Editorial

Think of the church

When a tree falls …

Airport prophecy

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.

The more arguments that are presented in support of Measure A, the quarter-cent sales tax increase on the June 2 ballot, the stronger our opposition becomes. First it is called a “road tax.” Now “Yes on A” campaign literature features a firefighter and a public safety message. What is Measure A, really? It is a “free pass” for our Board of Supervisors and their labor union contributors to avoid fixing their unfunded pension problem and other budget imbalances.

It’s no surprise that a recent national opinion poll found that

In December, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved a $15 per hour living-wage ordinance. The legislation will increase wages for approximately 1,200 workers employed by the county and large county contractors — including park aids, animal care, security, janitorial, landscape, mental health, recycling and other low-wage workers.

Each of us can do our part to maintain clean and healthy waterways.  If you live adjacent to a creek or waterway you may have additional responsibilities.

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.