Editorial

A more just and humane society

In a democracy, the government serves the people; the people do not serve the government. Because there is no accountability without transparency, the California Constitution guarantees that “the meetings of public bodies” shall be “open to public scrutiny.” The Brown Act, California’s open meetings law...

These days, just about everywhere we look, we are being “halved.” For instance, half of all Americans have now had their COVID-19 vaccinations. (Half of the other half doesn’t believe in vaccinations.) According to one recent opinion poll, half of Republican voters still think the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen from Trump. Half of the rest of us can’t believe this is happening.

There are lots of big topics dominating the news these days. We’re getting pretty darn tired of most of them, like the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the open-shut door carousel at our local schools, renewed sheltering-in-place orders, a drought that comes with a tsunami warning and muddy feet and distant drumbeats about what’s being called “existential threats” to our democracy. But the biggest — and most real — current news topic is probably inflation, an economic menace we haven’t had to face for almost 40 years. 

Not downtown