Welcome to Open Spaces
Open Spaces is a forum for voices that speak with knowledge and understanding of matters currently affecting all of us.
Limited access to healthcare is as potentially lethal in the COVID-19 epidemic as it was in the cancer case described by Dr. Turker in his article, “Hippocratic Hypocrisy.” Such tragedies can be fewer by assuring timely treatment for all who need it.
For USA information by state, county or congressional district, including COVID-19 cases, risk level and disease trends in your area, see this interactive map from Harvard University’s Global Health Institute and Brown University’s School of Public Health.
Read our fall newsletter for thoughts on life in a pandemic and looking ahead.
We also believe it’s important to take a step back and breathe now and then. To help, see our useful diversions for all ages including books, recipes, humor—“Pass the Salt”—and a beat-boxing Buddhist monk. Take me away…
We love hearing from our readers. Here we share some of your comments and anecdotes. Please keep them coming!
Our present times suggest a need for a broader view—both inward and outward. To this end, we offer a blessing by Oregon’s ninth Poet Laureate, Kim Stafford.
Reports keep coming in focused on climate change and health. The reports all present the same key messages: climate change is here, it is bad for your health, immediate actions can reduce future risks, and climate action has immediate and substantial health benefits.
With wildfires once again raging along the west coast, we watch as devastation reigns and wonder how will we recover. But this is not the first time our lands have experienced such destruction. Regeneration of the natural world has provided comfort in times of loss, as Kathleen Dean Moore shares in her essay, “Fire and Water.”
Mt. Hood photo: Marv Harrison
Cormorant photo: Harry Kingston.
To view the full image and see more of Harry’s work, visit his photography showcase.
“When artists, entrepreneurs, and agents of social change cluster, they look for forums where they can interact and be challenged and provoked. In Cascadia, Open Spaces plays this role. It is where thoughtful people publish essays that push readers to think outside their comfort zones.”
— Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day
and current president of the Bullitt Foundation