Editorial

Crowds can be powerful, dangerous, glorious, murderous. Think of the crowds in the streets of cities in the middle east in what has been called the Arab Spring, a spring that has blossomed in hope for justice and freedom, a spring that has also suffered the chill of brutal repression. Think of the crowds of the Occupy events around the US, citizens gathering in protest, in hope, in resentment, and sometimes in crazy violence.

Driving up the Oregon coast we heard a radio interview with a woman, someone who lived in the far-off troubled Arab world, I think she was Lebanese, saying she takes her family to the beach because people don’t usually bomb beaches. That’s something I never thought about. But here I was imagining a mother grabbing sunhats and sand buckets to take time off from war.

Today (Thursday, May 14) is the annual “Bike to Work Day,” equal parts celebration and encouragement of safe and affordable transportation that doesn’t involve driving a fossil-fuel powered vehicle.

As Scoutmaster of Healdsburg Troop 21, I’m compelled to respond to the recent statements from the press and members of the community regarding the 4Cs preschool departure. I write this with the hope that despite the inaccurate depiction given in recent articles, Healdsburg’s Troop 21 continues its role in community service, promoting youth leadership and skills development. A reader wrote in last week’s Tribune, “What about the Oath?” I’m happy that she asked about Scouting principles like the Oath and Law.

Fellow classmates, faculty, family and friends, it is truly an honor to be speaking here and I wanted to start it off by congratulating my classmates. It has been a road paved by strife, diligence, chronic senioritus, and quite a few senior ditch days but we made it here so I think that deserves a round of applause.

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At least since Isabelle Simi converted a big wine vat at her Healdsburg winery along the Old Redwood Highway into a roadside wine tasting  room just after the Great Depression and that “little old winemaker” invited the world to visit the Italian Swiss Colony, Sonoma County has beckoned agricultural visitors. Organized in 1973, a hundred or so small family farms created Sonoma County Farm Trails to welcome thousands of Gravenstein Fair goers, pumpkin patch seekers and Christmas Tree farm trekkers. Before that, apple blossom and prune blossom tours drew busloads of out-of-towners.

Rollie Atkinson, Publisher of he Healdsburg Tribune, Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times and News was profiled by the California Newspaper Publishers Association in the Summer issue of their official publication "California Publisher".  The magazine covers the news and trends, the buying and selling, the technological developments and the historical events in California's diverse newspaper industry.   Decision-makers in the California newspaper industry look to California Publisher for the latest information to help them run an efficient, profitable and worthy business.  Suppliers to the trade rely upon California Publisher as their connection to all newspaper departments.