We have all been to a welcoming party of some kind in our life. That may be the welcoming of a new baby or the welcome home to a family member who has been out of town for a length of time.  

However, welcoming home a soldier from the war was never something I had the privilege of doing in this type of ritual. I’m glad I was able to do so with a dear friend, Sgt. Charles Russ, NCO Army National Guard, who returned home earlier this year following a deployment overseas.

After he arrived home he attended a welcome home event for a fellow soldier at Kit’s Corner when I went to see him in uniform, still enlisted doing what soldiers do, sticking by their pledge of what holds them together when they are away on deployment – a situation which Charles Russ knows well.  

Deployment is a word most people would like to not really have to think about and the harsh realities of all that it implies. I must say I thought I understood what we were doing and how we were accomplishing it in Afghanistan until I interviewed Russ.

It was then I realized what I had been missing: A great number of intricate details that define war, details that the average citizen really doesn’t understand, such as the ramifications of what separation from families do and being in a war zone where the soldier has a loaded weapon at all times in order to protect his self and his fellow soldier.  

Sgt. Russ told me with pride that the Army’s acronym is “LDRSHIP” – Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage. According to Russ following these equals success.  

“A soldier’s life is simple,” he said. “He has a mission and he carries that out. We take care of our troops and we don’t get into the politics of it all.”  

Russ talks about how he had great leadership during his deployment which made all the difference.  
“They taught us to focus on the job you have and not to get caught up in the big picture of winning or losing.  However, you have to believe what you are doing is right.”  

He told me his commanding officers did such things as lead by example. “They always had a great attitude and kept things light hearted. They showed genuine concern and empathy for each and every soldier in their unit.” Above all they exemplified the army values of “LDRSHIP.”  

Russ reflected on his time and said thoughtfully, “There was a sense of wanting to check in with ‘your buddy’ and say, how are you? We talked about a multitude of things from what everyone was doing back home to how we felt our mission here was being accomplished … or not.”  

Particularly curious to me is the country of Afghanistan. Although the Taliban is portrayed in the media as the tyrants who subjugate women and brutalize all that do not accept Sharia law, they actually created some type of stability for the people in an otherwise chaotic country filled with conflicting views of government and the social order.  

American soldiers did not play politics in Afghanistan. They were not Democrats or Republicans. They had a mission and part of their mission was to make sure they always looked out for their buddy; the other was to get home safely and do what they had to do to complete the job.

Sgt. Russ did just that. He didn’t want anything special when he returned. He mentioned there were other men that did the same thing he had done and he wasn’t anything special. Giving him a welcome home party was a small thing to do for a brave man who deserved a sign of appreciation.

We should honor all brave soldiers the same way. He fought in a land he did not know for a cause he did not understand at first. He put his life on the line to create a better life for others far away.  

Some may say that doesn’t deserve anything special. We here in Lake County think it does. And so we salute you Sgt. Russ for your courage and your bravery and we give you our thanks to a man we think is very special.  

Welcome home!

Star Laurence lives in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif.

In an emergency, whether it’s a medical crisis or a house fire, minutes and seconds count. Time matters.

Mere seconds can be the difference in whether a life is saved or a home is lost.

We’ve seen the truth of that in our county during this busy and dangerous fire season.

If you call 9-1-1, can our emergency responders find you? Is your address clearly marked? Is it visible day or night?

Those reflective numbers on your mail box – how many years have they been there? Are they faded and peeling?

Go take a look. Check them at night. Can you see them clearly?

Remember – seconds count.

If you know someone who works as a first responder, ask them if they ever have difficulty locating the people who have called for help.
 
When you ask your friend the firefighter, or the paramedic, or the law enforcement officer about locating addresses, did they mention the signs they’ve found in roadside ditches?

How about the one leaning against the fence post, or tacked to a tree with the leaves hiding the numbers? Their stories are endless, and sometimes sad.

Now imagine this: You have an emergency and it’s you that needs help.

Can our emergency services find YOU?

Visit your local fire department and order your new address sign today. Your safety is worth the investment and your local firefighters will even install it for you.   

Please don’t put it off. Do it now. It could save your life.

Seconds really do count.

