Celebrating La Luz, Pondering Pot and Grieving Anthony Albano
We are, as most people in this Valley know, composed of two primary cultures, overlain, parallel, commingled and sometimes blended, and yet separate in ways that commonly keep us apart.
In 1985 a Colombian immigrant named Li Booker recognized the gulf between the Anglo and Latino communities, understood that to bring Latino residents into full participation in the host culture would require services not being provided, and spearheaded the creation of La Luz, an agency committed to the needs of Latino immigrants.
To understand the range of services La Luz provides requires an organization chart with more than 20 boxes and covering everything from ESL courses to parenting classes, computer training, employment counseling, child abuse prevention, food distribution, healthy nutrition and financial literacy.
La Luz is not only a bridge between two cultures, it is also a bridge to the future and a pathway to success and self-reliance for thousands of first- and second-generation citizens who are an integral and essential part of the workforce, the economy, the community and the culture of the Sonoma Valley. This year La Luz celebrates not only three decades of service to the community but also the opening of an expanded headquarters with the capacity to offer more services to more people than ever before.
We salute La Luz and invite you to learn more about it in the feature story on Page 16.
On November 8, California voters will decide whether to end decades of bad law and criminal prosecution focused on possession, use and sale of marijuana. There will be both positive and negative consequences whichever way the vote goes, and legitimate questions persist about the appropriate place for legal pot in the already overstocked pharmacopeia of America.
But it’s hard to argue that the endless war on cannabis has been anything but a dismal failure, needlessly punishing and ruining countless lives at incalculable financial expense with no tangible benefit. To gain some perspective on the issue and the Proposition that is likely to change the pot conversation, Jonah Raskin has prepared an opus beginning on page 24. Finally, while we are addressing one drug issue, we found ourselves drawn to another—the dangerous proliferation of opioid drugs in our society, many of them the product of cynical overproduction by a pharmaceutical company profiting on the addiction and death of users. The issue comes painfully close to home with the May 25 death of Anthony Albano, a beautiful, beloved, young Sonoma man who tumbled down the OxyContin rabbit hole and didn’t survive the fall. His grieving parents have agreed to share his—and their—story in hopes others will benefit from hearing it. We applaud their courage and hope their story touches everyone who reads it.
Lest anyone forget, our muse, Jack London, will be celebrated again Nov. 3, 4 and 5 at the Sonoma Community Center with a Vintage Film Festival screening some of the movies form his books. See the story on page 75 for details.
There’s all that, and a lot more inside. We hope it enriches your life.
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