Editorial

When the first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, Sonoma County was a very different landscape with a very sick Russian River, a deadened Laguna, lead-spewing automobiles, tons of highway litter and a county land use map poised for massive suburban sprawl from Petaluma to Geyserville.

Our presidential candidates are doing their best to sell us on a vision of their presidencies. Bigotry, hate, anger, selfishness, scarcity, and lack of respect for human life characterize a number of these visions. Such visions are deeply disturbing, scary and sad.

Congrats to Big John’s

Unsafe Sebastopol

Ceremonies are being held across America this year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War to “thank and honor” veterans and to allow for public reflections on a time and war that seems very distant from the country we live in today.

I promised myself that I would give the whole gun control issue a bit of a break. I find it depressing in the extreme and it only exacerbates my feeling of helplessness. I broke that promise to myself because a) no matter how I tried my thoughts still carom back to the subject, b) I had my fingers crossed when I made the promise and c) I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get the words ‘exacerbate’ and ‘carom’ in one paragraph.