Letters
When I moved to Clearlake in 1981 it was obviously a diverse community, full of strong-minded people whose opinions differed about practically everything – but everyone did seem to agree about one thing: the roads were terrible.
“You could lose a Volkswagen in some of those potholes,” people said.
Now more than 30 years later the roads are if anything worse. No longer a joking matter, their abysmal condition is putting a tremendous drag on the city’s prosperity, and also degrading the lake on which our whole community depends.
Measure H, virtually identical to Measure J (which barely failed to receive the two-thirds majority needed for passage in 2012), will place an additional 1 percent sales tax on transactions within the city limits, and devote three quarters of the proceeds directly to road repair, with the remainder financing code enforcement – something else that is desperately needed if Clearlake is to have any chance of becoming the thriving little town its natural assets should make it.
This tax will be paid by visitors and residents alike, and will remain entirely at home rather than being shipped off to Sacramento: it is the only feasible way to finance these essential repairs.
Please vote Yes on Measure H.
Victoria Brandon lives in Lower Lake, Calif.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
I was asked a question: “Nelson, so you think people who earn more money than you are obligated to pay for your health care?”
My letter explained that I pay for my health care. Part of it is taken out of my Social Security check, and the other part I pay for by purchasing a supplemental plan.
So, I am going to assume that the questioner means the collective “me.” The answer is, “yes,” I believe that those folks who earn more than me should pay for health care for all, and I also believe that people who make less than me should be obligated to pay for the health care of all.
The concept of insurance is based upon the notion of a “pool.” If you don’t have a large enough “pool” to draw from, then insurance does not work.
Once again, Obama ran on a health care platform, and won, and both houses passed the bill.
I am also assuming that what the questioner means that he does not want to pay for folks less fortunate than himself.
This is a corollary of “Social Darwinism,” a 19th century notion that Darwin’s concept of the “survival of the fittest” should be applied to people, and it should be “every man for himself.”
It was a justification for the wealthy to have a lot, and poor people to have as little as possible, and yet enough to stay alive to work for the wealthy. I had hoped this idea had died with the New Deal and FDR’s castigation of the “economic royalty.”
Interestingly, few people complain about paying for public education. Most of us consider it a good idea to have an educated population and make it possible for all children to maximize their potential.
Somehow, if the questioner is one who does indeed support public education, he does not mind paying for the education of those less fortunate, but not for their health.
And yet, on a pyramid of needs, I believe that health would come before education. I hope that answers your question, questioner.
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
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