Opinion
- Details
- Written by: Mike McNaught
As a community supporter, Jim is presently serving in his eighth term on the Middletown School Board, Middletown Plan Committee, a board member of the Middletown Merchants’ Association and a founding member of the Lake County Home, Farm and 4-H Foundation. He previously served on the Middletown Fire Protection District board and on the Hidden Valley Lake/Coyote Valley Area Planning Committee. He has a level of community involvement that is unparalleled.
Jim has a lifelong period of experience, knowledge and abilities in Lake County. As a rancher and businessman, strong family man, fiscally responsible, a veteran, a community supporter, Jim had been a leader in the improvement of the Middletown business district and for the school district. He dearly loves this area and will work hard to bring necessary and fiscally responsible growth and improvements.
I first met Jim over 17 years ago when I assumed command of the Coast Guard LORAN Station here. One of my priorities was to meet each of my immediate neighbors. Jim Comstock was one of these neighbors. I am honored to call Jim a friend.
Please join with me and support Jim Comstock with your vote on Nov. 4.
Mike McNaught, CWO4, USCG (Ret.), lives in Hidden Valley Lake.
{mos_sb_discuss:4}
- Details
- Written by: Jon E. Hopkins
Proposition 5 is a virtual “get out of jail free” card for those accused of domestic violence, child abuse, home burglary, identity theft or killing someone while driving under the influence. Instead, they may avoid prosecution altogether by claiming “the drugs made me do it.”
Proposition 5 shortens parole from three years to just six months for drug dealers who sell or distribute up to $50,000 of meth. This creates a virtual “express lane” for drug dealers to get back on the streets. Proposition 5 should be more aptly named the “Drug Dealers Bill of Rights.”
Proposition 5 is so dangerous that numerous prominent Individuals and organizations have joined together against it including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Attorney General Jerry Brown, former Governors Gray Davis, Pete Wilson, and George Deukmejian, as well as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the entire law enforcement community.
Please do your part to stop this dangerous initiative by asking your family, friends and neighbors to vote NO on Proposition 5. We simply cannot afford the massive havoc this initiative will wreak on our families, schools and communities.
Your NO vote on Proposition 5 will help protect your neighborhoods from violent crime. Thank you for your help in this effort.
Jon E. Hopkins is district attorney of Lake County.
{mos_sb_discuss:4}
- Details
- Written by: Johnny Carney
One is the lobbying system which is nothing less than graft and corruption. The ability to buy and sell the people we send to Washington is downright shameful.
Equally disgusting is the addition of "pork" to bills that should pass or fail on their own merit. Recently our congressman voted down a bill designed, hopefully, to rescue this country's chaotic financial mess. When a second bill was introduced, Congressman Thompson found it more palatable when he added millions of "pork" for the race car industry. Whatever happened to ethics? Why do we tolerate this type of chicanery?
Keep this in mind when you are at the polls.
Johnny Carney lives in Kelseyville.
{mos_sb_discuss:4}
- Details
- Written by: Evan R.Willig
I know that for many the opposition to same-sex marriage is based on their deeply held and cherished religious faith and from them and all other proponents of Proposition 8 I ask for a moment so that I may explain my profound opposition to this change to California's Constitution.
Twenty eight years ago as a young woman and man my wife and I took that greatest of all leaps of faith – we got married. Like young people all over the world, we found ourselves in love and decided to join together that love and friendship and our lives in marriage. And in all that I have done in my 52 years on this earth that is the source of my greatest joy and happiness. Through thick and thin we have stayed together and built a life and family together. That opportunity, the opportunity to marry and create families and lives together, should be available to all including those that love someone of the same sex.
The laws of our country and our state are the laws of man. They are written by man and subject to change, as is man and the society that we build. Of course many of the people who participate in the construction of our laws are informed by and have deep religious faith. They bring that faith with them as they represent themselves and others when law is made and changed.
But this should not be confused with representing God or God's will; they perform man's work in constructing law. Many of the truly profound changes our nation and its laws have experienced over the years have been the subject of controversy and soul searching with heartfelt differences expressed by both sides of many issues. In a democracy that is as it should be.
But over the long stretch of history, with many a bump and false start and many times a step back even as we step forward, our nation has changed for the better. Our laws have evolved so that it is understood that equal protection for all means just that, equal protection for all – including persons who are members of minorities whether that is an ethnic minority, religious minority or a minority based on something else, like sexual orientation.
This November in California we have an opportunity to advance the cause of equal justice for all. By defeating Proposition 8 we will send a message to our nation and to the world that a new page has been turned in the cause of freedom and equality.
Together let us affirm that when people of the same sex love each other we welcome that love, we respect that love and that we as a society wish them happiness as they embrace in marriage.
It may be that your convictions hold that a marriage between two people of the same sex violates your understanding of God's law. I and others who oppose Proposition 8 have no wish to alter your beliefs or your religious convictions. The California State Constitution is the work of men and women not God. It is designed by mortal men and women to protect all Californians whatever their ethic background, religious belief or sexual orientation. It assures each of us the right to equal protection under the law.
Our society has changed. Men and women can choose same-sex marriage as a matter of equality. I believe with all my heart that this is a good thing; you may not.
But please consider it as a right won by individuals who are part of a minority that only wishes to fully participate in our state and nation as free and equal citizens, just like me and just like you.
Please vote no on Proposition 8.
Evan R Willig lives in Cobb.
{mos_sb_discuss:4}
How to resolve AdBlock issue?