fair. It…
Island Voices, March 2026
Boy Howdy
It’s Been a Couple of Interesting Months Around the Old Johnson Farm By Pam (“Gates”) Johnson I’ve been slowly going out of my mind with inactivity since my spinal surgery in early December. A couple of friends are also going through some recovery. One had a shoulder replacement, another badly broke his leg. When the…
Island Voices, March 2026
The Beauty of Her Being
By Suzanna Leigh Marj Watkins – Illustration by Suzanna Leigh I dreamed about my mother early this morning. She is 101 now, and I see her about every other day. I watch her slow decline and wonder how long she will continue to enjoy life. Sometimes I dream that she is walking easily again, the…
February 2026, Island Voices
Vashon’s Prehistoric Fossil
By Seán C. Malone and John Sweetman I suppose Seán’s story of the “Turtle Rock” might have begun years ago when we both lived in the obscure eastern Washington town of Republic. I had been the mill manager of the Day Mines for a time. It had been one of the only gold mines…
February 2026, Island Voices
Make America Kind Again: Building Momentum for Prison Reform in Washington State
By John Bean In “House of the Dead,” Fyodor Dostoevsky reveals his conviction that the quality of a civilization can be judged by how it treats its prisoners. If you believe in a strongman society ruled by force, then prisons might look like El Salvador’s notorious CECOT – a site for Kristi Noem’s appalling photo-op in front…
February 2026, Island Voices
Week Seven (Almost) in Lockdown
By Pam (“Gates”) Johnson Almost seven weeks in of staring at the four walls of my front room. My back surgery went well, but I came out of it looking at a couple of months of recuperation. When getting discharged, I was given the option of going to a rehab place or going home. Since…
February 2026, Island Voices
The Spiritual Warrior Manifests
Tropical Interpretation By Melanie Farmer Neptune’s Transition: From Pisces to Aries As Neptune exits Pisces, a significant shift occurs in the collective consciousness. This transition signals the cessation of the victim mentality – there are no rescuers on the horizon and no cavalry arriving to save the day. Empowerment in Aries With both Neptune and Saturn entering Aries, a…
February 2026, Island Voices
Sing Back Into the Places You Love
By Monica Schley I was listening to Ada Limon, our nation’s former poet laureate, being interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. My ear caught a phrase she said, “sing back into the places you love.” By chance, I have been reading her book, You Are Here, which is a culmination of a larger project, a collection…