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Letters
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- Written by: Dave Gebhard
Upper Lake High School is doing wonderful things for students.
They have received a grant for sustainable farming and green technology and are incorporating it into its curriculum. That will greatly enhance a student’s employment opportunities.
But there is a definite need for automotive technology and home economics. Lack of money is at the root of the problem, as the state does not prioritize either of these subjects.
If we decide to enhance our young people’s knowledge in these important areas, we need angels to donate whatever they can afford.
Only a grassroots effort can make these programs happen, as the government cannot even pave our roads, much less train our young people to fix our cars, or teach future adults to safely make a casserole.
Alumni are instrumental in today’s educational market; after all, children are our responsibility, not the governments.
Am I the only one who feels trained mechanics and cooks are important?
We need to involve or engage more children in programs they might adopt as their own.
These kinds of classes may be all it takes to keep them in school and give them viable careers!
Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Randy Ridgel
In a recent letter, Nelson Strasser brooded because he is 69 and worrying about his life and soul. There is no hope unless he renounces the sins of liberal Democrats.
One night standing mid-watch aboard a submarine in Pearl Harbor I gazed at stars and wondered where the universe ended. I spent the next year reading every philosophy book in Honolulu. When finished, I was no longer a Christian but a liberal Democrat.
For years I reveled in fighting, philandering and fornicating. I was cured when I fell in love with a disgustingly honest Christian teenager named Jackie, near Los Angeles, and became a conservative Republican. Soon after I met her I carved two hearts on a tree with our initials. She laughed and apprised me that eucalyptus trees shed their bark every year.
In twilight at the corner of Bellflower and Imperial Highway, I proposed on my knees with the silhouette of a picturesque mountain in the distance. She replied, “Of course I will, you fool; get back in the car.”
Later she told me we were across the street from Red Star Fertilizer and the silhouette was a hill of manure.
She became a July bride in Long Beach Navy Chapel because I was aboard a submarine in Scotland in June. A week after we were married the chapel was bulldozed and replaced with an office building. At the reception, her relatives eyed that beautiful girl and a dumb submarine sailor and gave the marriage six months max.
We embarked honeymooning through Yosemite, Yellowstone, Niagara Falls and the Sub base in Connecticut. In those days a girl usually got married before having children. I believe I married the last virgin in California. However, by the time we reached Connecticut she had the hang of it.
I married her from love at first sight. She said she married me to abandon her drunken father.
Now we’ve been married 57 years and she is still disgustingly honest. Recently we bought a plot for the two of us to share in the oldest part of Kelseyville Cemetery where you can have any kind of headstone you want.
We each wrote what we wanted engraved on our headstone. I wrote, “Jackie isn’t it comforting to know we will share eternity together?” Later I peeked at what she wrote for her headstone: “Randy, I’m not here. I found someone younger and richer. Look me up when you finish with eternity.”
Nelson, save yourself; become an honest Republican. I’m nearly 82 and life is a blast.
Randy Ridgel lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
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- Written by: Bob Bridges
Yowee! Lakeport residents, have you looked at the city’s proposed water and sewer rate increases?
They total an eye-popping 100-percent increase over the next five years with no ending date.
It is based upon some out-of-town “expert” who doesn’t understand our cost of living, income or our lifestyles.
I look up and down the street at my place and half of the homes already have dead lawns. The city council needs to think of the side effects of this proposal and not just rubber stamp it without considering what it will do to the city.
The last “bright idea” the city approved, over a room full of protesting citizens, was the mandatory garbage that has rattled us out of bed, brought us torn up streets littered with garbage cans that lay there for days, and numerous rate hikes.
This proposal will burden us all at a time when there has been years with little or no increased in Social Security or paychecks. We already have three half empty shopping centers and numerous empty houses and shops.
This new “tax” will greatly burden all of us. If you have already let your lawn die, I guess now you are suppose to quit bathing and washing your clothes!
Tell the city council no! File a written protest by Sept. 18 and have them reconsider and scale this down so it doesn’t break us and turn the city brown.
Bob Bridges lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Teresa Welter
At 11: 15 a.m. on Labor Day, Monday, I was sitting at Redbud Park in Clearlake when a truck pulling a boat was pulling in and a police car with red lights flashing came in.
The boat was filled with three men and the truck with a couple of females. They were pulling in to launch the boat. Obviously they were getting pulled over for the men riding in the boat.
The police car had a female officer driving and a male officer in the passenger seat. They flashed the lights at the driver and hit the siren. The driver was pulling in slowly, clearly looking for a safe place to pull over where she would not be blocking anyone.
The officer hit the sirens again as she apparently was not stopping fast enough for their liking but was still clearly trying to pull over. She stopped right in her tracks not out of the way mind you.
The male officer jumped out of the car and yelled very loudly, “Stop the f***ing truck.” He then proceeded (more like stormed) to the passenger side of the truck where he yelled at the driver something similar if not exactly, “When you see a red light and a police car pulling you over, you stop your vehicle.”
At that point the female officer came up to the driver side window and spoke to the driver. She then yelled at the men to get out of the boat. They did so. The male officer stormed back to the squad car and they drove (more like sped) away.
My point is that it was completely out of line. The male police officer is supposed to be a role model. He was at a park with children and acted like a child himself.
Is this really the kind of police officer that we want “serving and protecting” us?
Teresa Welter lives in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif.