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Opinion
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- Written by: Bob Bridges
Time is running out to file your protest to protect yourself from Lakeport’s proposed 100-percent water and sewer rate increase.
It must be filed by Sept. 18, 2012.
The proposed rate increase will change Lakeport as you know it. Gone will be green lawns and backyard gardens. More businesses will have to fold up. We will become a brown and dying city with a huge debt.
Tell the City Council we cannot afford their big plans in these tough times.
File your protest now. Tell the city, “I protest the proposed water and sewer rate increase.” Don’t let the city’s misleading notice trick you into thinking you can’t protest both.
Thank you to everyone who has already protested. Together we can do this!
Bob Bridges lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Annelle Durham
It was when we started Clover Creek Family Farm that I learned firsthand the unifying effect of food.
Through our Community Supported Agriculture program we delivered farm fresh produce to over 90 households in Lake County for 10 years. These included people from all walks of life, the very religious to the not at all, the political right to the political left, the well to do and the barely making it, even to the communards and the survivalists.
The commonality was food, in this case, locally grown organic fruits and vegetables.
Prop 37, which will be on the ballot this November, is about food and labeling. It is not about good or bad, but just about transparency in labeling.
It is about you and me, our neighbors, our co-workers and our children all having the right to know what we are eating.
The opposition to Prop 37 has already collected more than $25 million in an attempt to keep us in the dark.
Let’s come together, and remember that we, the people, not the corporations, eat the food, and that we have the right to know if it is genetically engineered.
Vote yes on proposition 37 for the labeling of genetically engineered foods.
Annelle Durham lives in Upper Lake, Calif.
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- Written by: Dave Gebhard
Upper Lake High School is doing wonderful things for students.
They have received a grant for sustainable farming and green technology and are incorporating it into its curriculum. That will greatly enhance a student’s employment opportunities.
But there is a definite need for automotive technology and home economics. Lack of money is at the root of the problem, as the state does not prioritize either of these subjects.
If we decide to enhance our young people’s knowledge in these important areas, we need angels to donate whatever they can afford.
Only a grassroots effort can make these programs happen, as the government cannot even pave our roads, much less train our young people to fix our cars, or teach future adults to safely make a casserole.
Alumni are instrumental in today’s educational market; after all, children are our responsibility, not the governments.
Am I the only one who feels trained mechanics and cooks are important?
We need to involve or engage more children in programs they might adopt as their own.
These kinds of classes may be all it takes to keep them in school and give them viable careers!
Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Randy Ridgel
In a recent letter, Nelson Strasser brooded because he is 69 and worrying about his life and soul. There is no hope unless he renounces the sins of liberal Democrats.
One night standing mid-watch aboard a submarine in Pearl Harbor I gazed at stars and wondered where the universe ended. I spent the next year reading every philosophy book in Honolulu. When finished, I was no longer a Christian but a liberal Democrat.
For years I reveled in fighting, philandering and fornicating. I was cured when I fell in love with a disgustingly honest Christian teenager named Jackie, near Los Angeles, and became a conservative Republican. Soon after I met her I carved two hearts on a tree with our initials. She laughed and apprised me that eucalyptus trees shed their bark every year.
In twilight at the corner of Bellflower and Imperial Highway, I proposed on my knees with the silhouette of a picturesque mountain in the distance. She replied, “Of course I will, you fool; get back in the car.”
Later she told me we were across the street from Red Star Fertilizer and the silhouette was a hill of manure.
She became a July bride in Long Beach Navy Chapel because I was aboard a submarine in Scotland in June. A week after we were married the chapel was bulldozed and replaced with an office building. At the reception, her relatives eyed that beautiful girl and a dumb submarine sailor and gave the marriage six months max.
We embarked honeymooning through Yosemite, Yellowstone, Niagara Falls and the Sub base in Connecticut. In those days a girl usually got married before having children. I believe I married the last virgin in California. However, by the time we reached Connecticut she had the hang of it.
I married her from love at first sight. She said she married me to abandon her drunken father.
Now we’ve been married 57 years and she is still disgustingly honest. Recently we bought a plot for the two of us to share in the oldest part of Kelseyville Cemetery where you can have any kind of headstone you want.
We each wrote what we wanted engraved on our headstone. I wrote, “Jackie isn’t it comforting to know we will share eternity together?” Later I peeked at what she wrote for her headstone: “Randy, I’m not here. I found someone younger and richer. Look me up when you finish with eternity.”
Nelson, save yourself; become an honest Republican. I’m nearly 82 and life is a blast.
Randy Ridgel lives in Kelseyville, Calif.