Editorial

December 25 is, of course, Christmas Day, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that this birth is the turning point, the very center of human history. From it we count the years forward and backward, B.C., before Christ, and A.D., Anno Domini, Year of our Lord. We believe that the baby born in Bethlehem is Emmanuel, God with us, fully human from the flesh of His Mother Mary, and fully God by the power of the Holy Spirit. We also know, along with this and because of this, that every birth is sacred. Carl Sandburg, in his uniquely down to earth way, said that a baby is God’s opinion that life should go on. When my older brother’s first child was born he called me in the middle of the night to tell me that his son’s birth, at which he was present, was the closest thing to a miracle he had ever seen. I had the joy of witnessing the births of my five children and I agree with Carl Sandburg and my brother and certainly with Mary and Joseph. Birth is a miracle, it is God’s opinion, it is God with us.

Fawn future

Your choice

I have read the commentaries of candidates for the City Council with great interest. It is obvious to me that some of the candidates have really done their homework to learn the issues through the media, from members of the City Council and the City staff. Every candidate was encouraged to meet with City staff which included the City Manager, City Attorney and department heads. Most chose to, a couple did not. Their commentaries reflect that.

The March 10 commentary piece “The elephant in the room” brought to mind a quote attributed to a U.S. Army officer in Vietnam concerning a military operation there. “It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it.”

What the county’s Board of Supervisors hoped would be a sleepy little single-issue election on June 2 for the Measure A county sales tax increase is turning out to be anything but.

Newspapers have been publishing in this land longer than there