Editorial

Water worries

Red will be the dominant color for this weekend’s many red, white and blue Fourth of July celebrations, holiday picnics and weekend outdoor adventures. That is because we are now under a summer-long Red Flag fire safety alert issued by CalFire and others. Hot weather, busy humans and dumb moments are dangerous ingredients for tragedy and loss.

Thank you from D.A.R.E.

Generosity

Compost compromise

We have been living in a global village and sharing the same orbiting planet much longer than social scientists have been reminding us, or the first photos from outer space of our fragile blue-green marble confirmed.

Thank you from the library

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors took the easy way out last week, cynically agreeing unanimously to require everyone connected to the county – except themselves – to comply with a living wage increase. Requiring county contractors and grant recipients to raise wages to $15 an hour was a fine thing to do, but exempting the county itself was disappointing, and turned the whole affair into an exercise in self-aggrandizement.

Lowest bid

We were hoping the Board of Supervisors would prove to be “fast learners,” but we’re afraid they have already showed up too late for their latest big test — the annual budget hearings this week. After the taxpayers’ trouncing of their Measure A sales tax increase proposal in the June 2 election, we expected our county’s leaders to do some extra studying, rethink their political blunders and ask the public for some after-school tutoring.