Editorial

For the last 15 years, I have been a volunteer in prisons, teaching convicted felons in the field of sociology and running self-help groups. Most of my students are “lifers,” men who have been convicted of serious crimes like murder, rape, or burglary for which they have received sentences of 15 years to life and much more. None of them are on death row, and most are now eligible for parole, having served their minimum sentences. Often, they have served far longer.

July 1 is the start of a new fiscal year for local governments. This is when the county, cities and schools start spending new tax money based on recently approved 2016-2017 budgets. All these budgets tend to launch with the same conclusions: there is never enough tax revenue; there are too many unmet needs; employee and pension costs keep going up; and everything could be solved if we only agreed to raise new taxes and vote for more long term debt bonds.

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?