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.

Mother Earth’s message

Mother Earth is sending us messages all the time; it's something she has always done. There are times human beings receive her messages and other times, when we don't. Mother Earth, however, patiently keeps up her end of the conversation whether we're listening or not.... Continue

The horror, the horror

The defining youthful event of my generation was the war in Vietnam. For those of us who objected to that war, the horror of guns and bombs and pointless death became a cause celebré, a rallying point that captured the vitality of being eighteen and... Continue

The view from my back yard

When I gaze up into the trees from my backyard I'm always struck by the ways they grow into and towards the light. A very large red-barked Eucalyptus over nine-stories tall in my neighbor's yard dominates the sky from down below, its silver-colored leaves shimmering... Continue

The view from my backyard

Pot Shopping

My sister recently visited from New York, and was excited to see what an outlet for recreational marijuana looked like. Finding ourselves in San Francisco, we decided to drop in at Harvest, a pot shop on Geary Street near 11th Avenue. To be honest, I've... Continue

Are you being too hard on yourself?

I'm struck by how many people feel badly about themselves: thinking they're failures for not "doing enough," faulting themselves for not having accomplished anything, walking around feeling guilty. Feeling self-critical is not necessarily unhealthy, but like any activity of mind, it can move into unhealthy... Continue

The devolution of consciousness

A modern, widely-held assumption is that human consciousness has evolved for the better. When we examine the past and find patterns of belief and behavior we call "primitive", we feel self-satisfied and consider ourselves and our present culture as having progressed in comparison. It was... Continue

Mother Earth’s Hot Flash

"Whew! Is it just me, or is it hot in here?" asked Mother Earth, mostly to herself. She'd been hot before, of course, but this seemed terribly sudden. Mother Earth is no spring chicken, she's middle-aged and she's seen and done an awful lot in four... Continue

Nearing 70 but still livin’ in the 60s

The 60s changed my life, or more correctly, the 60s changed my mind. I am a member of the "love generation", that cohort of baby boomers who discovered that a sacred presence permeates all things, that words can never do it justice and that one... Continue

The Democracy Experiment

For almost the entirety of human history governmental systems have not been democratic. Though we in America like to think of Ancient Greece as the birthplace of democracy well over 2,500 years ago, even that's more fiction than fact; the Greek city-state of Athens, with... Continue