Editorial

Come journey to the antebellum south, tune your ear to the tender sounds of Bach and Beethoven, and take a cultural tour of Paris through the ages with stops in Medieval times, the Enlightenment, the Belle Epoque, and the 1920s. All of this is available here in Sonoma County with no tests, no grades and no required reading. The magic is, you don’t have to leave the area to start this journey. Sonoma State University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) program is pleased to present three of our most popular instructors this fall at our Healdsburg satellite campus, where we have served hundreds of lifelong learners since 2012. Mick Chantler, Kayleen Asbo, and Bruce Elliott are a powerful trio, often referred to as the Pied Pipers of OLLI, as our members follow them everywhere and take anything they might teach.

It seems to me unseemly that our leaders object so strenuously to the State of California wanting to charge $8 for visiting the State Beaches along our magnificent coast while at the same time saying it makes sense for the County of Sonoma to charge a $7 fee for visiting its own parks.

On August 14, 1935, after much debate and protest, President

Growing up, my parents taught me about my responsibilities to my family, my school and my country. Taking responsibility was expected of me. Today, it appears the emphasis has shifted from people taking responsibility to demanding their rights. There is an extreme focus on rights –as individuals and as members of a democratic society. The public discourse is filled with discussions of rights – whose rights trump the others or are being infringed – but often there is silence about having responsibilities.

In December I went to a Regional Climate Protection Authority presentation at the Healdsburg city council chambers. The RCPA was created in 2009 to improve coordination on climate change issues and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as was mandated by the ten county government’s partnership with the Climate Protection Campaign in 2005. The goal is to reduce county GHG emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2015. It was the CPC that first championed Sonoma Clean Power in 2004.

While the originator’s attribution is uncertain, the following phrase, popularized by Mark Twain, seems particularly appropriate relative to the survey results recently presented to our City Council by HCSS (Healdsburg Citizens for Sustainable Solutions) on March 17 and April 7. To quote Mr. Twain, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”

Pride in Public Service

The City of Healdsburg, like many communities throughout our state, is facing a number of housing related challenges. These challenges have been exacerbated in Healdsburg due to the recent recession, elimination of redevelopment funds by the state and many have argued the limitations of the growth management ordinance, which inadvertently has curtailed construction of new market rate, multi-family units for sale or rental units. This has all become much more personal and painful for our community over the past two months, with the news of families being evicted from their apartments as well as reported rent increases. While it seems like a perfect storm of housing issues, the city has been working for some time to address these issues with short, mid and long-term approaches in mind.

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.

It is hard to believe, but in 1954, a deadly virus in the United States scared families, changed behaviors, and led to some panicky behavior, somewhat like Ebola is doing now. It was called by some a “plague” and it was said that the greatest fear of Americans in the 1950s were the atomic bomb and this illness. It would kill 8,000 people in the first years of the 1950s, and it would generally target young, healthy kids.  If it did not kill someone, it might cause significant paralysis, even to the point of that person not being able to walk, or lift an arm, or even to breathe.  And that paralysis could be permanent.