Columns

It is impossible to imagine Sonoma County without its majestic redwood trees and stunning oaks. Besides giving shape and definition to our hills, valleys, ridges and rural scenery, their likenesses are etched on our county seal, town logos, highway markers, school monuments and countless commercial labels. We live in a “redwood empire” where the original people here centered their culture around acorns.

History has proven that recall elections are one of the worst facets of our representative democracy. They are almost always misdirected, often full of vengeful emotions, very costly, and, almost always ineffective. It may be a very good thing that most recall election attempts never make it to a ballot. California has had 179 attempted recall elections in the last 100 years. Only 11 have qualified for a ballot and, of those, only six have been successful, the last one notably in 2003 when Gray Davis was recalled from his governor’s post.

The staff at the library is excited to be there to help our community as we begin another school year in Healdsburg. If you are a student of any age, a teacher or a parent, we have something helpful to offer this year as we prepare for another chapter of this action-packed story of life in the 21st century.

August is usually a broiling time of year, but as I write this it’s gray and kind of drizzly outside; a welcome relief for all of us concerned with fires and drought. Fires and drought: It sounds like some biblical warning of imminent disaster. In truth, our world does seem to feel more and more like we’re living in perilous times. The likelihood of those natural disasters happening to us in any given year has grown to be an accepted reality, living here in all this splendor.

After a smoky and dry summer and a year of pandemic shutdowns, we are (mostly) sending our kids back to school. But we’re not exactly sure what we are teaching them. We have mixed lessons about wearing a facial mask. Maybe they help limit the spread of coronavirus droplets, but do mandated masks violate our personal freedoms? At the same time, there’s an ironclad prohibition that no student may walk into a school barefooted. What’s the lesson here? Is it that risking the spread of a deadly virus is less serious than exposing one’s toes?

100 years ago – August 11, 1921

There’s no use putting this off any longer; now is as good a time as any to tackle one of the most controversial topics of all. No, we’re not talking about capital punishment or global climate change; we’re talking about pie making.

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. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Return our fire services tax dollars to Fitch Mountain

The 32nd annual Summer Olympics have come to a close in Tokyo, Japan. There were moments of lifetime achievements, world records, tears and raw emotions, a few lessons about mental health and stress, transgender milestones and, overall, a surprisingly successful collection of games, competition and camaraderie — all under a cloud of a global coronavirus pandemic.