Public Citizen

Larry Barnett lives in Sonoma where he was elected to three terms on the City Council and served twice as Mayor. A thirty-five-year resident, he currently serves on Sonoma's Planning Commission, where he recently was Chair for two years. Until her passing, he was married to his wife Norma for 50 years, has two daughters and three grandchildren.

Hating the haters

One of the toughest things about haters is hating them, finding yourself wrapped up in fear and anger you so dislike seeing in others. This, of course, is an experience haters never have; to be a hater requires setting aside introspection and appreciation of complexity.... Continue

I’m afraid of the big bad wolf

I happened upon an interview the other day between Chuck Todd and Chad Wolf on NBC's Meet the Press. Wolf is the Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, although even that job designation is in question now that an ethics committee has found... Continue

The performance of cruelty

Well, now we know, if we didn’t know it already: this country has been since its inception and continues to be a racist society. That, for some of us, may be very hard to bear. But we are also learning, since the ascension of Donald... Continue

Hairballs gone wild

Social solidarity hasn’t vanished in Sonoma during this butt-kicking pandemic. We share hardships and we care. All of us are challenged at this time with the entire globe off its axis. If I wash my hands one more time I’ll wonder if I’ve gone completely... Continue

Re-design the police

Let’s give props where they are due. The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors (BOS) seems to have accurately read the will of their constituents, who have been deeply impacted by the public action and education around the Black Lives Matter movement. The Board made a... Continue

The elm tree out front was already 100 years old

Chapter 4: 104 Green Street -- A long linoleum hall led to the staircase and wood banister that the kids rode halfway to the bottom when our parents weren’t in sight. I got down the stairs by falling. In the living room, white antimacassars and... Continue

Shih the hermit

The story goes that very long ago, a hermit lived in sacred mountains, a Buddhist monk named Shih. Now, even hermits do not live entirely alone; they depend upon the generosity and support of a small community of others, and so it was that when... Continue

Breaking down the latest federal Covid-19 relief plan

The President on August 8 signed four executive actions providing additional COVID-19 relief. According to Spidell Publishing, an educational resource for tax professionals, the three memorandums and one executive order do the following: Direct the Secretary of the Treasury to use his authority to defer... Continue

In the bomb’s fiery glare

This week commemorates the 75th anniversary of an event that shook the world and changed the course of history: the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although it has long been claimed that the bomb ended the war, the work of a... Continue

The joy of chronic illness

The way TV commercials tell it, being chronically ill is nothin' but fun! Diabetes, COPD, Heart Failure, Atrial Fib, Plaque Psoriasis, Eczema, HIV...with the right pharmaceuticals every illness can be, well, wonderful. Interestingly, all the people in these ads appear to be pretty well off,... Continue

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