Editorial

As the California June 7 primary gets closer (mail-in voting starts in three weeks) we are hearing more and more people complaining about a lack of choices among the five remaining presidential candidates. Even some of the candidates are grumbling about the “monopolistic” powers of the Democratic and Republican party machines.

It’s exciting to see county planning commissioners stepping up to the plate this week to address the county’s booming vacation rental market.

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.

For some reason, we have taxes on our minds this week. Tax Day (April 15) just happened and we’re busily wadding up all the extra forms with pencil mistakes and late night calculations. We just hit the “Send” button on our TurboTax or stubbornly filed our income taxes the old fashioned way with a licked stamp and envelope.

Hallelujah! It is done. Clang of bell and roar of gun. The so-called Defense of Marriage Act is no longer the law of the land. It should be called the Restriction of Marriage Act, because it limits marriage to certain citizens but not others. And in California, Proposition 8, the law voted by the people to restrict marriage to straight people, is defunct.  

On the eve of a long ago Christmas a little 8-year-old girl

A recent editorial attacked the county budget process, stating that discussions are held outside of the public view and void of citizen input. It ended by asserting, “This is not how county government should work.”

Here in Sonoma County we take our carbon footprint very seriously. Together as residents, businesses and local governments we have done much to lower our energy use, resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. We have been repeatedly recognized as conservation and sustainability leaders across the country.

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.

It was a hard fought soccer game. The boys were aggressively moving around the field, challenging one another. Several collided and one, from the other team, fell and took his time getting up. One of my 8 year-old’s teammates began pressing towards the goal. “Get up! Get off the floor!” yelled a spectator for the other team. Wait…floor? The game was outdoors, on natural grass, at Badger Park. Was it just a slip? Clearly he meant ground. But he was relentless in his error, continuing to choose THAT word. “Get up off the floor!” “Stop rolling around on the floor!”