Columns

Sometimes being alive isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But yes, it sure beats the alternative.

A step in the wrong direction

It is well known that during times of tragedy we often see the best of humanity. This is so true in Sonoma County as we continue to move forward after the firestorm. As a principal in the Windsor Unified School District at Brooks Elementary School, I am so proud and humbled to be a part of this process.

Reflections on hospital

One thing for which I always give thanks is my parents. They worked hard and raised us well. My father pushed us. My mother hugged us. It was a good combination.

As with most parts of life in Sonoma County, now removed by one month from the Oct. 8 wildfires, our 2017 Thanksgiving gatherings will be unlike any previous ones, with extra thoughts and prayers reserved for the victims and volunteers of our region’s greatest natural disaster in history. The timing to pause and give thanks could not be better.

Right around the time on Thanksgiving morning when you pop your turkey into that fancy oven, just after you tune the television in your cozy living room to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from New York, volunteers affiliated with a Healdsburg-based nonprofit will fan out into the community and inspire gratitude of an entirely different kind.

100 years ago - November 15 1917

My two teenagers have me addicted to a show that is airing on Netflix right now. It’s based in the 80s, that wonderful time in history when cassette tapes still rocked, MTV was becoming a national phenomenon and Madonna and Michael Jackson saturated the radio. My teens couldn’t help but comment on the clothes and hair styles of the day. They thought the outfits were nerdy and the hair too big on both the male and female actors.

The Congressional Republicans, in the past always against increasing the deficit, are trying to ram through tax legislation that would drastically increase the deficit by giving huge tax cuts to the billionaire/millionaire class and corporations. They have admitted that they are being pressured by their rich donors (i.e. Koch Brothers, Trump, friends of Trump, and others) who want huge tax cuts.