They say that there are some folks in this world, because of their kindness and human touch, that you can only be a stranger to but once. But they’re wrong. Or at least they didn’t know Harold Esparza, because he was one of those rare persons who didn’t know the meaning of the word stranger, which was something you could never be in his presence.

I joined hundreds of people Saturday to say goodbye to our friend. I came here seven years ago, starting up a new practice of law, after leaving Orange County and a few miles of bad road behind me. Harold was one of the first people in our courthouse to put out his hand and welcome me and tell me if there was anything I needed to ask him. I can still hear his soft voice and easy smile from that morning in 2005.

You have to know the business we do in our community at 450 H St. to appreciate what Harold Esparza and our bailiffs do. From criminal to dependency to civil to juvenile law and more, we exist daily in a system that seeks to find truth and deliver justice, but is marked as adversarial in nature, which of necessity deals with situations toxic and explosive.

Native Americans in our area should be proud of our mascot

I have been following the controversial issue of those wanting to bring back the image of a warrior head for the mascot at Del Norte High. I have read the letters for and against this issue. I find it very hard to believe that the students at Del Norte High would think of an Indian head as being a symbol portraying the Indian culture as bad or representing something that took part in our nation’s past dark history.

I graduated from a high school in another state, and our mascot was the “Indians.” I was very proud of our mascot! I know that soon after I graduated there was a nationwide push to eliminate all teams with the mascots that had anything associated with the Native American people. I was very pleased when my high school stood firm and continues to this day to have the “Indian” as its mascot.

Every time I go south on 101 and start up over the Don Clausen Highway, special memories always return. Most people remember Don as a longtime member of the U.S. Congress, but I remember  him as an athlete.

While Don was not a Warrior graduate he did wear red and white during his high school days in Ferndale. At that time those were  Del Norte’s colors as well.  Ferndale still wears red and white, and plays the Warriors.

When I first came to Crescent City while still in elementary school I would attend Crescent City Merchants baseball games and Don Clausen was the ace of the Merchants pitching staff.

From the pages of the Del Norte Triplicate, September 1942.

Del Norte County residents are still somewhat dazed aver the startling news that Japanese bombs were dropped in the hills back of Brookings; in fact there seems to be considerable  skepticism as to the authenticity of the reported attack, the first aerial bombardment of the continental United States.

The bombing took place on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 9, but news of the attack was not officially released until the following Monday. However the Western Defense Command at San Francisco has issued a communiqué on the bombing, and fragments of the bomb itself have been recovered and are now in possession of U.S. Army authorities.

This Wednesday, Oct. 3, scores of area students will join millions worldwide in celebration of International Walk to School Day.

Where children and their families can safely walk to school, they get physical activity, reduce traffic congestion and related air pollution, and engage in their community in a way that is not possible from the inside of a car.

Where walking conditions are not ideal, this annual event can be the catalyst for a community to identify opportunities to improve basic streetscape, making the neighborhood safer for all of its residents.  

Now is time to work together to resolve mascot issue

What happens next? How does our community heal itself from the vast division it suffered by the Del Norte Youth Football’s effort to “bring back the head”

The dust is settling from the Sept. 13 School Board meeting, when Board Policy 5135 (1998) reconfirmed the elimination of using an American Indian image or icon as the mascot for the Del Norte Warriors?

Starting next week, the Triplicate will adopt what is becoming the industry standard for full-size newspapers -— slightly narrower pages.

By narrowing each page by 1 inch, we’re following in the footsteps of numerous publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the flagship publication of Western Communications, the Bend Bulletin.

Some of the Bend folks will be on the North Coast early next week to ensure that all goes smoothly as we make the changes at the Crescent City offices and at our Smith River printing plant. Our sister publication, the Curry Coastal Pilot, is also making the transition next week.

Size-wise, it’s a small change, but it does entail redesign work. On the front page, promotions of inside content and weather forecasts will move from the left-hand side to elsewhere on the page. The horoscope will move from the Comics page to the classifieds. There will be other subtle changes to accommodate the new size.

President hasn’t shown any leadership in Mideast uprisings

It should cause concern for all of us that this president has not shown any leadership with the uprisings in the Mideast where a U.S. ambassador was killed, along with three other Americans.

Where has this president been? Has he met with his security council? No, he had more important places to be: on Sept. 14 he had to give an interview to the entertainment magazine People en Espanol and have a photo-op with photographer Omar Cruz, according to Breitbart reporter Warner Huston.

He did, however, attend the remains ceremony at Andrews Air force Base at 2:15 p.m., according to the presidential schedule of Sept. 14. In a Sept. 13 article by Washington Post opinion writer Marc Thiessen, the president’s schedule indicated he was to hold a security meeting on Wednesday, the day after the attack, but canceled that meeting to comfort grieving State Department employees. Rather than reschedule the Security Council meeting, Obama decided to go to Las Vegas for a fund-raising event.

Hospital regionalization awful

On my recent visit to my orthopedic surgeon, I was more aware of this recent push to “regionalize” our hospital services.

I am appalled! Hasn’t our community lost more than our fair share of medical services already?

More and more of our citizens are being forced to commute to Eureka or Medford for the services we direly need to remain local. We’ve already suffered a mass exodus of doctors and other health care professionals. Isn’t this more of the same?

Speaking from personal knowledge, the “cutting” of our medical transport bus has already made it close to impossible for me to get to the pain clinic in Arcata so that I can have a semblance of “quality of life.”

What is GMO? Many people say it means “God move over” and that’s not far from the truth.

GMO stands for genetically modified organism.

Why should we care? Because you are eating it and your children are eating it!

Scientists, along with your favorite chemical companies Monsanto and Dow have conceived a way to tamper with the very core of our food. The life force of the plants we consume have been altered to suit them.