The Lake County Fire Chiefs Association is composed of the chiefs of the fire protection districts around Lake County, Calif. Lake County Fire Chief Association members include Ken Wells, Lakeport Fire Protection District (president); Mike Stone, Kelseyville Fire Protection District; Joe Huggins, Kelseyville Fire Protection District; Jim Wright, South Lake Fire Protection District; Willie Sapeta, Lake County Fire Protection District; Jay Beristianos, Northshore Fire Protection District; James Crabtree, Northshore Fire Protection District; Pat Brown, Northshore Fire Protection District; Wolfgang Liebe, United States Forest Service; Jeff Tunnell, Bureau of Land Management; and Tim Streblow, Linda Green and Mike Wink of Cal Fire.

On the face of it, Measure E – the half cent sales tax increase to fund weed, algae and mussel prevention programs in the lake – seems like a no-brainer, as everyone wants a clean, healthy lake.

But as is often times the case the devil is in the details that the promoters of the tax have failed to mention, like who pays it – and who doesn’t.

Proponents claim that a third of the tax will be paid by tourists, a figure based on wishful thinking with nothing to back it up; it’s a lot more likely that the bulk of the tax will be paid by low income Lake County residents.

Yolo County water users will pay none of $24 million even though much of their nearly half a billion dollars in annual ag production is dependent on the water. In an extreme case of irony Lake County farmers are actually expected to pay to protect the water their competitors use!

Also getting a free ride are large out-of-county based corporations like Cal Water, which provides water in Lucerne. Their investor’s millions of dollars in assets will be protected at no charge to them and neither the water companies or Yolo County have even been asked to help with this new plan.

Then there is the problem of how the money is spent, something the proponents claim is not a big concern since there will be a “citizens oversight committee.” But what they don’t tell you is the committee is to be comprised mostly of elected officials including some of the same people the committee is supposed to oversee!

It’s nothing short of an outright deception to call this an “oversight committee” let alone a “citizens” committee, when the plan from the get-go is to make citizens’ inputs meaningless. It should make every taxpayer nervous.

The truth is the Board of Supervisors will have full control of the budget – the city council members and citizens on the oversight committee are really just powerless window dressing put there to make it look legitimate.

How has the BOS done with our money so far? First they put a person in charge of the quagga program who thought the mussel was already in the lake and the prevention efforts would be futile, then they rushed to buy four expensive decontamination stations with no clear plan on how to use them, so they sat for years before two were sold at a loss.

Then the BOS spent $50,000 on a consultant whose main contribution was to come up with a quagga sticker test that featured trick questions and was quickly abandoned. Then there was the debacle with the changing rules concerning the stickers themselves which caused so much confusion the district attorney had to drop prosecutions until it finally got sorted out.

Another $21,000 went to a university to see how well the quagga would do in our lake, but since the range of possibilities was only from good-to-great the conclusion has little practical value.

Recently the public works director released an expenditure plan that described a plan to close most public boat ramps and to do the controls at the remaining ones. The very same day one of the supervisors was on the radio telling listeners the inspection stations and decontamination stations would be out on the highways (presumably we would buy the two decontamination stations back that we sold at a loss), with no mention of closing ramps and basing inspections at the lake, so it’s fair to say at this point that the county is speaking with more than one voice and the public has no idea of what to really expect will be done with their money.

It’s also worth noting that the one and only project that we know will reduce the algae and weed problem (the Middle Creek Restoration Project), has sat in limbo for the last five years due to what its project manager recently described as a “loss of focus,” which only returned once Measure E was on the ballot. Supervisor Rushing has been persistent in her efforts but the rest of the BOS had other priorities apparently.

The weed and algae money disappeared when the transient occupancy tax revenue Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa generated ended when they closed, thanks in part to the BOS killing the only offer to buy it by banning a casino there, a decision so flawed they were forced to reverse it.

Obviously we need a quagga program and obviously it will cost a lot of money, but just as obviously we already have an agency right here that not only is supposed to be doing this job but also is so bloated that it’s virtually leaking cash – Lake County Vector Control.

With Local Area Formation Commission approval Lake County Vector Control could be run by the health department and use private contractors to do the spraying, saving the taxpayers well over $1 million a year forever, not just the 10 years Measure E covers.

Since the razor sharp quagga shells can cause injury and some algae can cause illness this is well within the guidelines for the use of the money and it’s available now, there is no waiting for it to be collected.

The last two board members to leave Vector Control have publicly urged the BOS to adopt a plan to have the spraying done by contractors the same way the weed program does, as most of the money spent at Vector Control goes to abstract studies and funding research and development programs for big pesticide makers (even foreign ones!), important work perhaps but not the sort that should be funded by small, impoverished communities like ours.

