Editorial

Our editorials written here each week seek to refrain from making brash edicts or direct ultimatums. But this week we are making an exception.

Any farmer will tell you: it takes more than just a green thumb to run a farm. The skills required to succeed in agriculture extend beyond sowing seeds and harvesting. They must understand tractor maintenance and marketing, irrigation and bookkeeping. But a recent survey of North Bay farmers revealed an even more surprising array of oftentimes necessary skills: bartending, journalism, non-profit communications, realty, software engineering and more.

This is National Newspaper Week and this year’s theme is “power of the press.” That leads us to a list of very provocative questions about newspapers and their future. We hope all our readers will be interested in some of the answers.

Sometimes the world seems like an extra crazy place. It’s why we seek escape in comfortable places and pastimes like games or sports. But, nowadays even these can be challenging and confusing.

Editor: I continue to be baffled by the City Council’s unswerving resolve to build a roundabout at the five corners area. This project has been in the works for 10 years. It has been pointed out by several that a better, less disruptive, and simpler means of achieving smooth traffic flow into and out of our city would be to add a southbound 101 freeway entrance on Westside Road, and a northbound exit off Westside Road.

The Russian River Watershed contains a bountiful supply of creeks that provide us with open space, wildlife habitat, flood control, and recreational opportunities. To show our appreciation for our creeks, September 19 through 27 was Creek Week, but anytime is a great time to discover and celebrate not only the Russian River, but all of the tributaries that form our watershed.

It was not too long ago that I listened intently to updates of the Lake County fire.

Last Thursday, Laura Tietz of Fire Free Fitch, Dave Henderson, president of the Fitch Mountain Association and I met with Fourth District Supervisor James Gore, Sonoma County Fire Chief Al Terrell and Fire Inspector Steve Mosiurchak to discuss the pilot fire protection program being proposed for implementation on Fitch Mountain.

Now we know better. The next time we warn ourselves to be prepared for a big disaster we’d better listen to ourselves and be prepared to take it seriously, right? In late spring we warned this could be a record fire season, enabled by the multi-year drought, hotter weather and uncertain funding for sufficient firefighting forces. Editorials here and elsewhere quoted local fire officials, posting repeated warnings to clear a “defensible perimeter” and practice disaster relief drills. The big disaster the next time could be us, we warned.

Lots of fuss is being made about presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email problems. We know it’s really only about politics, so we tried to ignore it. But then we wondered whether the former U.S. Secretary of State might be having some of the same email troubles the rest of us have suffered. After all, who hasn’t hit the ‘send’ button at the wrong time to the wrong address? Violating national security is one thing. What about sending a message to the wrong girlfriend? What if you forget and accidently hit ‘reply all’? That never ends up good, does it?