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- Written by: Congressman Mike Thompson
“This is not 1965, the oil and gas companies can drill offshore now with all the new technology they have and do it safely and not cause accidents,” a constituent wrote to me recently in an email.
“Drill baby drill” was the call from across the country not that long ago. If you didn't agree that the government should open more offshore area for drilling and exploration you were labeled anti-American, an environmental extremist or worse, a socialist. The latter being the label of choice by some for anyone that disagrees with them on anything.
Drilling offshore is and has been going on for sometime. And from day one, drilling proponents have said that “new technologies make it safe” and that oil spills shouldn't be of concern.
We heard it again last month when Sarah Palin spoke at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Louisiana. “We don't need more studies. We need more action,” she said. “Let's drill baby drill. Not stall baby stall.”
If only we could “stall baby stall” the oil that is now spilling into the gulf coast. The Louisiana spill is leaking 210,000 gallons of oil per day – up four times from what British Petroleum claimed when they first reported the spill to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It's hard to understand how British Petroleum could be so far off on their calculations. Now it sounds like it may take months to drill a relief well, during which time experts fear ocean currents could move the oil up and down the East Coast.
I have always opposed drilling for oil off the coast of Northern California and for good reasons. First, there isn't enough recoverable oil to benefit our needs vis-a-vis the risk. But that hasn't stopped some from pursuing leases to explore and drill.
Second, our coast is rich in marine life and is one of only four major upwellings in the world. Damage to this fragile ecosystem would devastate not only our district but an incredible amount of marine habitat throughout the Pacific Coast.
Third, our tourism industry is the life blood of many communities in Northern California and visitors don't buy rooms, dinner, or shop in area devastated by oil spills or cluttered with off-shore oil drilling equipment. Our fishing communities, tourism communities and related businesses up and down the coast generate billions in economic activity and should not be put in jeopardy by drilling off shore.
Last, but certainly not least, the beautiful, rocky and rugged Northern California coastline would make cleaning up a spill extremely dangerous and difficult. Some argue that the rough terrain coupled with equally rough seas would make clean up impossible. And remember, our coast is earthquake prone, which only exacerbates the spill concern.
It is particularly difficult to understand why some would continue to promote this policy at a time of great advancement of renewable energy.
Renewables are many years away from displacing oil and we will always rely on some amount of oil. However, we need to be doubling down on our efforts to develop renewable energy technology, put these new innovations into operation and get as far away from oil as we can.
This is a tall order but we're entrepreneurs, innovators and, most important, Americans. We can and we will succeed.
Congressman Mike Thompson represents California's First Congressional District, which includes Lake County, in the US House of Representatives.
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- Written by: Rev. Shannon Kimbell-Auth
On Thursday, April 15, in the state of Wisconsin a federal court judge ruled as “unconstitutional” something that almost every president in the history of our nation has supported – certainly each president within our lifetimes – as well as many of the signers of the US Constitution.
Judge Barbara Crabb of United States District Court in Madison, Wis., ruled that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.
What is the National Day of Prayer? In 1777 it was the day that Congress set aside as a day of Thanksgiving to our “Divine Benefactor” for the new born United States.
In 1789 James Madison introduced the Bill of Rights to Congress; it included what we now call the First Amendment which reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The same Congress, which passed the First Amendment, asked President George Washington to declare a National Day of Prayer in 1789.
The president gladly complied, proclaiming, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”
The finest minds in American history have long recognized that neither the Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights, guarantees the people “freedom from religion.” Rather, the law of our land requires the courts to refrain from creating laws which establish religion or prohibit free exercise of religion; proclaiming a day of prayer and thanksgiving neither establishes a religion nor prevents free exercise of it.
The lawsuit that led to the ruling last week was brought to the courts by a Madison, Wis.-based group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Their Web site describes their mission as follows, “The nonprofit Freedom From Religion Foundation works to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism [sic],” and to promote the constitutional principle of separation between church and state.”
Separation of church and state was not a constitutional principle according to any of the signers of the Constitution. In fact, the phrase comes from a personal letter from President Thomas Jefferson written to a Baptist minister guaranteeing him that the state would not do the very things that the Freedom From Religion Foundation are now doing.
The most poignant proclamations calling for National Days of Prayer have come at the darkest moments of our history, and have expressed the sighs of our souls and longing for a better future for our country.
My personal favorite was Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation two months after using the Emancipation Act and months before the horrors of Gettysburg:
“Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation. And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”
There is an appalling hubris at work in the acts of organizations like the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Judge Crabb’s ruling which seek to strip America of its soul, leaving nothing but a political machine in its wake.
Evidently President Barack Obama also disagrees with Judge Crabb because he has pledged that on May 6 he will issue a proclamation calling for a National Day of Prayer.
As with many of our freedoms, we often fail to appreciate what we have until we are in danger of losing them.
Personally, when asked to help plan a National Day of Prayer event in Lakeport this year I said I was “too busy.” I see now a different response is required.
A National Day of Prayer event will be offered at United Christian Parish, 745 N Brush St. in Lakeport, on Thursday, May 6, at 6 p.m. All are welcome.
Rev. Shannon Kimbell-Auth pastors United Christian Parish in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Maurice Taylor
The religious and historical Jesus, for example, largely remains on a cultural and personal surface within a history combined with ancient pagan symbol and religious belief, now made into holidays and such.
But Jesus said the kingdom is within. Here, “within” means at greater depth of being, and while the outer may symbolize and has a place within a cultural framework, the inner is to realize directly, individually, not as belief, but as gnosis, a higher consciousness of being. Around the world, past and present, this is known as enlightenment.