Vector Control has around $2 million sitting in the bank and nearly another $1 million in disposable assets.

With the state offering new grant funding there is plenty of money to get a quagga program going and with cost-cutting measures like using people doing court ordered community service work manning some of the stations further large savings could be realized.

We have the means to fund these programs using existing resources without further burdening the taxpayers. It’s time that the taxpayers demanded that the BOS cut out the fat in government before they come back to us asking for more money – again.

Philip Murphy lives in Finley, Calif.

By not labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods Monsanto and the other biotech agriculture companies are giving us no choice but to “trust” their evaluation of the foods produced with this new technology.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the words “trust me” I immediately become very suspicious of what’s coming. It brings to mind a used car salesman or a young man who doesn’t want to keep his britches zipped.

Generally, when someone asks for your trust, it is because they don’t have it, and probably for good reason. Trust is earned, not taken or demanded of us.

Monsanto has done the opposite of earning our trust. They have in fact abused our trust with products like Agent Orange, and persistent toxic chemicals like PCBs, which can now be detected in every man, woman and child in this country according to the Public Health Statement for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) by the Center for Disease Control.

The way to earn trust is through transparency, bringing people into the process and answering everyone’s questions and concerns. This is not what we have seen with the introduction of GE foods.

In fact, people with questions about GE crops have been slandered and silenced, like British Rowett Institute scientist Dr. Arpad Pusztai who discovered toxicities in GE potatoes and was unwilling to hide the facts from the public.

In California, UC Berkeley researcher Dr. Ignacio Chapela was initially denied tenure in part for revealing that GE corn imported from the U.S. was cross pollinating and contaminating Mexican native corn.

These tactics are not the way to earn anyone’s trust. Then, of course, there was the Starlink scandal when the GE cattle food crossed into products for humans.

If we lack trust in Monsanto’s judgment on the safety of GE foods, what are our options?

There are over 40 other countries we could consider immigrating to where GE foods are labeled, or we could take Monsanto and the other biotech agricultural corporations to task and require them to label GE foods here at home.

In fact, if they want and expect us to trust them, they should be labeling these foods already, but they don’t. Why? I think it is because they don’t trust us!

They have two chief fears. They fear we’ll stop buying these foods if they are labeled. And some consumers might, but others who support the technology will use the labels to seek out GE products. Either way, I believe the consumer should have the choice.

Their other fear has more sinister roots. It is the fear that millions of American will figure out that they are bearing all the long-term risks of this hidden technology while patent holding corporations like Monsanto are reaping all the benefits.

There was no shortage of conventional corn and soy in 1996 when the first GE crops were grown. The benefit was to Monsanto whose patent on the active ingredient of “Round-UP” was about to expire, but whose future sales could be guaranteed by contractually requiring its use on the new GE herbicide tolerant crops.

The current lack of traceability of GE foods because they are not labeled on supermarket shelves insures that corporations like Monsanto will never face any liability for long term health effects, should they develop.

So there is no trust between Monsanto and us consumers. So far Monsanto and the biotech industry have held the upper hand and GE foods are not labeled and we are eating them unknowingly.

The way to tip the scales towards us, the 90 percent of Americans who want labeling, is to require by law that these foods be labeled. Not by asking; we tried that with almost 1 million letters sent to the FDA, and got nowhere. Not by having a legislative body pass a law; tried that too (remember Vermont?) and got nowhere; but with a citizens’ initiative such as we have in California Proposition 37.

The power of a citizens’ initiative is that we, the people, get to make the law, and you can be sure that it won’t be popular with those interested in maintaining the status quo. They will use every distraction, scare tactic and outright lie to convince the California electorate to vote against their right to know what they are eating.  

Monsanto and the other biotech agricultural corporations want to keep us in the dark about what we are eating, because they don’t trust us to eat what they are offering. I would like to trust them to provide me with good wholesome food, which is what I want to eat.

But until they earn my trust, I want GE foods labeled and will be exercising my right to vote this November by casting my ballot for Yes on Proposition 37 and hope that you too will choose labeling so we don’t have to blindly trust Monsanto.

Annelle Durham is an organic farmer in Upper Lake, Calif., and a member of the Yes on 37 Lake County Committee.

Phil Murphy’s commentary on Measure E warrants a response to set the record straight.  

Mr. Murphy stated that the Board of Supervisors only “made one attempt to get funding from Yolo.”

