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Opinion
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- Written by: Phil Smoley
McDonald's should not have been singled out on the obesity question. It could have made the same point by using “fast foods” in place of a specific company. Whoever wrote that question was not thinking clearly, or worked for Burger King. In the case of our local pageant, the question was all the more inappropriate since one of the major sponsors is our local McDonald's.
Many will remember the treatment of Miss California in the Miss USA Pageant in 2009. She articulated her position very well, yet that may have cost her the crown, in addition to vile attacks from some who did not agree with her, including from one of the judges.
People are supposed to judge the contestant on how well they articulate their position and not on whether one agrees or disagrees with the answer.
But by including these type of questions, it invites personal prejudices to cloud objectivity, and it’s unfair to the contestant stuck with that question. Not everyone can put personal prejudices aside to remain objective.
The questions themselves are not chosen by the local pageant. The organizers were just as surprised as everyone else when the questions were asked.
The questions come to the local pageant from the state pageant and are sealed to prevent questions from being leaked. Thus, it is misplaced criticism to blame the local pageant for the choice of questions.
The local volunteers who poured their hearts and souls into making our local pageant a success do not deserve to be unfairly blamed for these silly questions.
Because it is these types of questions that the contestants may face at the higher levels, it is not wise to attempt to shield them from these controversial questions. What good is sending one our girls to the next level if they are not able to respond to this type of question?
It would be a travesty for the local pageant to attempt to shield the contestants from these questions locally knowing full well they will be sending the winner on to an environment where they will be faced with answering them.
Unless it gets changed from the top, the only option is to do away with the local pageant, which is not a viable option.
In my opinion, the contestants who drew the controversial questions handled them very well, taking a lemon and turning it into lemonade.
Even though I did not personally agree with their answers, I felt that they articulated their answer, maintained their poise and kept smiling, a difficult thing to do when having to answer a divisive question in front of a large crowd.
I believe the experience will make them stronger candidates in the future, and it gave the ultimate winner a taste of what she may face at the state level.
Aside from dragging on a bit long, and a few small snafus that are common at any volunteer run event, my impression of this year’s pageant was nothing less than amazing. Every girl did great, and the little princesses were a hoot.
The hard work and dedication by the volunteers that put it on was evident throughout, and Lake County should be proud of its pageant. They all deserve our highest praise and thanks.
Phil Smoley lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Daniel Chadwick
This small group of people just put out of business five companies that have been operating for over two years.
The right for one zone to have C2 commercial zoning but not the other zones is a clear attempt for a supervisor to use his power to move his agenda forward instead of listening to their entire group of voters. They voted with the 400 who constantly pound their phone and emails.
So what just happened is the chamber of commerce just got exactly what they wanted so the 400 from their group just stomped on the other 65,000 voters.
Is this justice or a clear example that there are a few supervisors that must be voted out?
We need some help to get the word out. We will not settle for this we. Will get enough registered voters to repeal this with a legal petition signed by enough registered voters to repeal it.
Also we will start a campaign to show that Supervisor Jim Comstock does not care that 21 business owners signed my petition that stated they don't want us to move; in fact, they want us to stay and continue to bring people and money to the other local businesses.
I believe if a supervisor goes against what the local voters want and against what local businesses want he should step down as they are not doing what they were voted in to do.
Daniel Chadwick runs the H2C medical marijuana dispensary in Middletown, Calif.
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- Written by: Dave Gebhard
An out-of-the box solution is to give a super stimulus, a set amount to seniors who are willing to retire. Two hundred thousand dollars would do. This would accomplish vacating thousands of jobs for young people, give an infusion of fresh capital into the economy, allow huge income and luxury taxes to flow into the treasury, and provide an avenue for homeowners to pay their boated home loans.
Perhaps we could also give most adult tax-paying citizens the opportunity, to get their share of this bounty in a revolving manner, so people would keep their jobs.
Can you imagine poor people spending money on clothes, vacations, homes and Detroit cars? It would not last long, but nobody could say that there is no future in this country. And the money would circulate back into the economy.
Rugged individualism is a fine axiom, but no man is an island, we need to live with everyone. I do not know about you, but I do not want to live behind walled-in compounds, I saw enough of them in Vietnam.
Instead of riots, we might see excesses by paupers, suddenly rich, but the money would not be going to Cayman Island accounts. It would be fueling our economy and tax base, paying for itself, in perpetuity so to speak.
Spending, credit and job creation need a good ol' kick-start. What if we gave all those on welfare $200,000 if they gave up welfare for at least a year? I know, some might be back on welfare the following year, but they would put this “super stimulus” right back into the economy. We need spenders, but they have to possess money to spend.
Outrageous, yes, but we need looser credit, a way out of the housing disaster and a fresh infusion of money into the economy.
Borrowing from China is not the answer. We pay interest on debts, and sooner or later it will climb so high we cannot afford to pay it.
It cannot climb indefinitely without reaching critical mass. Whereas, investing into our own economy and people would make an investment in our own citizens, with no interest demands.
It would also involve all our citizens in our economy, allowing people to share in our bounty who never dreamed of being part of it.
Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Bill and Carol Kenner
On May 23 our son, Brian, suffered a traumatic brain injury and was flown by REACH to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
After brain surgery and being in an induced coma for eight days he is now home.
On June 18 a fundraiser was held at Terrace Middle School.
We would like to give a big thanks to the ladies who came up with this idea – Jodie Maize, Jennifer Taylor, Crystal Martin and Jodi Howe.
They recruited many other friends, family, businesses, and law enforcement to make this happen. The results were beyond our dreams.
Countless hours were spent organizing. Everything was donated by the community, live and silent auction items, food by McDonald's, Lakeview Market, Lakeport Grocery Outlet and Lakeport Unified along with the facility, plus a surprise landing of REACH with the crew that flew our son out the day of the accident.
What a wonderful place we live! e will forever be grateful.
Bill and Carol Kenner live in Lakeport, Calif.