Opinion
- Details
- Written by: Lorrie Gray
A large round of applause goes to George Feola of Bicoastal Media, who sent the mobile broadcast unit for radio station KXBX to keep a running count of donations, and urge listeners to come to the park and enjoy the event. They also provided pre-publicity for the food drive on all of their radio stations for several weeks.
Special thanks to Paul Thomas and his sound engineer for their talents and time. Because of your on air promotion, the wonderful group of folks from Tree of Life arrived with over 1,000 pounds of food toward the cause. Words alone really can not express how much that meant to us.
It might surprise some of you to know that summer is the hungriest time of year for many families. That is because those kids who are eligible for reduced rate or free lunches are not in school, and therefore not getting that meal. Our goal for the day was to collect 10,000 items, specifically for those kids, and although we fell short of that number, we had sufficient donations to supply 30 Lake County families with food to help them bridge the summer gap.
Thanks go to the Clearlake Rotary Club for making a cash donation that we turned into 146 items. Thank you to the individuals who took the time and effort to drop off any number of items, from one to one hundred.
Many thanks to the Lake County Record Bee for including our food drive in the community events calendar, as well as printing an article publicizing the effort. Additionally, thanks to the Lake County News online for printing our article.
All these things counted up to a successful first annual “Cans For Our Kids.”
Many thanks to the Lake County Community Action Agency who loaned us their lift gate truck for our collection point, and their ever capable driver Jim for his time on his day off.
Thanks to the Lake County Office of Education for the warehouse space for short-term storage, as well as their Healthy Start program members for sorting and delivering the donations to the appropriate families.
Thank you to Tammy Alakszay of First 5 California for coordination our efforts, and her AmeriCorps members for their assistance.
Enormous thanks to my sister, Kerry Ellis, for driving up from the Bay Area to spend the day in the back of the truck, when the temperature outside was 103 degrees.
Without the aid of our own Hunger Task Force members Bev Bergstrom, Dianna Brooks, Ginger Frank and Hedy Montoya, who ran our booth for the kids’ activities, the day would have been a lot less fun.
Thanks also to Mary Sherman and her Konocti Kids’ Day organizing committee for letting us piggy-back our food drive onto the event. We appreciated your cooperation.
Finally, thanks to Mayor Curt Giambruno and the Clearlake Public Works Department for the barricades and making our collection point safe and secure.
Thanks again, everyone. See you in 2009.
Lorrie Gray is a member of the Lake County Hunger Task Force. She lives in Kelseyville.
{mos_sb_discuss:4}
- Details
One of the "founding fathers" of the United States, John Adams, is credited with the following statement: "We shall have a government of laws, not of men." This is an affirmation that those who exercise power over us are not free to do entirely as they wish, but are subject to limits set by law. This rule of law is what is meant to differentiate the United States from a dictatorship. It is also on this principle of protection from tyranny that a separation of power was implemented between the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of government.
There is no doubt that former monarchs, and all the dictators who have exercised their unlimited power throughout history, have felt entirely justified in using coercion to protect not only their government but their nations or kingdoms. They have felt that it was necessary to imprison, torture and kill people whom they decided or discovered were their enemies and the enemies of their nations, whether these people were foreigners or citizens.
The fact that they alone could declare who was an enemy, and that they had free rein to determine the appropriate punishment of individuals perceived to be threats, was, among other things, what defined their governmental systems to be tyrannical, oppressive and bloody. It is as a reaction to these kinds of governments that the United States was formed as a nation, and it is from this type of tyranny many immigrants fled here, at least this is what we are taught.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey asked Congress to issue a new declaration of war. This would make the entire globe, including the United States, a battlefield where the president alone would get to decide who is an enemy combatant, and would have the unilateral power to lock that person up forever. This proposal would redefine the United States as a dictatorship.
You might think, like the serf living under a king in the 12th century, that if you did not break any laws, did not express any controversial opinions, and generally kept your head down and were a "good American," you would be safe, and only the "bad guys," as defined by the president-king, would be apprehended and put away. You might think that tyranny will never happen in America, that American presidents will never cross the line.
But the entire effort of the "founding fathers" was to establish limits on executive and other governmental powers so the people would not have to rely solely on the hope that their next leader would be compassionate and benevolent, and not a psychopathic, paranoid oppressor. This is why they established a government of laws, not of men ... laws were to protect the people from all potential abuses of power.
It is my opinion that Attorney General Mukasey's proposal is nothing less than subversive, subverting fundamental legal protections for the American people and the foundation of the American government. Subversion does not always originate from extreme left wing ideology, it also comes from extreme
ring wing ideology.
I urge all who are concerned by this new attempt at tearing the Constitution by this administration to contact Congress right away to put a stop to this silent and covert fascist revolution.
This is not about Democrats versus Republicans anymore, but about America versus a new kingdom, and I hope all who can see clearly past political differences join in to save what is left of the legal fabric of this nation.
Raphael Montoliu live in Lakeport.
{mos_sb_discuss:4}
- Details
- Written by: T. Deeks
Anyway, you may already know this, the Dylan heckler thing was at Manchester's Free Trade Hall, for a long time it was associated with the Albert Hall gig, but now a lot of people seem to agree it was the Manchester gig, as far as I can make out.
Check out “I Am Fuel, You Are Friends,” Bob Dylan, Manchester, 1966.
T. Deeks lives in London, England.
{mos_sb_discuss:4}
- Details
- Written by: Dave Gebhard
Honda is copying the winning formula established by Toyota, with its Prius hybrid technology. Research and Development can provide one with the patents for the cheapest and most efficient systems, and make it the leader in the utilization and promulgation of an entire generation of vehicles.
Why can't Detroit see that alternative energy will be the next big quantum leap in business? I could not care less about the auto industry per se, but our workers need a healthy manufacturing sector to restore our standard of living and the nation's financial health. A service economy will only fall further behind, especially since country's with better educational systems, will catch up with established industries such as computing.
Why are our oil companies so intent on wearing blinders, and not branching out into alternative energies? The future is in renewable energy, which is hopefully nonpolluting and led by Americans.
I am still unhappy at the cavalier way General Motors recalled the EV1 in the 1990s, and summarily denied the renewal of leases. What happened to that technology? It was good enough for all those who owned and leased them.
There are many who convert their own vehicles to electricity, but Congress refused to transfer the oil company subsidy to alternative energy firms. Congress must renew the tax breaks for alternative energy startups, to ensure America will become the alternative energy capital of the future.
We need to decide if we are to continue to keep our heads in the sand, or think ahead. Toyota and Honda are thinking ahead, and they are thriving.
Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport.
{mos_sb_discuss:4}
How to resolve AdBlock issue?