“All politics is local,” so said some astute person. We definitely had local politics here in Sierra County with the judge’s race. Lots of signs and lots of letters to the editor, particularly detailing political parties. In the culture and the filing for office, the judgeship up for vote has not been partisan. The candidates do not say for the ballot whether they are a Democrat or a Republican. Republicans definitely wanted our basically Red (Republican) County to know which candidate was a Republican. It became one of his attributes. All other judge races I have known over the years here never spoke of whether a candidate was one or the other, on either side. It has been comforting, if not totally an acknowledged part of non-partisan offices, that those offices were just that — non-partisan. Almost all of our voted county offices are listed as non-partisan. The heat is high enough for partisanship that it has reached Sierra County.As this citizen’s view

I come with high praise for The Mountain Messenger, or the “Mess”, as many of us know it and have known it for decades. It lives, which is a kind of miracle of its own. Many a grand old publication has gone the way of fish wrapping. The Mess is still around to be used as such. Now why the praise for surviving? There are many parts, moving and yet foundational, that contribute to this.Does it have a publisher? Yes, Carl Butz literally rescued the paper when it had nowhere else to go. It seemed it would be his hobby. He had no grand ideas. He would continue the local paper.Does it have an editor and young blood in reporting and feature writing willing to do the job just because it seemed an interesting thing to do? Yes, Carl brought Angela and Ryan on board and mentored them. They are now paid. He already had a stable of people willing to write for free.Is there an advertising base, because subscriptions are never enough to keep a print afloat? Yes, the two counties now using

Dictator for a DayWe have a New Year, although it seems there is a strong need to look to the past year and sometimes further back. We all do it.We look back before we look forward. I remember “Queen for a Day”. The winning “queen” got a washing machine and all kinds of household goodies. Donald J. Trump says “when” he is elected POTUS he “will be dictator for a day”. He was quite adamant about that. All those who have known Donald J. Trump and not been loyal have said with greater and greater urgency that he will do what he says. I know it is quite different for him to be a king rather than queen. He will wield all the power at hand. He learned from his previous 4 years as POTUS where all the levers are and that he must appoint loyalists and no others. Those political organizations that espouse “freedom”, in the same understanding as Donald Trump, have made precise plans as to what “freedom” is.There is also conse

“I am an optimist who worries,” so said [Madeleine] Albright when she was asked whether she was an optimist or a pessimist. How I identify with that statement. My family has accused me of being the perpetual worrier. (I was also labeled by my father as a Pollyanna… Maybe Anne with an E today.) Now the book that confirms that worry is the mild term for the “Time and Water” both of which are running out. Andri Snaer Magnason is amazed, as am I, that the dire situation we are in is taken so apathetically. If we are readers, we have read more than a few news items of dying life in various parts of the world: centuries old cacti, coral that is a living habitat for other ocean life species both large and small in size, our own species unable to tolerate the climbing heat and the ill health it brings. Of course, the list goes on. But, moaning, complaining, or worse taking it all in stride with an attitude that “Everything Works Out in the End,” I wil

It seemed Kevin Kiley did not have Congressional duties to perform, so he put in his oar on Governor Newsom’s two particular laws signed over two weekends ago.Kevin Kiley was an educator before becoming the Congressman for California District 3, Sierra County’s district for Congress. I have a different view as an educator from what the Congressman put forth. For one thing, students are portrayed in a very negative light, with the Congressman saying that, “Students are now free to talk back, disobey instructions and otherwise cause chaos in the classroom”. This is a blanket accusation of students behavior and the skills of teachers who teach in said classrooms. And, “It will make it harder to recruit teachers and further erode the quality of education in California”.Keeping up with what really is a block to recruiting and retaining teachers is the support system and tax structure that allows rich districts with money to pay living wages (without the t

In my first “This Citizen’s View” writing, I jumped right into the deep end. My premise to even be so bold as to write monthly with my thoughts is to have others engage in some way with what is, to my mind, important thinking and discussion. The things I think important to discuss will come in the next columns. I appreciate the opportunity from the Mountain Messenger Team. We are all citizens. We may claim citizenship in the more local or the more global of contexts. It all relates back to our place and our connections. We are so very fortunate, as is said many times over in this most fortunate of print papers, to be here and to come, come back and go out from here, Sierra County, the Sierra-Nevada Mountain Range. Our experiences are unique and shared but also diverse. This is what I hope to explore here.One of the things that I think about is how those who have grown up here have gone out from here. Folks younger than myself, schooled in the ways of Sierra County by

Our human events seem to get exponentially faster for us personally as age advances. It feels that, as slow as it seems problems are solved, more problems pile up behind at a sonic boom level. Feet have given way to animals bearing us across land to human-made vehicles, and then into the air.It is tempting to take the short cut when traveling. Short cuts have their purpose. Maybe we will reach our goal more quickly. Or, there will be unforeseen barriers. We may not be familiar already with the terrain. So, we put a certain amount of trust in guides, who know the territory. More and more, it is electronic, A-I types of tools we use for our movements. Gone is the paper map with creases and tears. It may not be an up-to-date map. Those roads are changing all the time with rerouting and closures. The guide is now Google maps which has its own troubles keeping up. It has improved, as we experienced on a long trip up the west coast to Canada. We still had our share of turn-around maneuvers.T