Editorial

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.

This year is different. Historically low rainfall following a previously dry water year have tipped the balance of stored water within Lake Mendocino and water demand throughout the Russian River watershed. As water users in the upper Russian River continue to cut water usage, you may be wondering how we got here and how do we get out of this.

As part of our letters section this week, the Tribune is publishing letters from students at The Alexander Valley School about what they’re thankful for this year.

After a years-long battle reignited in recent months by controversies over misunderstandings of critical race theory, California students will soon be required to take ethnic studies to graduate high school. 

At an emotional legislative hearing Tuesday, lawmakers and critics subjected the Newsom administration to blistering questions about the state’s oversight of nursing homes.

Remember when one of our biggest arguments was over “paper or plastic” when we went grocery shopping? Turns out, we were all wrong. Now it’s canvas or bring your own recyclable bag. New mothers used to be torn over whether to breastfeed their babies or use infant formula from purified cow’s milk, vegetable oil or soy. Many people once viewed breastfeeding as “unnatural.”

Delaying the dam

It is impossible to imagine Sonoma County without its majestic redwood trees and stunning oaks. Besides giving shape and definition to our hills, valleys, ridges and rural scenery, their likenesses are etched on our county seal, town logos, highway markers, school monuments and countless commercial labels. We live in a “redwood empire” where the original people here centered their culture around acorns.

History has proven that recall elections are one of the worst facets of our representative democracy. They are almost always misdirected, often full of vengeful emotions, very costly, and, almost always ineffective. It may be a very good thing that most recall election attempts never make it to a ballot. California has had 179 attempted recall elections in the last 100 years. Only 11 have qualified for a ballot and, of those, only six have been successful, the last one notably in 2003 when Gray Davis was recalled from his governor’s post.

The staff at the library is excited to be there to help our community as we begin another school year in Healdsburg. If you are a student of any age, a teacher or a parent, we have something helpful to offer this year as we prepare for another chapter of this action-packed story of life in the 21st century.