I think the drawing says it. All I have to add is wish for peace and prosperity for my secular, humanist, progressive friends. And for my Christian friends, Merry Christmas. May the Lord bless you and keep all of you.
Hi All. After a mandatory "sabbatical," during which time I was cloistered in a monastery for cartoonists who've run afoul of local politics I'm back. A month-long diet of crow, punctuated by hourly flagellation with torn pieces of the First Amendment, has left me suitably chastened. Of course, since David Rabbit won, it was worth it. I have nothing to add to last week's cartoon. The city's infrastructure is indeed suffering thanks to the know-nothings on the City Council who - after all these years - are still unable to correlate the revenues from a robust business climate with running a city in the black.
Now that the sewer rate rollback has been put to rest for the second, and hopefully last, time, the malcontents who hang around (and populate parts of) City Hall will need another goomswoggle to waste our time and eat up precious city resources. I'm speaking of course of the inevitable special election that we'll need to fill the seventh City Council seat, once the two diametrically-opposed camps of council members have exhausted their invective and our patience with the bickering over who best to fill the "swing" seat.
Good luck to all those who won, whether I voted for you or not. Before the election you had supporters and you had opponents. Once you've won your opponents haven't changed much, but your supporters are another case entirely. If they don't get what they think you promised in about...a week...they'll start whining, back-biting, and nay-saying. Before you know it, you're former cheerleaders will be asking for your head.
Well, race fans, it's a crowded field for the upteenth running of the biannual Petaluma Freakness. Got to love the free-for-all nature of participatory democracy.
I looked at the cover of the Argus this morning and realized that the Mayor's race is getting to be as crowded as our beloved river. Though, I hasten to add, there is no credible evidence that other municipalities are dumping their excess, or discarded, mayoral candidates in this fall's race.
They say that birds of a feather flock together. Not a bad metaphor for a town that grew rich raising chickens and where many local politicians specialize in chicken s--t behavior. Apparently the Progressive, e.g., anti-growth, City Council majority want to insure that their opinions are represented on the Planning Commission through the choice of a candidate whose sole qualification seems to be a history of protesting growth of any kind. I think they need to change the commission's name to Planning Hospice - where dreams go to die.
I've known Chris Oakes for 15 years. To me, he embodies patience, humility, gentleness and a genuine compassion for people - all necessary qualities in a teacher, a tennis pro and a first rate human being. Chris hangs out his racquet at the Petaluma Valley Athletic club. I'm proud to call him my friend.
"And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there." Fireworks scare the cats, can start fires, and in the wrong hands can cost the user some fingers. They may all become illegal some day. Which is fine as long has people see them only as a frivolity. But banning them would be to ignore their historical significance. After all, we set them off - at least in part - to commemorate the words penned by Francis Scott Key as he watched the Battle of Fort McHenry from a prison ship, and to recapture the joy he felt as the flash from each explosion momentarily illuminated our tattered but undefeated flag. As a young man I served that flag and the country it stands for as so many young men and women did before me and so many have done since. The fireworks are for us, too.
I wonder if those vascular wizards up north could devise a stent to unclog the arterial blockage on 101 between Novato and Rohnert Park.