Opinion

When the American Constitution was adopted only white male property owners had the right to vote.

Over the past couple of centuries a number of requirements have fallen away — including religious tests, property ownership requirements, poll taxes and literacy tests. And new rights for several formerly disenfranchised groups have been granted — including women’s suffrage, citizenship for former slaves and Native Americans and the right of 18-year-olds to vote. Of course, several constitutional amendments (15th, 19th, 24th and 26th) were necessary to accomplish this nearly universal suffrage for all American citizens.

Anonymity. I can’t say it’s surprising what some people will say or write when they know their names will never be used, when their identities will remain secret.

So it was little surprise when I read online at plumasnews.com the snide comments about the county auditor last week. I’d heard the grumbles before, even way over here on the other side of Mount Hough.

So it will be with interest I hear about the maneuvers and job changes at the county level. I’ll have to put my long ears on again, but eh, it’s good to shake the dust off ’em once in a while.

When Michelle told her 6-year-old son she was going to be interviewed for this article, he said, “You’re a star, Mom!” This is an accurate description of Michelle. She is a “star,” in the sense that she is much like an “entity in the darkness that generates its own light, fixed in place by gravitational forces.” In Michelle’s case, the gravitational forces in her life are her four children, ranging from age 5 to 8. “I did it for them,” she says, “and I want others who are struggling to know that this way of life is so much better!”

My Turn

At 10:26 p.m. I breathed a sigh of relief. The school board members, who had been in closed session for more than two hours, were filing into the room. Finally, they would make an announcement, probably that “no action was taken,” and we would move on to the second meeting planned for the night.

But I was wrong. Instead, the board approved a motion to extend the meeting past its mandated 10:30 end time, and exited the room to return to closed session. I looked around the Portola High School library, where only a few people remained last Tuesday night — former school board member Jonathan Kusel, a couple from Indian Valley, Portola High School principal Kristy Warren and a handful of school district employees.