Page 28 - Sonoma County Gazette November 2018

I was going to be cute and try some three-dot journalism this month because there’s so much activity just in my own small sphere here in Sonoma, I’m exhausted just thinking about it; but the times are so intense, the cloud over the world hovers so darkly, that I doubt that even legendary three-dot columnist Herb Caen could persist in tracking the quirks of local celebrities in San Francisco as he did for almost 60 years.
Election, MAC’s, SDC Closure, Health Programs Prompt Citizen Action!
From Springs to Glen Ellen, Locals are On the Move!
A great number of decisions face Springs residents in the near future. Some are well known, but others have only recently come into focus.
Because what is happening today is some kind of bizarre nightmare, with women and children fleeing chaos in Central America portrayed as terrorists, a Saudi Washington Post journalist dismembered by the Saudis in Ankara, the Kavanaugh obscenity, Trump’s threats to dismantle the long- standing Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty (because, he said, we have so much money we can out-build anyone’s arsenal) and a young black man crossing a street in San Mateo shot with tasers and killed. I mean, how much worse can it get? Well, yes, we could see protestors hauled off to concentration camps (where they are given drugs and sexually abused, like the migrant families), we could have an actual nuclear war, and all of that and worse seems to be the direction we’re headed in.
Be certain to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 6! Cast your vote!
Make your voice heard locally, statewide, and in Washington, D.C. Everyone has heard about the candidates for Governor, U.S. Congress, and State,
who will make decisions for you right here in the Springs?
Valley Polling Locations: Altimira School (17805 Arnold Dr.), Faith Lutheran (19355 Arnold), Flowery School (17600 Sonoma Hwy.), Sonoma Springs Community Hall (18627 Sonoma Hwy.), St. Andrews Church (16290 Arnold Drive)
Unless we resist, says incisive journalist Chris Hedges, resist massively.
I don’t see that coming at the moment, do you? In this “Prozac nation,”
as Prozac patient Elizabeth Wurtzel titled her vivid memoir, where we sit watching the setting sun from the patio, sipping a glass of world class wine after an elegant lunch, a fundraiser for impoverished Latinx workers who perform the essential labor that keeps our fantasy going—in this affluent valley, only the few rise up, having given themselves permission to express their outrage.
There are serious issues before our Health Care District. Should they close the skilled nursing program? That is a program, temporary in nature, focused on rehabilitation to prepare a resident to return home. Who will we elect to the Health Care District Board? What’s their position on the skilled nursing program?
(Nice girls, you know, don’t get mad. If they do, their husbands might kill them, as Steven Rothschild did to his wife, so tormented by her nagging
-- and apparently so incapable of just walking out the door...And by the way, nice girls don’t get up in front of Congress and testify that they were attacked at a party 20 years ago by the nominee—I can barely spit this out— the nominee to the Supreme Court. I mean, who is writing the script for this dystopian horror show?)
The newest County Park – Tolay Park – is about to open. On Nov. 6 we vote (Measure M) to increase the sales tax one-eighth of a cent to increase park funding. Yes, that’s 1/8 of one penny! Voters hold the power in their hands to say Yea or Nay to improved parks. Cast your mailed ballot early! Vote at your precinct on Nov. 6!
All I can say is, the scum has risen to the top, and if we fail to see it, in this anesthetized nation, in this gorgeous county of visible affluence and invisible poverty, we won’t get the message of this historic moment which is that we have to change the way we live on this planet, or we’re all gonna die. Is that too harsh to be spoken?
Supervisor Susan Gorin recently proposed the formation of MAC’s (Municipal Advisory Councils) in Glen Ellen and the Springs. A MAC is composed of appointed local residents who alert the Board of Supervisors
of needs and ideas of the community. MAC’s exist in a variety of cities and locales across the State. A community like the Springs with more than 40,000 needs a voice to advise elected officials. Currently there is the Sonoma Valley Citizens Advisory Commission composed of city and valley representatives that primarily reviews development proposals before they go to the Planning Department. A MAC would bring new ideas and proposals to the Supervisors.
Time to Sign Up for Affordable Health Care! The Sonoma Valley Health Center sponsored a day recently devoted to informing people that the open enrollment period for the Affordable Health Care Program (Covered California) is from now through January 15, 2019. According to Mari-Carmen Reyes first time enrollees must pick a plan by Dec. 15, 2018. “Plans selected on or after 12/16/18 through 1/15/19 would begin coverage Feb. 1, 2019.”
On New Years Eve it won’t all be “Huzzah! Hats off Boys and Girls!” Year’s end marks the closure of the Sonoma Developmental Center. What is to become of this precious Valley property? By now we should know if the Board of Supervisors took action in late October to continue negotiations with the State over the future of the SDC property. It is inconceivable the Board would walk away from working to keep SDC under County control.
It appears Hamburger West To Open! Ten months ago we reported that West-Handmade Burgers would open soon. Recently the building at 18375 Highway 12 has been painted and there is an ABC sign in the window foretelling the sale of alcoholic beverages. What’s happening? We asked the carpenters remodeling the rooms and they predicted burgers would be served in a month! We shall see.
At least the bubbles of long-cherished fictions have finally popped. The view, for example, that we are all sinners, based on our interpretation of a Bible story in which a talking snake tempted Eve to eat an apple, plunging humanity into ignorance and demonstrating irrevocably that women are the weaker sex.
If someone told you this story today, you would tell him to get back on his meds, yet this tale of original sin and the weakness of women has pervaded our culture for thousands of years. Now when we picture athletic 17-year old Brett Kavanaugh crushing Christine Ford under his hulking body and laughing hysterically all the while, we say yes, boys will be boys, and the fault is hers.
Sonoma Developmental Center Closures Looms Large!
If this doesn’t make sense to you, don’t blame me. This is the illogic that has underlain our moral edifice forever. And as Buddhist nun Pema Chodrun points out, it’s only in the West that people constantly tell themselves how bad they are. We’ve been imbued with it, the sin we were born with.
In addition, the County was to develop a land use planning strategy and adopt a comprehensive economic development strategy for the SDC properties. Hopefully, as you read this column we will have positive answers to these questions. Time is running out. Citizens have been forthright in their demands for maintaining local control of the SDC for at least two years. New Year’s Eve is just around the corner. Will it be a time for popping a cork or crying, “Bah Humbug?”
So what is the answer? Not sure I can provide it in the space that remains.
But one thing I know for sure: it starts with two words. Wake up.
Give up those Epicurean pleasures for a decade or two. Discourage tourism
with its noise and gas fumes (GHGs). Grow food. Pay attention.
The world may fall apart completely. That could happen. But we, huddled
together under the beautiful trees, sharing our lettuces and home-baked bread, we will survive. And a phoenix will rise from those ashes.
28 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 11/18
School Board Reps are to be elected for the Sonoma Valley Unified School District and the Santa Rosa J.C. Who will be the best representative for your child or grandchild? Water rates up or down? New pumping facilities? Who will best govern the Water Board?
Municipal Advisory Councils Proposed By Supervisor Gorin