There’s no greater country in the world despite any real or imagined criticisms too often laid at its feet.
Welcome to the August Construction/Development issue of NorthBay biz magazine. In addition to all the local news and information, there’s some news this month regarding our fine repertoire of local columnists.
Mike Martini, who’s penned our Simply Sonoma column for the past year, will no longer be entertaining our readers with his monthly insights and observations of Sonoma County. If you know Mike, you won’t find it surprising that he’s out there in the community, with a mostly straight face, telling anyone who’ll listen that he was fired. Of course he wasn’t. Here’s the truth: He finally discovered that running his Taft Street Winery is really a full-time job that requires more of his time. Mike’s done a great job and he will be missed by all of us at the magazine. We thank him for his contributions, insightful efforts and especially for his short, but inspirational message to us all: “Drink more wine!” We plan to continue the Simply Sonoma column and will debut a new columnist soon.
Also, in more columnist news, Rich Thomas, after more than a dozen years writing for NorthBay biz magazine, has officially retired from his Vine Wise column. Rich has been a viticultural luminary in Sonoma County and nationally for more than 40 years. He started the first-ever wine program at SRJC, has been a wine expert, wine judge and has made significant contributions around the world promoting good wine practices. His honesty and inimitable style will be missed. Happy retirement, Rich!
Replacing Rich writing the Vine Wise column will be Tim Carl. Tim’s a wine star on the rise. He grew up in Napa Valley and traces his family’s grape growing roots back to the 1800s. An extremely engaging Renaissance man, Tim’s accomplishments and experience include: musician, professional chef, Ph.D. scientist, Navy veteran, entrepreneur, business consultant and vintner. (And you thought you were busy.) His impressive educational credentials include degrees from UC Davis, Harvard University, University of Colorado, University of Oregon, Boston University and Santa Rosa Junior College.
Tim’s a published business and science writer and recently completed his first novel, a fiction thriller set in Napa Valley. Please welcome Tim to our columnist corps and be prepared to enjoy his take on all that’s “wine” in the North Bay’s world-renowned Wine Country.
The 20/30 Club’s Red, White and Boom Fourth of July event at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds was outstanding, with 10,000 happy people in attendance celebrating the nation’s birthday with excellent music, food and fireworks. Attending the event got me thinking about the country, its amazing history and what it means to be an American. Apparently, no one from the small, but increasingly vocal “blame America first” folks were there, as the crowd repeatedly roared its approval during the celebration. Americans overwhelmingly are proud of their country. Sometimes it’s easy to think otherwise, as some of our leaders seem hell bent on fundamentally changing it into something it was never meant to be—something that more closely resembles the failing socialistic countries of Europe. There’s no greater country in the world despite any real or imagined criticisms too often laid at its feet.
Let’s conclude with this snippet of Independence Day history: July fourth is also the birthday of Calvin Coolidge. Born in Plymouth Notch, Vt., in 1872, he was a product of rural America. A man without pretense who embodied many of the traits common to the North Bay’s ag community—straightforward, honest and frugal. A simple approach and one that’s especially appropriate to life on the farm. His strong New England puritan values defined his character. He held great repugnance at seeing anything wasted and thought of it as a “moral wrong.” He abhorred pretension of any sort and believed that hard work, independent thinking, a sense of duty and perseverance would always carry the day. He observed: “Country life does not always have breadth, but it has depth.”
In historian Paul Johnson’s words, Coolidge was “the most internally consistent and single-minded of Presidents.” He oversaw a program of comprehensive tax reform, the reduction of the top income tax rate of 70 to 24 percent. This resulted in the removal of most Americans from the income tax rolls and, amazingly, the reduction in the size of the federal bureaucracy.
On July 4, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia with these words: “The Declaration of Independence is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created them.”
Those words, spoken 89 years ago, couldn’t be more appropriate had they been uttered today.
That’s it for now. Enjoy this month’s magazine.
