Columns

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.

Have you ever awoken to a noisy sound on your street early in the morning and wondered what it was? If it was not your friendly solid waste truck collecting your garbage, it was probably your city’s street sweeper. Have you ever wondered why so many resources are spent to keep your streets clean, how they operate and why do they have to operate so early in the morning? Well if you have, here are a few answers.

It’s October, and I’m finally getting to my Market Report. For those of you who read this, I apologize for not getting a September report in. The fires and subsequent smoke and air quality issues, plus upcoming events and changes, kept me hopping the entire month.

Everyone should be able to get the care that they need, and no one should be denied healthcare based on the religious views of the hospital provider.

The Nov. 3 ballot includes a handful of local tax measures and a pitifully perplexing question about California’s infamous Prop. 13, first passed by voters in 1978 and now trying to be amended by this year’s Prop. 15. California has been in need of major tax reforms for decades. Unfortunately, this election is taking another pass on our Prop. 13 tax problem that everybody likes to complain about but nobody has the political guts to attack it. So it goes.

As schools in many neighboring counties gradually reopen and offer a model of instruction where small cohorts of students can return to the classroom, Sonoma County families may understandably wonder why that’s not yet the case here.