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Letters
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
Galileo promulgated the notion, at the time heretical, that the earth revolved around the sun. However, in 1615 the Inquisition knocked on his door and demanded he recant his heresy.
Threatened with torture, Galileo swallowed hard and recanted has blasphemous notion. However, he later published the idea of a sun-centered planetary system, and, thereafter spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
Considering the alternative, things could have gone worse for Galileo. (Heresies against money draw even harsher responses than those against god: 900 environmental workers have been killed in the past decade, mostly because they threatened profits).
I had thought that things are different now and that new ideas, which threatened the “conventional wisdom,” were no longer met with resistance, especially in the scientific community. I had thought scientists were trained to ask questions, and they are, but that does not mean that they embrace the answers.
For example, in the book, “The Sixth Extinction,” Elizabeth Kolbert describes a more up-to-date version of an example of resistance to new ideas.
In 1980, Walter Alvarez discovered a strata of clay in the earth, in a certain area that he was investigating. Walter got a job at Berkeley, where, co-incidentally, his father, Luis, worked as physicist.
The father and son team, by way of measuring the iridium in the clay, hypothesized that a huge asteroid had hit the earth, causing a large amount of dust to enter the atmosphere. This cataclysmic event, the team hypothesized, led to an extinction of dinosaurs as well as other animals.
The notion of a catastrophe wiping out the dinosaurs was not readily accepted. In fact, many scientists found it fanciful, one even calling it “codwaddle.”
Eventually, other scientists found similar strata of clay in other parts of the world, and, the crater where the asteroid struck has been located, in the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mexico. Eventually, the notion of a catastrophic event on earth leading to extinctions became accepted wisdom.
Similarly, the idea of global warming, which does have scientific consensus, is being met with intense indifference, in the main.
If we accept the consequences of global warming we would be compelled to act. And yet, we are able to ignore terrible things that are happening to the planet, even as I write. The oceans are acidifying, and as a consequence, the coral reefs, and the teeming life they support, are dying.
The temperature on the surface of the earth has remained constant for the last decade because the ocean has absorbed the added heat from greenhouse gases.
However, excepting that glitch, the earth has steadily warmed, graphed as a steep incline, since the industrial revolution; in other words, as a result of human activity. And, it will begin to rise again.
We have to come to terms with the simple fact that we have to find joy and comfort in our lives without burning fossil fuels, or we won’t have lives at all.
The issue of life trumps all others. It is time for what Freud called a “reality check.”
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Jim Perilman
The most sacred act humans perform daily is choosing what to eat (and drink).
I live in Hidden Valley Lake and am increasingly distressed about the subject of animal cruelty inflicted daily on literally millions of enslaved animals on factory farms, then transported to slaughterhouses to have their throats slashed. So we can eat their dead flesh.
Most human beings have become addicted to eating meat, many of them two or three times a day!
This seemingly normal multitude totally disassociates from what they are eating, as if the meat product was “invented” at the supermarket and placed under cellophane for their consumption. In reality, of course, they are subsidizing a holocaust of cruelty.
We love our pets, but our compassion for them is so selective as to mock all reason. All animals want to live just as people do!
It’s the Easter season, a time for resurrection, rising above our lower nature, seeing anew with clear eyes, helping the helpless.
Please sign my petition urging Pope Francis – who takes his name Francis from Saint Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment – to champion a vegetarian-vegan diet: http://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/urge-pope-francis-to-declare-himself-a-vegetarian-1 .
Jim Perilman lives in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif.
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- Written by: Savanah Vargo
I'm Savanah Vargo. I'm 22 years old and I have lived in Lake County all of my life.
Just recently I was flown out on CalStar for premature labor at 34 weeks and four days with high risks. It started at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake Tuesday night and the nurses and doctors tried to stop the contractions but it didn't work.
On Wednesday morning UCSF was contacted and they asked me to be flown out immediately which is where CalStar came in.
I was terrified but the CalStar staff did everything they could to reassure me that everything was all right. On top of that, while I was in the helicopter I was able to take a few snapshots with my phone and one of the staff members actually took a photo of me and one of out the window.
It took 43 minutes to arrive in San Francisco. I was transported by ambulance to UCSF and upon arrival I was told I was having my baby and they weren't going to try and stop it.
Part of the reason I was going into premature labor was because I was born with the RH factor. Basically, I have a negative blood type and my baby has a positive one, so my body developed antibodies that would attack the baby's blood cells because to my antibodies the baby was a foreign object.
I also was being monitored for a disease called preeclampsia, which has several different types of symptoms like high blood pressure or protein in the urine or abdominal pain and so forth, but the only way to cure preeclampsia is delivery of the baby.
Luckily i didn't develop preeclampsia fully but it is a disease that not many people are aware of and it affects more than you think it would.
I ended up giving birth on Thursday to a beautiful baby girl and we have been in the hospital ever since because she has a high bilirubin count and requires photo therapy and has to be monitored for feedings and weight gain.
The staff at the hospital allowed us to stay in an isolation room until the great people at Ronald MacDonald house had an opening for us, which is where we are currently staying.
I just really want to thank the CalStar staff and the staff at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake who tried their best and the amazing staff at UCSF and the Ronald MacDonald house.
I also want to thank the people who were able to gather donations and supplies for premature babies to help my husband, Nick, and I stay here in San Francisco with our baby, Peyton.
Some of these great people are the staff and owner Gary Muench of North Coast Supportability, who gathered donations and all kinds of supplies. You guys are amazing!
Thank you also to the staff at Lake County Special Districts and the Riley family who went above and beyond the call of duty to help support and keep us in San Francisco and take care of our house and animals while we are away.
Also, thanks to the Benitez, Kraft, Kerns, Cose, Mullings and many other families that helped out with everything, and Chris Bowman of Blue Horse Shoe Tattoo in Virginia.
Without you guys I don't know how we would have done it! I cannot begin to thank you guys enough!
Savanah Vargo lives in Clearlake, Calif.
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- Written by: Hedy Montoya
I recently joined Hospice Services of Lake County as the new volunteer coordinator.
I am excited to be able to offer my talents and enthusiasm to the community in this role and to further my experiences of the good works of our local hospice.
Volunteers for the patient-family support and bereavement programs are eagerly needed.
Anyone who has thought of offering her or his time and talents to people in need can attend a short series of trainings that Hospice is teaching later this month.
This will be my first orientation and training and I like to get new ideas from new volunteers as to how we can better serve our community.
Anyone may contact me to discuss or share ideas at 707-263-6270, Extension 136.
Hedy Montoya is volunteer coordinator with Hospice Services of Lake County, based in Lakeport, Calif.