Editorial

Clogged supply chains. Hiring struggles. New mask rules. A virus that trampled right over return-to-work schedules. Last year was chaotic for many businesses across California.

Most of the time journalists go around looking for trouble. Lately, we haven’t had to look very hard. Our reporting has focused on the viral pandemic, the wildfires, the drought, climate change, civil unrest, constitutional insurrection and attacks of  “fake news” against our very being and profession. It’s never been more challenging to seek out troubles and alert our public about problems that need solutions. We watchdog our government leaders to uphold our public trust, our laws and our democracy. We sit through endless school board meetings and local government sessions looking for anything that might smell fishy. We count on you, our readers, to act on your civic duties as voters, taxpayers and independent voices. We can’t force you to read our news or speak up, but we will never tire of imploring you to raise your voices to power and to defend our fragile democracy.

A tribute to Rena

As the winter rains continue to fall, and hopefully bring relief to our watershed communities mired in a historic drought, the rainwater will begin to soak into our gardens and fields and run down the streets into our storm drains, which are not linked to the sewer. Storm drains are specifically designed to capture excess stormwater from streets and divert the flows through culverts and drainage channels into creeks, rivers, and eventually the Pacific Ocean. Stormwater drainage systems are not limited to just the drains on our streets; they can also include engineered systems which help reduce flooding, increase groundwater recharge, and improve overall resilience of the ecosystem. These engineered systems are called Low Impact Development (LID).

I’m submitting this terribly late in hopes it’s able to be seen before our final market, Saturday, Dec. 18. If so, you’ll know this will be a packed market: filled with plenty of produce despite many farms ending their season and all our delicious prepared and packaged food vendors you’ve come to know and love. We’ll also have close to 30 craft vendors, many who come throughout the season on a rotating schedule, but lots of new ones who’ve just come for our Fall/Holiday Craft Market. This will be the biggest week for this event.

Winter greetings and goodwill to all Healdsburgers. “IDlewood 3” was the town’s original telephone exchange and now “Hedda Healdsburg” wants to know all! Please send your newsy items to me in care of The Healdsburg Tribune.

Have you ever wanted a fresh start?

There’s no mistaking several recent incidents in the chambers of various local city halls and the county supervisors offices with the Jan. 6 violent insurrection at our U.S. Capitol. But all of these incidents exposed our democracy’s recent troubles with the peaceful and respectful passing of power from one party or officer to the next.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been cruel to all of us for many reasons. Of course there have been thousands of cases of illnesses in Sonoma County and now 414 deaths, almost all of them taking place unaccompanied by family or loved ones. Jobs and businesses have been lost and all our daily lives have been restricted by ongoing public health rules requiring us to wear masks, get vaccinated and tested and to limit our public interactions.

Our foggy COVID-19 brains can’t remember if Santa Claus visited us last year or not. Many of us feel as if he didn’t. But this year is different. We’ve already seen the jolly old fellow at several community gatherings around the county following the recent Thanksgiving holiday. He was waving to crowds from a lighted tractor float at the Geyserville Lighted Tractor Parade last week. This past Sunday he arrived at the Forestville Community Holiday Tree Lighting on a fire truck and the jolly old elf promises to be in downtown Sebastopol this Thursday (Dec. 2) for another tree lighting ceremony. He has a full calendar of appearances and you can follow him on our website at soconews.org.