How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Letters
- Details
- Written by: Howard Glasser
Lynn was an inseparable part of the tapestry that is the lifeblood of Lake County. She was in many ways, the heart and soul of the community she loved.
She was at the core of values in need of desperate attention – the values of learning, education, the arts and fostering a hunger to explore the greater world beyond ourselves to be found in books.
If one were to write the book on what Lynn Fegan and Catfish Books meant to our community, it would be about service and the belief that we can make a difference in our world and the ripple caused by the rock we throw with intent and purpose will have far reaching effects that keep giving.
What Lynn gave to Lake County will keep giving as it thrives in the lives she touched who will in turn pass the torch for it is up to each of us to stay reminded of what Catfish Books meant to our county and do what we can to keep the flame burning.
Perhaps more than any other single thing, Lynn was about our children and because of her dedication to the young people, she planted seeds for our future that will keep on growing for they will remember and in whatever they may do in life, they will take a part of her with them.
So thank you Lynn Fegan and know that when you close the doors of Catfish Books, there will be a tear on the page but a smile on our lips for we want more than anything for you to have the happiness you so richly deserve because we love you.
Howard Glasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Judy Thein
We are a countywide volunteer educational outreach program designed to raise awareness of the consequences and dangers of DUI through prevention, with the focus on our communities’ youth.
With Thanksgiving approaching, Team DUI would like to take this opportunity to show our thanks to everyone who makes our efforts possible.
Lake County educators: Through your assistance, we are able to carry out our educational prevention program for middle school and high school levels, helping our youth cope with the peer pressure that contributes to underage drinking and drug consumption.
Partners: Whether law enforcement, first responders, organizations, social service providers, educators, media, local officials or individuals, your investment in our mission helps us deliver understanding awareness and educational prevention that has resulted in shifting the culture among our youth, helping make our roads safer.
Volunteers: You are the heart and soul of Team DUI. It is your compassion and determination that drives the organization and it is your tireless efforts that have accomplished so much.
Law enforcement: Your continual high visibility enforcement on roadways helps to reduce the tragic consequences of DUI.
Parents: We are thankful that lines of communication are open that enable youth to speak with their parents, forming agreements to not drink and drive or ride with someone who is under the influence.
Members of the public: We are thankful for your continual support. DUI affects everyone. Driving under the influence is a community problem and it takes a whole community to work together.
Donors: We are thankful that you have chosen to support our educational prevention program this school year. Through your generosity, we will be able to provide banners at Lake County schools with the message: “Team DUI – Teaching Youth About The Dangers Of Driving Under The Influence.”
These banners will help serve as a continual reminder of awareness to students and parents. Your donations will also help to purchase equipment that will further enhance Team DUI presentations at Lake County schools.
The investment of the time and support received from everyone has helped to save lives and reduce injuries. We greatly appreciate your support and continued partnerships. Each of us fulfills a different role, but the message we deliver is very powerful when we work together.
Team DUI wishes everyone a safe and blessed Thanksgiving.
Judy Thein is Team DUI’s founder. She lives in Clearlake, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Maurice Taylor
In Orwell’s novel the people were subordinated to a party doctrine, a party which in Clear Lake is the dynasty of wealth and power controlling the citizenry through a “Ministry of Truth” (government and news media), creating a classic Orwellian “authority” in Lake County.
A new unofficial task force of concerned citizens met for the first time at the Lakeport Yacht Club on Oct. 8, giving the impression that its purpose was to disseminate more factual and scientifically based information to the public. Instead, it offered propaganda and misinformation.
The concerned citizens were served double-talk and news-speak such as lake water getting clearer and sunlight being cause of recent massive algae scums, suggesting nothing need be done as the lake is doing what it does naturally for a few unpleasant days of the year.
According to Clay Shannon, speaking at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting, only for about 30 days of the year algae are a problem: again, algae not a problem, but for who? A substantial increase in the number of wineries in Lake County has occurred since 2004 (now numbering 37). Do they contribute to pollution? Not according to Greg Giusti, a speaker at the new lake task force meeting.
Are we to have reliable information about lake waters or propaganda? Controlled government misinformation and a compliant news media keep citizens uninformed and misinformed with propaganda that fosters power and control by a wealthy few in control of “authority” in Lake County.
The control infiltrates like the sleaze of corporatism nationally, where every governing sphere is tainted by a controlled element of wealth.
Such a longstanding tradition of power appears acceptable, smooth as plaster, natural as lake water to those in control and for those uninformed or misinformed alike, until cracks appear and contamination becomes more visible and unavoidable, like excess algae in lake water, in spite of propaganda to the contrary.
The plaster, cast as the influence of wealth, controls what newspapers print and what a Board of Supervisors decides. It shuts down a television station if the station threatens news not controlled. It has caused much damage to Lake County in the neglect of lake waters.
Maurice Taylor lives in Clearlake, Calif.
- Details
The ancient models seem to no longer serve us and to be dying from within.
To create a new society within the existing social framework has been attempted. Today many intentional communities, with many different structures, exist, yet they exist under the mainstream culture, and shadowed to some extent by it, not as free as they would like to be.
In my opinion we must first lay the foundation, which is a spiritual question, before we can create a new way to be, for a society is a way of being human together.
I think the foundation must be about what it means to be human. Currently I would say that we are not really human, for the simple reason that we fight our own nature. We have done it for centuries.
As a matter of fact we fight all of nature, the outer and the inner, and rather intensely and mercilessly.
To make it simple: we are related to everything, we are connected to all life at every known, imaginable and yet unknown level. We must internalize this fact deeply and see how it affects and transforms our being and opens up our hearts and souls.
From there, from this understanding of the unity and kinship of all life, we should be able to create a new culture that expresses harmony and cooperation rather than fear, subjugation and exploitation.
It goes without saying that balance means the end of the dominant and destructive power of the patriarchy, and a return towards the union and harmony of female/male energies within the human psyche as well as within all social structures and human endeavors.
Indeed, if we want to save the world, meaning save ourselves, we must urgently let women be the leaders who will restore balance, and will guide us to sanity and do away with patriarchal, unintelligent pursuits of dominant power and supremacy, which serve nothing but the perpetuation of injustice, abuse and fear and defeat love and life in all of their expressions, to the point of making our very survival as a species questionable.
Raphael Montoliu lives in Lakeport, Calif.