As much as we love all the seasons here in Sonoma, autumn is perhaps our favorite: the bitter and sweet smells of crush, the changing palette of trees and vines, the crisp chill in the air, the hustle of harvest and the bustle of children off to school… (Actually, school now starts in August, in the summer heat, so we’ll have to modify that memory a little.)
Of course, there’s the time change (“fall back”) and the freshly dark evening of Halloween. As we get older, we worry more about safety than about how many tiny Snickers we can consume undetected. Among the many aspects of Sonoma that we appreciate is the patience shown by local drivers, especially on this night of the year, to protect our community’s children.
A new autumn event we’ve come to anticipate, and appreciate, is the Charles Schwab Cup PGA Champions Tour finale. Played at the Sonoma National Golf Course, it brings big-name players (and business) to town, and it also showcases Sonoma to television viewers nationwide. Congratulations to James Thorpe on another victory!
And every two years, autumn brings elections, a process we also enjoy. Where else in the world can such open competitions take place? Representative government certainly can be contentious, but from this free market of ideas comes governance that we citizens choose, ourselves. We’re thankful to live under such a system, and we here at the Sun strive to bring you reliable, relevant information to help you make your decisions.
We particularly commend those of our neighbors who have stepped forward to offer themselves in service to our community. Every one is to be thanked. It takes dedication, often with little or no reward, to serve as an elected representative. Even locally, our public servants toil largely out of sight; though they conduct their meetings in public, few citizens ever attend. CommonBond Foundation, lead by one of our Editorial Board members, is working to make local government more accessible and more transparent, and we look forward to news soon of that effort.
But now, readers, be sure next Tuesday to go VOTE! It doesn’t matter whether you agree with our editorial opinions or not. What matters is that you make the effort to form your own opinions about the candidates and the issues, and then that you make the effort to record those opinions. Your vote can make a difference, if you use it.
Autumn – indeed, a splendid time to experience life in Sonoma.
