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Letters
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
Now that I am closing in on 69, I find that the problem of death is not so much death itself, which, according to a “round up of the latest world news,” is inevitable.
The problem is wasting too much of my remaining time thinking about death. Trying not to think about death, like trying not to think about anything, is difficult.
Shakespeare was not much help. In his famous soliloquy in Hamlet, “To be or not to be” he describes death as “the undiscover’d country, from whose bourne no traveler ever returned.” So much for the advanced scouting reports.
So, I have been thinking about finding some peace through religion. However, I am a bit of a skeptic.
I remembered my conversion from faith to skepticism: I was in Sunday school, at the age of 8, and the teacher told us the story about Abraham.
God ordered Abraham to kill his son in order to test his loyalty. Abraham was going to do it, but God stayed Abraham’s hand at the last second.
At that moment I thought about my own dad, and what he would have done. My dad had a mild acquaintance with mental illness, riding the roller coaster of mania and depression much of his life, but, he would never have acquiesced to stabbing me.
Then I got to thinking that maybe we have it wrong: God was really testing Abraham to see if he would blindly follow orders (going Nuremberg), or rebel in the name of love. And, what really happened at that fateful moment, is that Abraham failed the test.
This presents another problem: If God felt that love of family was of utmost importance, why would he sacrifice his own son and send him down here with a bunch of miscreants?
So, perhaps we have another piece of religion wrong as well: God did not make man in his own image, but precisely the opposite; man made God in his own image. No solace there.
Ernst Becker, in his classic book, “Denial of Death,” claimed that man cannot live without faith. I would argue that man can live without faith, but, frankly, it sucks.
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Committee for a GE Free Lake County
We wish to express our gratitude to the Sierra Club Lake Group for their very generous donation to the “Yes on 37 Lake County” committee.
It is a tangible expression of their support and commitment to our right to know if we are eating genetically engineered food or not.
We will use these funds to educate our friends, neighbors, colleagues, church members and fellow residents of Lake County that in order to have the right to know if their food is genetically engineered they need to vote yes on Proposition 37.
Thank you again to the Sierra Club Lake Group for your support.
The Committee For a GE Free Lake County in Lake County, Calif., includes Haji Warf, Thurston Williams, Barbara Christwitz, Chloe Karl, John Thomas and Roberta Actor-Thomas.
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- Written by: Darrell Jarrett
The recent Wye Fire had no sooner broken out when Cori Darling from Foods, Etc. called the Lake County Fire Department to ask where to send sandwiches and water to the firefighters on the fire line.
After giving Cori the information, I asked, “Doesn’t the store close soon?” Her reply was “We will stay open as long as we have to.”
On behalf of the fire department, I would like to thank Foods, Etc., as well as everyone else in the community, for their generous support of our men and women on the fire lines.
Darrell Jarrett of Clearlake, Calif., is treasurer of the Lake County Volunteer Firefighters Association.
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
The Republican Party today does not understand the idea of an opposition party.
This was not always true. Nixon for example, when he ran for president in 1968, vowed to end the war in Vietnam. Nixon did fulfill his vow, albeit seven years and a lot of needless deaths and suffering later.
However, this iteration of the Republican Party, instead of opposing these, unpopular wars (according to polls), amongst other important issues, chooses to run on tired and oversimplified clichés like “The Free Enterprise System can fix it all” and cutting taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations is the answer.
This creates a problem for them: They have to start history in 2008.
War and debt and financial debacle and employment came into office with Obama, and so it follows that he caused them. The Latin expression for this bit of illogic is “post hoc ergo propter hoc,” which means, “after this, therefore because of this,” assuming a mere chronological relationship to be a causal one.
The Republicans have modified this notion to apply it to Obama: “After him, therefore because of him.”
Now, here is the magic trick: Disappear George Bush. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a George Bush. The Republicans never, and I mean never, mention Bush. Why?
Because the Republicans had the very same message eleven years ago. And, what did they do? They started two expensive wars and cut taxes at the same time and thus built a prodigious deficit.
And, although Bush did not cause the financial debacle of 2008, his philosophy of free market capitalism fueled the fires of deregulation that culminated in that disaster. They bring out the same tired act that we gave the “hook” to last time.
One is reminded of the words of the character, Melvin Udall, played by Jack Nicholson, in the movie As Good as it gets: “Sell crazy somewhere else, we’re full up here.”
We need an opposition to failed policies, not a repetition of them. Sadly, the Republican cure would be worse than the Democratic disease.
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.