Columns

It is now post-Nov. 3 and we are witnessing what it will take to complete a free, fair and secure election. Most headlines and attention will be focused on the acrimonious presidential contest and we will under-appreciate how much of the rest of the voting is happening without rancor, dispute or distrust.

Somewhere in the week after Nov. 3, in our country and our community, we will reach a deciding moment in our collective lives when a series of major choices will be required. The choice could be, and should be, more than turn left or right, or even just stay the course. It should be a conscious effort to build a new future or to try and claw our way back to a place we felt better regardless of the impact, or more likely find some middle ground.

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society.  

With newly confirmed Amy Coney Barrett now the sixth conservative on the bench, the next several months should be fascinating if not terrifying for those concerned about health care, the environment and the concentration of wealth. As expected, little was revealed during her confirmation hearing with all votes determined long before it started (although Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski took a few days to say so). Now we wait to see if Biden can win the presidency and the Democrats can take the Senate. If both of those things happen, we’ll see how long it takes them to add justices to the court to reduce the conservative super majority to a minority. Adding, say, four liberal justices to the court would send Republicans howling, and probably increasing the number yet again if they ever retake the White House and the Senate. 

People would be very surprised to hear that “The Wizard of Oz” was written as a political allegory and was based on real people including presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, Williams Jennings Bryan, a former North Dakota senator and even the spirit of Sitting Bull. Published in 1900 by L. Frank Baum, the illustrated children’s novel, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” was published when there was a strong populist movement, similar to the recent Tea Party Movement and the rise of Trumpism.

I am a long way from home.

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society.

A confession – I have not voted in every election since I came of voting age. In my early 20s, I thought – like most of my friends and family – that voting was for establishment types, people who were oblivious to the truth that the system is rigged. (Sound familiar?)

As the months pass by, all of our collective writing addressing our anxiety and tribulations around the fires, smoke, election, etc., seems increasingly necessary. Even since I penned last month's column, we have had another major wildfire and the collective anxiety around the election has become yet more intense.

The big election is less than two weeks away. It was a long year ago that we were first told Election Year 2020 would be historic, intense and outrageous. We had no idea then what 2020 would bring us — and maybe we still don’t.