Editorial

Throughout the United States the week starting on the third Monday of September is recognized as National Pollution Prevention Week. Pollution prevention is reducing or eliminating waste at the source by modifying production processes, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and re-using materials rather than putting them into the waste stream.

Reflecting on the ongoing national debate over the influx of immigrant children from Central America, columnist and political commentator, George Will, who will never be mistaken as a bleeding heart liberal, said on Fox News Sunday, “We ought to say to these children, ‘Welcome to America. You’re going to go to school and get a job and become American. We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 per county. The idea that we can’t assimilate these eight-year-old criminals with their teddy bears is preposterous.’”

Since the June 10th ruling in the education-equity case, Vergara v. California by Judge Rolf M. Treu, where he essentially agreed with the plaintiffs—nine California students—that the state’s laws governing teacher tenure and dismissal unfairly saddle disadvantaged and minority students with weaker teachers, tenure reform has become a hot-button item.

Measure R, Healdsburg’s voter-defeated housing plan, has left city leaders and attuned citizens scratching their heads and wondering why it lost and what will come next, if anything, to address a severe local housing crisis.

By now we’ve all seen the stunning pictures of humpback whales swimming in San Francisco Bay and received in our mailboxes the expensive color brochures touting the benefits of Measure AA. The well-funded proponents of Measure AA would have us believe that $500 million in new taxes will result in a clean and healthy San Francisco Bay for ourselves and future generations.

Ten years ago this month, more than 100 Healdsburg Peace Project members and supporters gathered on the Plaza to protest the threat of a U.S. invasion of Iraq.  The protesters believed that the U.S. had no right to invade a sovereign country and that the reasons for war given to the American people were lies. History eventually confirmed this, and the price paid has been horrible.

The March 10 commentary piece “The elephant in the room” brought to mind a quote attributed to a U.S. Army officer in Vietnam concerning a military operation there. “It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it.”

I worked at the Healdsburg Library for over 25 years before I retired last year. Something I always wanted to try with the library was to bring world class literary talent to Healdsburg.