Unfortunately, within the religious context, not much cultural attention is given to Jesus (or enlightenment in general) regarding this inner transformation, or shift in consciousness. This is understandable from several points of view, one of which is how historically Biblical writings have been politically designed to create religion and belief systems corresponding to the times, past and present.
However, the true realization and nature of the Biblical “kingdom” (enlightenment), as the message of Jesus, is obscured and lost within the corresponding dogma of belief, however well meaning.
In more modern terms, for example, the Biblical Jesus in three years of ministry, outwardly dogmatized and fragmented in religious terms, can describe an inner process leading to enlightenment. This process is about the realization of a higher state of being, toward spiritual realization now. Baptism (cleansing of outer disturbances based upon a self-system that obscures inner (and outer) realities, inaugurates one into deeper inner fires that further purify (Holy Ghost – kundalini) giving birth to a new being (level of consciousness).
Today, some may recognize enlightenment as what Jesus was really attempting to communicate, or that which he symbolizes as such today. A new level of consciousness brings forth, inherently, the “things of the kingdom” and the realization of spirit, now.
This is the true death and rebirth or resurrection, which is then knowing the kingdom (enlightenment) directly. It is available to most anyone willing to do the methods (they are simple but not easy) of which Jesus attempted to communicate, methods, however, which have been replaced by making them into moral prescriptions instead.
A simple statement such as “turn the other cheek” (one of many methods) has a different quality when seen in the context of a method to become more aware rather than as a moral injunction. “The pure in heart shall see God” (or the kingdom), but who can be pure in heart with such egos strutting about seeking power as individual or nation? No, the attempt to be “pure in heart” the consciousness of that in daily life, is a method to dissolve the oppressive ego-life orientation to become more aware, moving toward the deeper realization of the kingdom, now, within.
If religious belief does not lead beyond something free from bigotry, violence and political manipulation (which it historically has not) then I suggest there is something seriously wrong with religious “belief.”
Jesus did not purpose a new belief system or a religion, but a new consciousness hidden within, waiting to emerge. Both message and method remain largely hidden within religion.
Maurice Taylor lives in Clearlake.
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- Written by: Dave Geck
Since staff make up over 85 percent of their budgets, the majority of the cuts involved reducing staffing. Across the county 39 teaching positions, 42 classified support staff positions and eight administrator or counseling positions were projected to be cut for the 2010 school year.
The staff reductions will not be finalized until May.
In some years, some of the reductions were rescinded later in the summer when other funds or reductions were used to bridge the loss of state funding.
This year district superintendents and school board members are very pessimistic about being able to create a “summer miracle” that in the past has allowed school districts to return some of the staff cut, back to work in the fall.
I am also pessimistic. Our schools have had to endure three straight years of reduced funding and they have exhausted all their other options.
The fact is that California’s budget is still in terrible shape and in spite of opinion polls that show that the public clearly wants public education protected; the governor and the Legislature have avoided fixing the systemic problems with budget.
Instead they have chosen to mortgage the future and look to cut education as a way to balance the budget. The Legislature is currently working on the 2010-2011 budget. I am not hopeful that they will rollback the governor’s call to again make devastating cuts to education budgets.
In Lake County the cuts to education proposed by the governor are compounded by the ongoing decline in school enrollments.
In the last three years our public schools have lost 677 students. Private schools have fared no better, losing 113 students in the same time frame.
Double digit unemployment, which has now reached over 19 percent, is one of the prime reasons for the decline in enrollment. Families are unable to stay in our county when stable jobs are not available. Since schools are funded by how many students attend school, declining enrollment created a $3.5 million funding loss for our school budgets over the past three years.
In addition, the governor recently signed legislation that continues the state’s practice of deferring the revenue payments to schools in order to help the state avoid having to borrow money to pay its obligations.
This means school districts will, in many cases, be the ones forced to borrow money to cover payroll and other obligations. This is like having your employer say I am short on cash this month and I will pay you later in the year – thus forcing you to use your own credit card to buy food and pay your bills.
When you add to these challenges, the governor‘s devastating cuts of over $432 per student, the result is a crisis for our schools.
Our school districts have worked hard to try and make cuts as far from the classroom as possible. district school boards have voted to make reductions in bus routes, after school support programs, elimination of some vocational programs, elimination of K-8 summer school, elimination of academic enrichment programs like GATE and AVID, reduced athletics at the middles school level, reduced library hours, reduced elementary school music programs, reduced school counseling programs and reduced administrative staff and support staff.
But school districts have also been forced to make the tough decisions to reduce teaching staff. These reductions will increase class sizes.
In the primary grades, class sizes will climb from 20 up to 24 and in some cases higher. Upper elementary grades and high school classes will grow in size, topping 35 students in some schools. This will clearly impact the quality of the educational experience for our students.
When asked what the community can do, as superintendents we have one voice – please join us in letting your state legislator know how important education is to our future.
As someone once said “You can’t light a match twice.”
These are lost opportunities to provide the high quality education our children deserve and our future demands. Our teachers and support staff are working as hard as they can but we can’t expect them to be successful if we don’t provide them the resources they need.
Every year the needs of our students become more diverse and challenging and every year we are asked to strip away more and more of the resources needed in our schools.
Please join the educators in our county in demanding that our state legislators put a halt to their assault on education – the education our children need and deserve.
Dave Geck is Lake County's superintendent of schools.