How vital is our language?

Judging from the recent spike of letters to the editor on the subject of language, one might  conclude that it’s an important element of our society. So how important is language to one’s culture?

Jill Bausch, in  her Nov.19 letter, “Country overrun with immigrants; ballots should only be in English,” Nov. 19, cited voting and its multiplicity of translations involved in the process of an American election. She pointed out that  the printing of voting material costs the taxpayers multiple thousands of dollars per election which, according to her, should be in the primary language of America-English.

My mother’s name was Rose.  When I started first grade I immediately became friends with twin girls, Janet and Roseann, and their mother’s name was Rose, too. We spent countless days and nights over the next 12 years hanging out at each other’s houses and we always had one Rose or another watching over us.

The twins’ mother, Rose, was born in Italy and came from a large family. Rose loved to cook for and feed the masses – grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and kids like me – who seemed to wander in and out of her home with some frequency. Every Sunday for lunch she made pepperoni pizza from scratch.

After graduation I stayed in touch with the girls and often saw them and their mom when I came home to visit my own folks. When Mom passed away in 1989, Rose was at her funeral and we’ve seen each other many, many times in the last 20-plus years.

Editor’s note: The Del Norte 4-H column appears every four weeks. Today’s column was written by Christine Jones and Valerie Machado.

Our annual soup supper and country auction was held on Nov. 5. We had a great turnout.

We would like to thank all of the businesses and individuals who helped make this year’s event a success. Special thank-yous to:  Cyndi Acosta, Lavonna Butz, Katherine Blakely, Angela Hanks, Taylor Jones, Val, Ana, Kaitlyn and Maurice Machado, Jody Marks, Darlene Merriwether, Zoee Mohr, Marci, Jon, Alex, Maudie Mae and McNeely  Olson, and Tammie Toreson.

Upcoming service project

This year Giddy Up N Goat 4-H club will continue its annual Christmas community service project of sponsoring a local family for Christmas.

From the pages of the Del Norte Triplicate, December 1941.

Three observer units will watch for aircraft for the Army on Friday through Tuesday, Dec. 12-16, under a new division set-up for speedy detection of enemy aircraft.

The work is sponsored by the Board of Supervisors, and at an organization meeting of the units at Memorial Hall on Tuesday night, Chairman J. J. McNamara of the board, and Supervisor Warren Howe endorsed the new work.

Three stations have been set up from which observations will be taken, one at Enderts Beach, one at Elk Valley, and one at The Cliff House.

You’ll be hearing a lot in the coming months about efforts to reform Del Norte schools. Meetings have been held, visits have been made to other school districts that might serve as models, and more meetings are on the horizon.

Upcoming articles will focus on where our schools and students stand in comparison to the rest of California, what types of reforms we may be looking at and the timeline for adopting and implementing them.

The newspaper’s on-line poll at triplicate.com recently sought opinions on Del Norte schools. A little over half the respondents, 353 (66.9 percent), said the schools are not doing well enough and need to be improved. The other 174 (33.1 percent) agreed with the statement that the schools are “generally doing a good job of educating our children.”

The majority of students responding to a recent survey of their own said they’d like tougher coursework and more advice regarding their vocational futures. You can read more about that in the first installment of our upcoming report on Del Norte education.

Newspaper thieves impact more than Triplicate staff

It’s a sad day when people stoop so low as to steal a newspaper.

Yes, it’s my business because it affects all of us in the cost of the paper. Every paper stolen affects the employee on pay day. A complete restructuring of the business had to be done to cut the costs of providing a paper.

I don’t like the 75-cent price any more than you do, but what to do so we can have a paper? The thieves don’t steal from the paper only, but from all of us in price increases if we are to have the news.

Former three-sport Warrior standout Rod Griffin was elected into the Del Norte High School Athletic Hall of Fame last September. Rod was a former teammate of mine.

Unfortunately, Rod passed away several years ago. Since we were unable to locate any of his family, I received the award for Rod at the induction ceremony.

 Now, as a member of the Hall of Fame committee, I am asking for help in finding a family member to present Rod’s award to. I know that after graduating from Del Norte, he went on to the University of California, Berkeley.

Yoga Bites will appear every four weeks.

The winter holidays can be exciting, magical and fun-packed.  They can also be stressful, depressing and pressure-packed.

As with everything, the only control we posses lies in our attitudes and reactions (or ideally non-reaction). We can use these challenges as opportunities to practice our yoga off the mat, and keep calm at center even in the storm of the holidays.

Take a moment to ground yourself. Sit or stand comfortably and place your palms together in front of your heart in anjali mudra as you breathe in and out slowly and consciously.  Think about the things in your life that fill you with warm fuzzies and joy – your loved ones, your pets, your home.  Turn the corners of your mouth up. We have 80 muscles in our face, and a single smile sends signals to the brain that trigger feel-good chemicals. Smiling is a mood-enhancer.

If you pay much attention to the news, you might find it difficult to be properly thankful this year.

Our community is full of tweakers that are ripping off the rest of us while the Board of Supervisors  worries about marijuana dispensaries. People who served at the community dinner last Thanksgiving may well be homeless this year, and far too many people are unemployed. On the national level ... we don’t want to go there, do we?

Nevertheless, Thanksgiving is still my favorite holiday. That could have something to do with the news sources I subscribe to. The Del Norte Triplicate and one weekly news magazine are my only sources of what passes for news these days.

In Del Norte, there are traditions to keep, and habits to break.

Thursday is Thanksgiving, and most of us will settle down to a feast of turkey and all the trimmings. It’s a holiday in which we count our blessings, and it’s only natural that it be built around food. Sustenance is the stuff of life. If we overdo the celebration a bit, oh well …

The problem is that overeating is hardly a special occasion for many of us. If adults made Thursday the exception rather than the rule, they’d set a good example for their kids and we’d all have something to be thankful for.

Del Norte got put on the map in an unfortunate way by a recent statewide report that found nearly half our children to be overweight or obese. In fact, from 2005 to 2010, our county had the highest percentage increase in overweight kids in all of California.