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Sonoma Valley Sun Articles
 Money MattersHow to make the world a better place by buying books 8-05-10Most readers of this column understand my impatience with corporate greed. And many of you might be unaware of my excitement over corporate scale and principles put to work for the greater good of humankind. Examples keep popping up while amazi... read more… Welcome my guest: Jacqueline Jill-Rito 2-18-10For the first time, just joan is providing space today for a Guest Columnist. Confident readers will support this decision … I’m offering a piece of prose written by a friend in New York.Jacqueline Jill-Rito, a single parent and en... read more… The folly of waiting so long 12-17-09“All these bills—and others—will go before the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee for evaluation … Then, if usual Congressional practice is followed, selected features of all the proposals w... read more… Enjoy really rich conversation instead of shopping on International Buy-Nothing Day; 11-20-09Have there been conversations in your home, school, and workplace about the “real” story of the first Thanksgiving dinner more than 400 years ago? Some say we’ve based our annual celebration on an event that bears little resem... read more… She started early on a lifetime dedicated to the common good 11-13-09A particular joy in the last half of my long life has been meeting and developing nifty connections with lots and lots of utterly fabulous folks. That has certainly continued as I live in Northern California and in our incomparable city of Sono... read more… I visited her Bija, she was abroad; now she’ll be in Sonoma 10-16-09Bija Vidyapeeth, an organic farm and learning center situated in the beautiful hills of the Himalayas in northern India, was founded by Vandana Shiva as an international school of sustainable living.Bija Vidyapeeth, translated “School of ... read more… To boycott or not to boycott – what do you think? 9-25-09John Mackey is quite a guy. Business Week tells us he “has lived on a vegetarian co-op, he and his wife, Deborah, both practice meditation and yoga, and spend as much time as they can on their 720 acre ranch west of Austin, Texas. He is a ... read more… Wild Kingdom indeed – in the United States of America! 8-21-09Many of you will remember Stan Brock, often called “the original crocodile hunter.” The popular 1960s television series about wildlife conservation “Wild Kingdom” featured this handsome, talented discovery as guide and sidekic... read more… ʻYou’ll see him smilin’,’ but is he really? 6-26-09One of the opening lines in the soon-to-be-released documentary, “The Cove” is chilling: “If these fishermen could catch me, they’d kill me.” The courageous speaker, Richard O’Barry, had a significant role in expan... read more… Feel joy and love while being edified and inspired 5-01-09Some of you were swept away by the delightful Margaret Trost when she appeared in Burlingame Hall last October. Her story, documented in her deeply inspiring, quick-read book, “On That Day Everybody Ate; One Woman’s Story of Hope and Poss... read more… It’s up to you and me to demand genuine food safety 4-17-09Alarm bells have been clanging all over my in box for a month. E-mails from around the country raising fear and dread about a proposed piece of legislation. A bill with provisions sounding so draconian I wanted to believe the e-mails were hysterical ... read more… Looking for the “perfect job” isn’t even an option today 4-03-09When your resume swims into the recruiting office amidst hundreds, how likely is it to be fished out for further review? Having spent hours on the attempt to have your resume represent you well, you obviously want your work to be carefully read and t... read more… Making your resume stand out among a thousand 3-27-09This much I can say for sure – looking for a job today is nothing like it was last time I put a resume together. Oh, pshaw, it’s nothing like it was even five years ago!I use that antique interjection in consideration of the many who neve... read more… How you and I can help transform our economy 12-05-08America may be teetering on the precipice of economic disaster, but at least one visionary has been watching and making efforts to alert us to what we must do to head off disaster. It was nearly a year ago that the Praxis Peace Institute brought a... read more… How to stretch those shrinking dollars 9-11-08When prices rise and income does not, somethin’s gotta give. Today we offer suggestions of saving techniques that can create more ease with your personal budget. Consider economies in the cooking process. Can Sonoma learn from Holland? The D... read more… Food prices rising 5-29-08Have you noticed prices suddenly rising in Sonoma’s grocery stores? Readers know just joan often suggests one way to know what’s really going on in the world is to go there yourself. And once I was there myself to witness a primary sympto... read more… It matters how your money is used when it’s not in your hands 4-24-08When you put money in a bank, you expect to write checks or withdraw your money later. Most people never think about what happens to that money in the meantime, and possibly assume it’s just sitting in a vault there on the premises. Actually... read more… Sociology; the study of human behavior 4-11-08A certain sociology professor, wanting to help his students learn to behave in their own long-term interest and in terms of the planet, gives a standard class assignment: find something on campus you can change and thereby make a difference. Dorit... read more… When plastic gets spastic, disaster comes faster 1-31-08This columnist is not an economist and probably you aren’t, either. And yet we try to make some kind of sense out of the financial morass we are seeing all around us. One would think someone who served the Reagan administration as assistant... read more… A war on the middle class 10-11-07When our country was at war in the 1940s, everybody knew we were at war. We made sacrifices for “the war effort.” We walked, lest our gas allotment of three gallons a week ran out. We made do with less of rationed foods such as meat, coff... read more… In the eye of the beholder 10-04-07The President looked around at his country and declared, “I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished.” The year was 1937, the speaker Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the action: he took steps to change the picture. ... read more… |
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