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Opinion
There is a consistent chorus of anti-corporate, pro-living wage, protect our children voices singing out against a proposed Dollar General store in Middletown.
Their narrative includes a number of reasons why a Dollar General store is not a good fit nor welcomed in Middletown.
Some local business owners want Middletown to look like Calistoga or Healdsburg with gift and specialty shops, coffee shops, restaurants, day spas and wine tasting rooms.
Many of them, but not all, believe a corporate small-box retailer is out of character with their vision for our downtown.
Dollar General’s wage structure and mix of part-time versus full-time employees is also drawing fire.
Starting wages are $9 per hour with medical dental, vision and stock purchase options offered for full-time employees only. Approximately one-half of Dollar General’s employees are part-time and are not eligible for these benefits.
Others point out that Dollar General stores are conveniently located next to our local schools. They fear unspecified negative influences on young impressionable minds.
Even if one accepts their concerns as legitimate, any potential influences generated by a Dollar General would pale in comparison with those resulting from our county’s leading threat to children – poverty.
One-third of Lake County’s children are growing up in poverty. These children are informed by this experience in lasting and often unalterable ways. Poverty not only forecloses many of their lives, but its consequences often become generational.
I’m sure we can all agree that:
– having 27 percent of Lake County’s population living in poverty is unacceptable;
– having 26 percent of our households making less than $15,000 is unacceptable; and
– being ranked the poorest county in California in a recent USA Today article is unacceptable.
I believe those wanting to block a Dollar General store in Middletown represent the status quo. We have been presented with an opportunity, and I believe it is time to try something different.
I believe a careful and measured mix of economic interests is needed in order for our community and Lake County to prosper economically.
In less than a year, a primary election will be held to select our next District 1 supervisor. To those who have announced their candidacy and to those considering running for the office, I pose the following question(s): Do you believe it is possible to create 60 new jobs in South Lake County over the next three years? And if not, what do you believe are the three major obstacles/problems facing us?
A Dollar General store in Middletown would serve as a nice down payment of 10 jobs towards the goal of creating 60 new jobs over three years.
This would be a good start, but I acknowledge that $9 an hour is insufficient for a single parent to cover rising housing, child care and health care costs.
Mike Tabacchi lives in Middletown, Calif.
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- Written by: Michael Tabacchi
Your recent article on the Coyote Valley Elementary Garden ( “Coyote Valley Elementary project introduces children to wonders of gardening,” June 7, www.bit.ly/1Het7GA ), shows the result of community spirit and the generous support of area businesses.
When we were getting started on our garden renovation in early winter, Hardester’s Markets supported us with a generous discount on lumber and irrigation materials for our garden beds.
Managers Duane Harper and Gail Wright helped us maximize our grant funds for the benefit of the students. Guy and the Hardester’s Lumber team cut the heavy boards and rebar to size and delivered the materials to the school garden free of charge.
Parent volunteers and their children built raised beds and filled them with organic soil. Steve Ellis of Ellis Ranch supported us with a free delivery and reduced price. His soil proved to be a wonderfully fertile medium for growing the winter crops.
Star Gardens Nursery and Lovie’s Garden Emporium provided moisture retentive soil amendments at a significant discount.
Tanya Striedieck of Star Gardens provided expert advice and specific soil amendment recommendations which were necessary details for a successful grant proposal. Chanele and Margaret at Lovie’s donated bags of compost.
Parents and students maintain the garden pathways with wood chips donated by Quackenbush Recycling, Hidden Valley Lake and Coyote Valley PTO.
Bennett & Sons Painting refurbished the tool shed. Curtis Edwards Construction supplied customized foundational carpentry for the new beds. Key families and scores of helpful supporters supply the volunteer labor that has been essential for the growth of our school garden.
The Coyote Valley Elementary students receive their gardening education through the efforts of Lisa Rogers, Farm to School aide.
Cindy Leonard of Cobb School Garden raised enough funds from our community to start our Farm to School program. She included Coyote Valley and Minnie Cannon schools in the expenditure.
As a result, classes of children have the opportunity to visit the school garden each month and learn with a fabulous science teacher, Mrs. Rogers.
Our students, teachers and parents appreciate this community and love their school garden!
Elsie Mackesy lives in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif.
