“Telling stories and having them received is so important. That dialogue is everything. I tell my students all the time that what separates us as human beings is our ability to hold stories. Our narrative history. There is so much power in that. Storytelling is our human industry.” – Kathi Appelt, children/young adult author and writing […]
February came in like a lion and, from all appearances, is going out like a lamb, despite conventional weather wisdom about that being the March meteorological pattern. But then, nothing makes sense anymore about the seasons we’ve long cherished in the Midwest. March comes next week; daylight saving time just 11 days after that. And […]
It’s good to go away, and it’s so good to return home. You probably knew I was gone, because I didn’t write Declarations for three weeks. Actually, I wasn’t away for three weeks – just two, Jan. 31 to Feb. 14. And, yes, I missed being physically present at Woodstock Willie’s prognostication Feb. 2. Thanks […]
One of the things I most admired about Queen Elizabeth was her ability to remain neutral on matters of state. This doesn’t mean she had no influence on outcomes. She was quiet, careful and disciplined, and her presence attracted leaders across the world. I’m having my own regal moment here. The passage of House Bill […]
48,830 people were killed by guns in 2021 – an average of 133 people every single day. That’s according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], which just released its final data for the year. The total number of gun deaths represented an 8 percent increase from 2020, which had held the record for […]
How can a community festival based on a movie that was released 30 years ago remain so popular that it attracts thousands of people every year? Of course, we’re not talking about just any community – or just any film. “Groundhog Day” has become something of a global cult classic since being filmed in Woodstock […]
Television’s latest loving embrace of Woodstock has come in the form of “John McGivern’s Main Streets” exploration of Woodstock. The destination travel show, a feature of PBS Wisconsin, had the “world premiere” of its segment about Woodstock on the big screen at the Opera House last Thursday night, and a few hundred of us showed […]
They want to enforce only those laws they agree with I find it so incredibly humorous when anti-gun liberals write letters to the editor. Are they that clueless and do they lack such self-awareness that they cannot see the hypocrisy in their letters? To have the audacity to say we cannot pick and choose which […]
Woodstock must have the most skillful drivers in the world. How else do you explain the way local motorists have embraced the city’s first traffic roundabout? Many skeptics had warned us on social media that the circular intersection was an abomination that would lead to vehicular chaos, traffic backups in all directions, and frequent car […]
By Eileen Millard We have never had a roundabout inside Woodstock city limits; now we have one. This large, very visible sign of change got me to thinking about change in general in Woodstock. As a Chicago transplant who has lived in Woodstock for 25 years, I thought about some of the things that have […]
Larry Lough is editor of The Independent and reports local news.
Janet Dovidio has been a freelance correspondent for The Independent for eight years.
Susan W. Murray wrote for The Independent, covering various beats, from 2005 to 2008.
Tricia Carzoli is a freelance writer and photographer that on community news.