This statement is untrue. Our board formed an ad hoc committee with Yolo Flood years ago that held frequent meetings where both entities discussed cost-sharing for lake-related programs and in particular to prevent the infestation of the zebra and quagga mussels.

Mr. Murphy has never attended any of these meetings; as such I find it disturbing that he would proclaim to know the content of these meetings.

In addition, Mr. Murphy stated that the Middle Creek Restoration Project was to be completed by 2008. He is once again mistaken – this project is a 30-year project.

To date, the county has spent $6.25 million in acquiring properties for the purpose of restoring crucial wetlands to reduce the nutrient loading into Clear Lake; however, we still need approximately $30 million to complete this project. Measure E will provide matching monies for both state and federal grants to assist us in completing the Middle Creek project.

Mr. Murphy also attacks a “draft expenditure plan” that was created by county staff.

This draft plan has caused much confusion because people who have reviewed this plan wrongfully assumed that this was a final plan.

Since the first draft was created, staff has created at least two other drafts that provide other options as to how Measure E monies could be spent.

One thing that Mr. Murphy got right was the makeup of the citizen’s oversight committee. The primary purpose of the committee is to review the annual independent audit and make sure that Measure E monies are spent properly.

Secondly, the committee is to recommend a detailed plan as to how these monies should be spent, and ensure that said expenditures are proportional in the interests of the county, the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport.

As for Mr. Murphy’s plan for the county to take over the Vector Control District, I would argue the following.  

Lake weeds and algae are not considered vectors, and would not qualify for funding. In addition, it is highly unlikely that the mussels would be considered a vector.  

In short, if the county cannot be trusted with Measure E monies as Mr. Murphy suggests, why would Mr. Murphy want the county to take over Vector Control?

Recent state legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown will not provide adequate funding for Lake County to prevent infestation, and if we are infested it is possible that our lake could be shut down like other lakes.

Measure E has broad support from the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, the Clearlake Chamber of Commerce, the Lake County Association of Realtors and the Sierra Club.

We as a community have the choice to chart Clear Lake’s future. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on Yolo, the state, and federal government to help us take care of Clear Lake – that responsibility lies with us.

Anthony Farrington is a members of the Board of Supervisors for Lake County, Calif.

In October of 1981 the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) declared the month of October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month; the intent was to connect battered women’s advocates across the nation who were working to end domestic violence against women and their children.  

Common themes and activities throughout the nation during Domestic Violence Awareness Month included mourning those who have lost their lives due to domestic violence, celebrating those who have survived and connecting those who work against to end violence.

In all cultures, rural and urban, women and men of all religious, ethnic, socioeconomic, physical abilities and lifestyles can be affected by domestic violence.  

Most commonly, batterers are thought to be males although males are also victims of domestic violence as perpetrated by their partners, just seldom reported.

Battering is a pattern of behavior used to establish power and control over another person with whom an intimate relationship is or has been shared, through fear and intimidation, often including the threat or use of violence.  

Battering happens when one person believes that they are entitled to control another. Such abuse affects not only direct victims, but their children and families as well.

Rural battered women face additional difficulties when seeking services. These difficulties include lack of resources, isolation, few support agencies, poor or little transportation and communication systems, in addition to other complications intensified by rural lifestyle.

The Lake County Board of Supervisors has designated the month of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

In 2012 Lake County Law enforcement agencies have responded to more than 695 incidents of domestic violence.

The Lake Family Resource Center has responded to 437 crisis line calls, served such victims and additionally provided shelter to 118 domestic violence victims and their children.

Family violence is a societal problem. Ending the cycle requires not only the strength and courage of survivors, but also the assistance and involvement of all members of the community.

The Lake Family Resource Center – in collaboration with other agencies, including the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney’s Office, and Clearlake and Lakeport police departments – is devoted  and dedicated to ending domestic violence in Lake County.  

Lake Family Resource Center provides crisis intervention and prevention services to all members of our community.

The Lake Family Resource Center encourages the community to attend and participate in various activities that will be held throughout Lake County in observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  

Such activities will include a candlelight vigil in Lakeport’s Library Park at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24.

Working together, women and men have the ability to change attitudes and perceptions about domestic violence.  

Our community is urged to support the efforts in assisting victims of domestic violence in order to strengthen our communities and families.

Amber Westphal is a domestic violence advocate at the Lake Family Resource Center’s Freedom House domestic violence shelter in Kelseyville, Calif.