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- Written by: Elsie Mackesy
The fourth grade students and teachers of Middletown Unified School District would like to thank the East Lake Resource Conservation District for the recent Field Days in the Creek event.
A debt of gratitude also goes to Diamond D Ranch of Middletown for allowing us to attend the event on their land on Putah Creek.
This was a highly engaging educational event with presentations along the creek by Katherine Blyleven, an agricultural biologist from the county of Lake who discussed invasive plants and native plants.
Great "Geology of Lake County" lessons were given, by Dean Enderlin, Enderlin Geology. Also presenting was Joe Koschik, United State Forest Service and his team, Department of Fish and Wildlife's Ben Ewing and his assistants Juan Torres and Lanette Richardson, who performed backpack electro fishing which amazed our students.
Korinn Woodard and Kate O'Donnell gave soils and conservation demonstrations, and Carolyn Ruttan of Lake County Water Resources talked about the importance of keeping invasive mussels out of our waterways.
Thank you big time to the East Lake Resource Conservation District's president, Charlotte Griswold, Victoria Brandon and all of the others, not named, for the time and energy spent on this worthwhile elementary school field trip.
Kathleen Scavone and the fourth grade educators of the Middletown Unified School District in Middletown, Calif.
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- Written by: Kathleen Scavone
I know that most people work hard, come home to the family, watch TV and generally struggle through the pressures and demands of modern life.
So, they get their news mostly from the TV. Let us assume that TV news is objective. The TV news would give you late breaking events, but, since it is always a “snapshot” in time, and rarely reports events in historical context, it is not very helpful toward giving you an understanding of the world.
I have the advantage of not owning a TV and being semi-retired, and a library hugger. So, for instance, I have read 13 books on Afghanistan, Iraq, and the surrounding area. From my reading, I claim that I have discovered what is wrong with American foreign policy: It has been unsuccessful internationally, and is destroying us domestically.
Foreign policy is taught in terms of “self-interest,” sometimes called Machiavellian, or “Realpolitik” but the basic tenet is that “The ends justify the means.”
This is not to say that countries don’t sometimes act altruistically, but that when self-interest conflicts with morality, self-interest always trumps morality.
Let us leave aside the question of whose “self-interest,” because the argument could be made that the self-interest of giant corporations is different from the self-interest of say, middle-class people.
Let me take an egregious example to illustrate my point (and there are scores of others): The United States Government conspired with the British to overthrow the democratically elected of Iran in the early fifties. There was no cover story about democracy, or defending our freedom, or Communism, or Fundamentalism, or some other reason they give you to explain why they are murdering people or sending your children to die. They just wanted the oil.
However, as you probably know, there was a consequence to this nefarious act, called by the author Chalmers Johnson in his book by the same name, “Blowback.” That is why Iran became our enemy. We started it, and that, you will never hear on the evening news. So, the point is that sometimes these Machiavellian schemes backfire, and we thus we get “blowback.”
However, one could make an argument that sometimes these naked “self-interest” moves have succeeded, but on balance, they are a wash. In fact, considering all of the wars that are continuing and the five trillion we a have spent on them, and the staggering debt that we have acquired (Hell, we owe China over a trillion dollars!), it would probably be easier to argue that naked self-interest is a large negative.
But, that is not my claim. My claim is that this policy of the “ends justify the means” has cost us the moral high ground, and that we have lost the strength, albeit intangible, that comes from belief in ideals that keep us bound together and strong.
Take a look at the symptoms: We are heading to bankruptcy from being sick, and the consequent health bills. If current trends continue, half the country will be obese (based on BMI) and a hundred million people will have diabetes by the year 2020. People that have a passion for life and strong beliefs don’t eat themselves to death.
Another indicator that we are rotting from the inside out is that what used to be a crime is no longer punished, and poor people are filling the prisons for petty offenses (See “The Divide,” by Matt Taibbi, available at the library).
A good example of how things have changed is the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980s (Read “Inside Job,” also available through our library). A thousand people in the industry went to jail. In the exponentially worse scandal of 2008, almost no one has gone to jail. It is against the law to torture people, and yet the authors and perpetrators of torture are walking free, and in fact, thriving. Now, torture is OK. This is not what I was taught to believe; not in school and not in religious services.
So, my claim is that amorality has failed and, further, that our salvation will be found in returning to the old dispensations, so that we can love our country and love ourselves.
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser