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Opinion
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- Written by: Eric Schlange
The Cardinals came back from a 15-0 deficit against a hard-hitting team, tying the score at the last minute then winning in extra innings. The Record-Bee gave the game a big article, but even that couldn’t do it justice. I’m telling you folks, it was the best high school sports game I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen quite a few. I yelled myself hoarse!
The Cardinals were undefeated going into the game, so they were defending their record – while the Eagles, already with loss(es?) under their belt, were playing like they had nothing to lose.
It was a difficult game for the Cardinals, both mentally and physically. But the girls were tough, getting on base and scoring runs like nobody’s business once they got started.
Pitcher Emily Wingler showed a lot of toughness, going the distance and pitching the whole game after being down by 15 and getting whacked in the head with a line drive (which she caught).
Longtime Cards coach Gary Pickle deserves a lot of praise and respect, not just for this particular game, but for his tireless work coaching these girls. This guy is a gift to Cardinal athletics ... the John Wooden of high school softball, always able to field a top-tier team because of his wisdom and hard work coaching year in and year out. His coaching staff, of course, is also to be commended.
Not to degrade other local schools, or even the CLHS baseball, football, basketball and other programs … but it's my opinion that other high school games around here are rarely as exciting as Cardinal softball. Plus, I like knowing that when I show up for Cardinal softball, chances are my Cards are going to win, so I’ll go away happy!
If you’ve never attended a Cardinal softball game, you really should try it. No ticket charge, ample parking next to the field, great fans, and open bleacher seating (or bring your own chair). It’s a wonderful small-town experience for the whole family.
Thanks, CLHS softball, for making this Cardinal proud!
Eric Schlange lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Marc Chalon Spillman
The comment thread should have been about rape or teen abuse, but instead it broke down into free speech, racism and worse.
The extreme Left and Right – you scream the loudest and pull EVERY issue, as fast as possible, to your
far side.
The majority of people around you are Moderates (leaning conservatively) and they have the perspective and intelligence to swing where the pendulum needs to go.
If you look at the “Gallup Poll” for the last 18 years, both “very conservative” and “very liberal”
COMBINED make up less than 15 percent of the American population.
I am a conservative moderate and I feel I’m part of a very large majority, of reasonable people, in this country. Maybe it’s time we screamed!
It’s most definitely time to look hard at the two broken main parties that these small but extreme ends of America ride politically.
Who out there feels that both main parties spend the vast majority of their time, energy and resources on making the other party look bad – instead of just doing the job they were elected to do?
I vote, but have not cast a vote for a Republican or a Democrat in many years.
How’s that working for you, Marc? I’m going to stick to it. I have left positions blank. I am mainstream America and I will not vote for the lesser of two evils. How easy that saying rolls off of most people’s tongues.
How about a choice on the ballot for “none of the above” – if it gets the majority – all parties go back to rethink the candidates they’re putting forward.
Can’t do that – what if the position goes unfilled? We might, without the partisan fighting, find most political positions are really only part-time spots.
So bring it on, you 14 percent very Left and very Right combined, I can take you. My ideological
group is bigger and our vision is better.
My hope is that someday the moderates find both a voice and a vehicle and quit just bouncing between the two lost and polarized parties.
Marc Chalon Spillman lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
It's always the young to fall.”
– Phil Ochs
I spent the past week in Los Angeles with my 18-month-old grandson. It was a pleasure to tickle him and make him laugh his infectious laugh.
It was also stressful, being on duty every single moment: “Hold hands when we cross the street.” “Don’t pet the pit bull.” And, I was reminded how much work goes into raising a human child. How much love. How much sacrifice.
I came home and watched the first part of “Restrepo.” It is a documentary about young American soldiers stationed on a base in Afghanistan.
They take enemy fire every day. Sometimes the enemy bullets hit their mark, and someone’s son dies. The soldiers traipse through villages whose language and culture are unknown to them.
