La Llorona

As a kid, I spent many Sunday nights at my grandparents Augustina and Pablo’s house with my cousins, playing the latest 45 dance records and gossiping about our classmates. Meanwhile, our parents ate donuts and drank coffee around the grey Formica table in the kitchen,... Continue

New color, new energy at Plaza Center

If you have traveled through Boyes Hot Springs recently, you may have noticed the dramatic changes happening at the Plaza Center building (often referred to as The Church Mouse building). The history of the site is fascinating. The building has been home to a public... Continue

From Eco to Echo

Having now passed the 50th anniversary of the publication of 'Silent Spring' by Rachel Carson it's tempting to feel the ecology movement she fostered has made a difference. However, in comparing its successes to its failures, I'd argue the ecology movement has been a colossal... Continue

Defining political deviance downwards

The recent CNBC Republican primary debate provided a valuable insight into the conservative mind-set. Traditional ‘reality-based’ political commentators are shocked and amazed (really, again?) that telling straight-up lies that could be fact-checked with three mouse clicks is not a disqualification from the field. Ben Carson’s... Continue

Experience, memory and time

We relate to life primarily in two ways: experience and memory. Our experience is subject to the type attention we offer at a given moment; if our attention wanders we lose track of a particular experience. For example, at a baseball game we might find... Continue

Halloween frights

Of all our holidays, Halloween is arguably the most fun, least controversial and most widely celebrated by Americans, regardless of race, creed, color, gender, sexual orientation, Democrat or Republican, natural or brazilian. Some argue Thanksgiving is more universally treasured, but that’s far from certain. For... Continue

From Homo sapiens to Homo economicus

Accumulating wealth and personal assets used to be a major cultural preoccupation. Savings accounts once were popular and dutifully depositing a portion of each week's paycheck in the bank was a common practice. The power of compounding interest would over time, it was believed, provide an... Continue

Connecting with the Carrillo Adobe

To really have a better understanding of our historic past, one must connect the dots. Sonoma’s unique history did not simply occur in a vacuum. In the early days, the success of our Mission, and later our town, was predicated on the connections we formulated... Continue

The Magic of Do-Nothing Governance

There may be a no more decorative deliberating body than Sonoma’s City Council. Its timeless, agrarian pace and capacity for indecision-making make Congress and the UN appear reckless. In recent years, governments have fallen (in Egypt, twice), the Arab Spring came and went, the Greek debt... Continue

Getting Latinos involved in education

César Chávez observed, “Once social change has begun, there is no turning back. You can’t take the education away from someone who has learned to read. You can’t continue to humiliate a person who has acquired pride.” Perhaps the greatest challenge for the Latino community... Continue

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