RoundUp: O Canada
A salute to Canada, a local solidarity social, Sebastopol Walks 2026 schedule, and the arrest of the Wolverine man
An appreciation of our neighbor to the north
By Dale Dougherty
I like living in the country, just not this country right now.
Earlier in the week, I saw a Sebastopol house that had a poster of the Canadian flag outside. Is it a statement of support following the gathering of world leaders in Davos, a sign of respect for the one leader, the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who said aloud what other people were thinking? He said now there’s “a rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality.” This marks a return to the kind of world where—and here he quoted Thucydides, the Athenian general who wrote the history of the Peloponnesian Wars—‘The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.’”
James Fallows, a former presidential speechwriter and national correspondent for The Atlantic, writing on his Substack, called what Carney said in 17 minutes “A speech for the history books.” He wrote:
The conceptual originality of the speech was the power of the less powerful. The “great powers” had given up any pretense of self-restraint. By that Carney meant, and didn’t need to spell out, Russia, China, and the United States. It was now up to everyone else, including “middle powers” like Canada, to fend for themselves, and for their values. With many adjustments for scale, Carney was paralleling the message that democracy in the United States now depends less on its once-reliable institutions than on the millions of individuals who are now standing up, wherever and however they can.
We may not experience this “harsh reality” directly in Sebastopol, but we can see it, especially with another ICE murder in Minneapolis on Saturday. As Carney says, “middle powers” are realizing that they have “to fend for” themselves and their values. So do American citizens. He quoted Czech dissident Václav Havel, who wrote an essay called The Power of the Powerless. “The power of the less powerful starts with honesty,” said Carney.
I salute you, Canada, for standing up to the U.S. for us.
Solidarity Social today at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center
Today, Sunday, Jan. 25, at the Sebastopol Community and Cultural Center, there will be a solidarity social from 4 pm to 8 pm. Sebastopol Times reader Robin Latham tells us that the social was organized by activists from different organizations, including the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County, the Green Party and Sonoma County for Palestine. The headliner is David Rovics, a folk troubadour. There will be three bands, along with poetry reading. “The purpose of the event is for activists and concerned people to come together and have a social moment that isn’t about being on the streets and protesting,” she said. “We’ve been doing that every day, and we need to be with our allies to celebrate and support each other during these hard times.” According to the poster, funds raised at this event will go to Undocufund and Project Hope for Palestine.
Hello, fellow walkers!
The new Sebastopol Walks planning committee for 2026 consists of Stephen Zollman, Mindy Chase, and Geoffrey Skinner. The committee thanked Skinner for stepping back in from the original team, and Sarah Gurney, Simon Lowings, Gary Morgret, Richard Nichols, and Kathy Oetinger for their years of dedication to this program.
The 2026 season will feature 10 walks on the last Saturday of each month, February through November.
Tentative Walk Schedule for 2026
All walks will be the last Saturday of the month except April which will be moved due to a conflict with the Apple Blossom Festival.
Feb. 28 - Sarah Gurney/Geoffrey Skinner - “Field Trip” - History of Land Use.
March 27 - Paul Fritz - What makes a place walkable
April 18 - Shannon Marshall - Crafts Walk (TBD not confirmed)
May 23 - Brent Reed from The Laguna Foundation - Laguna Walk
June 27 - Geoffrey Skinner/Joan Schwan - Garden Walk
July 25 - Peter Schurch - Civil Engineering Walk
August 22 - Donna Pittman - History Walk - Queen Anne Homes of NW Sebastopol
Sept. 26 - Richard Nichols - Alley and Hidden Paths Walk
Oct. 24 - Neysa Hinton - iWalk iEat Local in Sebastopol Food Walk
Nov. 28 - Stephen Zollman - Nonprofit Walk
“Wolverine” man arrested on Joe Rodota Trail
The Sebastopol Fire Department reported on social media that an officer patrolling the wooded area around Joe Rodota Trail “came across a man who was wearing an illegal pair of large Wolverine-style metal knuckles.” The three blades were almost a foot long each. Apparently, possession of Wolverine knuckles is felony, but as Alexander Rose wondered on Facebook, what would happen if he had an assault rifle? The officer also found a meth pipe in his pocket. He had been “camping illegally and storing garbage a short distance” from the Laguna waterway. He was arrested and booked in the County jail.
Links to Instagram and Facebook.
Well said, Dale. I join you in saluting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his brilliant Davos speech about democracy, leadership and “value-based realism”.
Thank you for telling these stories; the rose between two thorns for the solidarity social story.
The author of a book of fiction about our times would likely be rejected as too improbable.
Our rupture, with no medics in sight…