War and Peace
Never afraid to tackle controversial topics, we have some thoughts to share about the debate next week at the Sonoma City Council regarding the war in Iraq. With the Sun’s focus on local issues, we’re staying out of the national issue itself, that is, whether Bush’s war on terror/Iraq/Islam is proper or its conduct prudent. Our interest is the council’s decision to take that issue on, if indeed they choose to do so.
Any member of the council has the right, quite correctly, to place an item for discussion on the council’s agenda. We always encourage our fellow citizens to take advantage of opportunities to be heard on matters of importance. The council members, however, are under no obligation to vote on the proposed resolution.
We appreciate as much as anyone the value of a symbolic gesture. While it is probable that a majority of us in Sonoma favor an early withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, and therefore might like to see a resolution passed endorsing a change in national policy, we know that this opinion is not universally held, either in the community or, we expect, on the Council. Nor do we believe that approval of the resolution would influence the actions of either President Bush or members of Congress. We’re sure they keep an accurate pulse on national public opinion, and an advisory resolution by one city, or even hundreds, is unlikely to affect their political calculations.
What a vote by the council on this resolution can affect, though, is the council’s work locally. We venture to say the council members were not elected because of their political views on national issues or because of their affiliations with certain national political parties. Certainly, our endorsements last fall cut across those lines, being based, instead, on the candidates’ concerns about local issues, their willingness to provide local constituent service, and their vision for the future of our local community. We worry that by going out of their way now to establish national political alignments on an issue over which they do not have jurisdiction, the council members could jeopardize their ability to fulfill the responsibilities over which they do.
Our community went through a very divisive campaign for and against Measure C last spring, the $148 million property tax to build a new hospital, and frankly we’re still suffering from it. The Sonoma Valley Health Care Coalition has been a constructive force toward healing, and the community needs to pull together in the next few months to make difficult decisions about our hospital. So we urge the council to proceed with caution when the question arises on Wednesday about voting on another divisive issue.
Our advice: provide the public forum for comment, but stay away from the national war, keeping focus on the local peace.
iFriend
We appreciate the positive comments we’ve received concerning our discussion last week of the virtues of friendship. It’s since struck us that the iPod is a wonderful symbol for our times. Many of our youth keep music constantly piped into their ears, leaving them oblivious to sounds around them and isolating them from social opportunities.
Yet we also sometimes see two teens sharing the earphones of one iPod, each using one earpiece. This keeps them close to each other, sharing something immediately in common, without isolating them from other sounds and other people. In just such circumstance is friendship born.
