Barb Woolard

You’ve heard the expression: “Better the devil you know than
the devil you don’t know.” It’s meant to explain why people choose to remain in
uncomfortable, even dangerous, situations rather than free themselve […]

Located on
the edge of the Florida Everglades, Collier County is home to a diverse demographic,
including Naples business people, Immokalee farm workers, and Seminole Native
Americans who were forced to move […]

In 2019, eight states have passed new restrictive abortion
laws, most notoriously Georgia and Alabama. Alabama’s law would, if allowed to
go into effect, ban nearly all abortions, with no exceptions for rape, i […]

A female member of my family, troubled that her boss had made an unwelcome pass at her, once confided the experience to one of our aunts. The aunt’s response was “Honey, in my day, we considered that a com […]

On Thursday morning, I awoke to the anniversary of the day I
was born. It was not one of the much-discussed “zero birthdays,” but one
nonetheless that gives one pause to reflect on one’s mortality and where […]

Shakespeare’s Juliet raises the question in the
often-mislabeled “balcony scene” (there is actually no balcony, just a window).
A little earlier, she is spotted by Romeo across a crowded room at her famil […]

I live in Fort Myers, Florida. On May 23, 2001, our local
newspaper reported that a senior at Estero High School had been found to have a
steak knife on the passenger-side floor board of her car while the car […]

Barry Goldwater said this in November 1994:

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control
of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a
terrible damn problem. F […]

Sadeek, our first three days’ tour guide, said it. Tony, the spice shop owner, said it with pleading eyes as he carefully sealed our bags of fragrant lavender. Ali, our guide through Old Jerusalem, said it as we s […]

Our pseudo-conservative government officials have become quite fond of quoting the Bible to endorse their latest inhumane policies, most notoriously Jeff Sessions’ cherry-picked verse cited to justify kidnapping a […]

I’m seeing spots! Actually, it’s lots and lots of dots! I’ve been seeing them for several years, and their number is increasing, though the connections between them have seemed confusing or altogether missing. The […]

So many labels! How’s a responsible citizen to choose? Things used to be much simpler. People were Republican or Democrat; they disagreed on specific issues but agreed on certain foundational principles. They f […]

Not much surprises me these days, and I fear I may be suffering from what some are calling “outrage fatigue”: the state of exhaustion that results from daily bombardment by too many outrageous events. I do, how […]

This photo was taken by the United States Coast Guard in 1994. The woman, Rosaura, is handing her four-year-old son over to a member of the Coast Guard after having just survived the treacherous journey from […]

He’s a political genius. He’s a master strategist. He’s doing this or that seemingly insane thing to distract the public from the Mueller investigation or something else he doesn’t want us to think or learn t […]

Early on Saturday morning by East Coast U.S.A. time, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle delighted the world with a royal fairy tale, which from what I could see was perfect in every detail. One of the highlights of […]

“He’s so unpresidential!” say many Americans and other thinking people around the globe. “He disqualifies himself every day by his crass, undignified, vulgar behavior.” You’ve heard it and probably said it. Th […]

The night was November 8, 2016. I and my Democratic Party associate cleaned our Get Out the Vote office, loaded all of the makeshift equipment into our cars, and headed over to Harborside Event Center to watch the […]

I reel in disbelief every time I hear a news commentator, nightly panelist, newspaper writer, or social media pundit pose the question “Is Donald Trump unfit to serve as President?” Trump answers that question eve […]

Here’s the second amendment to our Constitution in its entirety:

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be inf […]