Letters to the Index-Tribune editor, Oct. 21, 2022

Winders for school board

EDITOR: Power never concedes easily. Especially in a small town where alliance and allegiance mingle with wine and wealth, events and fundraisers, boards and foundations, and plain old cliques.

Celeste Winders is running for Sonoma Valley Unified School District Board Area 2 Trustee. She has been speaking truth to power, to an inequitable system for almost a decade. First as a parent, then an advocate, and now a candidate.

The school district receives money to educate our children, and is mandated by the state and federal departments of education to uphold their civil rights. But it has a horrible record of not doing that. There are reports of this district using lawyers to threaten parents who seek special education services that their children need, and are legally entitled to have. A history of looking the other way when children are targeted by racial harassment and discrimination; allowing a generational education gap between white and Latine students. It struggles with providing language justice for English language learning families; has obscured how funds are allocated and used; is implicated in the school to prison pipeline. It has problems with transparency, equity and accountability; and retaliation against teachers and administrators who speak up about it.

One of the oldest gaslighting techniques used against women who speak truth to power is to say that we are "mean.”

Ms. Winders, herself a former SVUSD student, has attended every school board meeting for eight years, is a COPAA certified special education advocate, and co-founded Save Your VI, an organization dedicated to upholding Title VI civil rights protections for students of protected classes.

So I have a question: isn't it super "mean" to uphold policies that harm children, reduce and derail their educational trajectory, and are non compliant with state and federal education mandates?

Or is it just "mean" to tell the truth about this and fight for the rights of children?

It's not easy to be the one who will speak out and rock the boat. But it is how you truly serve children, who should matter most of all in this election. I'm voting for Celeste Winders for SVUSD Board Area 2 Trustee and I invite you to join me.

Dmitra Smith

Sonoma

Vote thoughtfully

EDITOR: I attended the Sonoma Council Forum Oct. 10 at the Sonoma Community Center. The forum was very interesting and informative, thank you Index-Tribune, Sonoma Valley Chamber and KSVY. It was helpful to hear the candidates focus on their issues, focus and approach should they be elected to Sonoma City Council. Unfortunately in a forum such as this there was no time to explore the public service experience identified by each candidate. So, it is left to us, the voting public, to ask questions and evaluate each candidates public service background and experience outlined during the forum.

Ron Wellandar suggested that his experience on the Design Review Commission and Planning Commission was valuable for council. Voters should look at Mr. Wellandar’s work on both the Design and Planning Commissions over the past years to understand if his work and the commission’s performance was effective and aligns with community values, or not. Mike Nugent identified his tenure at the Sonoma Valley Hospital board, so a similar set of questions should be used with respect to his performance. John Gurley outlined his experience as former chief of police for Sonoma and his tenure at the Sonoma Community Center. Patricia Farrar-Rivas outlined her experience on the board of the Sonoma Ecology Center, the board of 18 Reasons along with her work at the Sonoma Developmental Center. Mr. Deegan did not outline past experience serving the Sonoma community, which raises another set of questions voters should contemplate regarding his candidacy.

As we have seen over the past several years, elections have consequences. I hope the voters of Sonoma ask themselves and others who will represent our community values in the broadest sense, not only representing the east side or west side or business owners, but the entire Sonoma Valley. We have a truly unique opportunity to reset our City Council and I hope everyone votes focusing on candidates who will truly represent our broad community needs and values and not just represent a narrow constituency.

Sinjin Bain

Sonoma

Smells of fall

EDITOR: Mid-October the Sonoma Valley is full of magnificent smells. There's the smell of bread from the local bakeries. There's the wonderful bouquet of the musk from freshly pressed grapes in the vineyards.

There's the pungent fragrance of marijuana from the local growers.

The smell of baking bread on the cold morning air is probably one of the great fragrances of all time. I like to visit with the bakers. They're hard-working people who take great pride in their art. There's nothing like fresh pastry and the smell of coffee. Another day in paradise.

Winemaking has that magnificent scent that accompanies many great memories. The vineyards in the Valley smell like a grand wine cellar. The scent brings back all those memories of great dinners, wonderful company and magnificent wines. Wines that deserve to be paired with great cheeses. Fortunately our Valley has great cheeses. The smell of the musk in the vineyard is enough to make you start planning dinner and thinking about who you would like to entertain.

The Valley has also become home to magnificent crops of the cannabis. The scents of which you can enjoy as you drive across the Valley floor. This magical perfume wafts into your car as you travel. Indeed cannabis has a flavor profile that like a good wine or a fine cheese deserves contemplation and reflection.

October in the Sonoma Valley is filled with magnificent fragrances and you need to stop and smell the flowers. I experienced these fragrances and then I caught a wiff of a skunk. The smell of the skunk is probably one of my earliest childhood memories. So I took a deep hit. Yep that's skunk aright. Man that's good skunk. Not good enough to make your eyes water but still good skunk.

Eric Heine

Glen Ellen