Opinion

Dear Mr. Edwards, I cannot conceive of a way in which you could have failed this country more grandly than you just did. You said in your interview on ABC recently that “nobody can beat up on me more than I have already beat up on myself.” Allow me to sincerely try and prove you wrong.

Some of you may already be aware of the tree-sitting protestors at UC Berkeley that are currently preventing the construction of a new athletic facility (and if you weren’t, you certainly are now). I’m here to tell you that this protest is ridiculous.

My column this week aims to salute to those people and companies that have a different, refreshing way of doing business. Recently there were murmurs of concern over the health of Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, Inc.

This column will continue my goal of talking about current events, although this week I’ll be delving into the wide world of sports.

Now that Davis is down to a chilly 92 degrees, this story may not resonate with some of you as it might have last week, but I’m telling it anyway. Walking home from the ARC, I felt like getting a cool drink.

To celebrate thisrecent July4weekend,I’m dedicating this column to random thoughts,which I suppose means I’m giving a nod to Rob Olson and consequently Thomas Sowell for the inspiration.

The UC Davis Health System will take an important stepTuesday,when smoking will finally be banned on the entire UCDHS campus. It is refreshing that a leader in local medical practices is making such a strong statement about smoking– finally.

Civil rights groups have requested that theCalifornia courts block an initiative which would renew the state’s ban on gay marriage from appearing on the November ballot. Maybe I’m alone in this,but the idea that so many people are willing to devote so much of their own time and money to fund an initiative that would take rights away from their neighbors is incomprehensible to me.Don’t they have better things to do?

The number ofherons and egrets populating the arboretum in recent years has become unmanageable; between2005and2007,the number of egrets in the arboretum has increased more than fivefold.

After 24years of dedicated service to UC Davis,Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef announcedMonday he will be stepping down at the end of next year.

I’ve written a lot of columns this year – 27, actually, including this one – and I’m proud of every damn one of ’em. Very proud. I’m proud of them because, let’s be honest, they were pretty damn good.

UC Davis and the UC system,likeSan Franciscoand dozens of other communities acrossCalifornia,includingL.A.,Fresno,Oakland,Santa Cruz,Berkeley,Palo Alto andMarinCounty have adopted the goal of Zero Waste.