In one village, they ask, through a translator, for help in their battle with the Taliban. The villagers complain about civilian deaths, and the officer in charge tells them that starting now there will be a clean slate. Things will be done differently. The villagers seemed unconvinced.
Nazi Germany notwithstanding, it is hard to find a justification for any of our undeclared wars. There is no reason for any of these wars that can satisfy an American conscience.
So, ultimately, these young soldiers, glued together only by camaraderie, are fighting for each other. They need to come home and get out of harm’s way and not fight at all.
Polls show that the majority of the American people don’t see that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worth fighting.
Many voted for Obama because he said that things would be different. He led us to believe that he would end the wars, and surely not start more of them. And yet these wars drag on year after year as we continue to send the young to die (and to kill).
On the flight coming home, the steward announced that there was a passenger on board who was a member of the armed forces and thanked him for his service. Everyone clapped. I was thinking what an easy patriotism it is to clap; to take action to end this war in order to bring that young man home to safety is not so easy.
I wonder if my grandson’s life was at stake, would I be marching and committing civil disobedience.
I can tell myself that I am an old man. I can tell myself that there is nothing that I can do. But, an inescapable truth is printed across the sky: If not me, who?
Nelson Strasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
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- Written by: Philip Murphy
If enacted, this ordinance will make the medical marijuana user a second-class citizen, who's visual presence has been deemed so disturbing that they are to be segregated from the decent folk by forcing them to buy their medicine from dispensaries located in places zoned for heavy industrial use.
Among other hurdles thrown at medical marijuana patients, dispensaries must be closed by 8 p.m., and the dispensaries won't even be allowed to describe their business on their signs, which are to be extra-small in size as well.
Why such harsh measures to manage a group of people who have caused no significant problems in the many years dispensaries have been in operation in Lake County?
It's due to a basic misconception about the marijuana business that has taken hold in some quarters, which is that Lake County is becoming a dope-a-topia for pot growers and that unless strict limits on dispensaries are passed we will soon be overrun by pot shops that will in turn hamper all other forms of commerce.
This is a completely off-base analysis as it shows a total lack of understanding of both the marijuana
business and basic economics as well, as the real outlook for pot production and sales here in Lake County isn't for expansion – it's for a shrinking of it.
Unlike other crops like winegrapes, pears and walnuts, there is nothing about Lake County's soils or climate that suit it to growing pot, and in recent years there has been an ever-increasing amount of medicinal pot being grown in urban areas – a trend certain to continue.
With large legal, government-sanctioned grows in the cities there is less reason to grow in remote rural areas like Lake County, and as there are more sources at the production end every day there has been a dramatic reduction in the value of marijuana, meaning it's becoming less and less profitable for growers. So the feared invasion of pot tourists isn't going to happen, as there will always be sources closer to home to access.
In fact, if there is an issue worth worrying about it is the fact that the local marijuana business is certain to lose its market share in the coming years, meaning that the roughly 2,000 to 3,000 people here who work full- or part-time growing, selling and processing pot will be reduced, which in turn will affect nearly every business in the county – for the worse!
Like it or not our local economy has become dependent on the tens of millions of dollars put into it every year by the marijuana business, and you would be hard pressed to find a business here that hasn't profited from it – in fact, it has probably saved a few from bankruptcy.
We don't need draconian laws to solve imaginary problems and don't need the government meddling in and micromanaging our health care more than they already do, and every real American should be offended by the concept of unjustified discrimination against a segment of our society that should have our compassion rather than our disdain.
Ironically, the people who would most benefit from this plan are the illegal growers, who will be more than happy to take up the slack when dispensaries close.
This is the time to let our leaders know that we will not tolerate this sort of second class citizenship bestowed on medical marijuana users, as the county planning commission will be taking up this proposal on April 28 at 10 a.m., after which it will go to the Board of Supervisors.
Philip Murphy lives in Lakeport, Calif.