Wise men still uphold tradition of using the ”rod of correction”
“Pick On Someone Your Own Size!” says Herb Gura (Observer*American, March 7). The Konocti Unified School District (KUSD) school board member assails Darrell Watkins for writing about “bottom of the barrel” test scores of his KUSD kids.
Watkins said test scores will go up when more students do their home work and pay attention in class. Gura disagrees. Watkins also said spanking delinquent kids and sending them back to class is better than suspensions and expulsions. Punishing kids by keeping them out of school is the nastiest kind of child abuse. Again, Gura disagrees. He wants to expel and suspend kids. He”d like to see Watkins arrested and put in jail.
Watkins would like to see Gura get out of the teaching business. He can”t teach kids to read, write and do arithmetic. He won”t answer questions about the test scores of his students. His letters are filled with typical Gurarian propaganda. He also has a bad case of spankophobia. Spanking is “violence,” Gura writes, with the connotation that violence is evil. (Apparently, it”s not violence when they send out SWAT teams to shoot down delinquent kids grown up.) He also says spanking is “children smacked around” and describes spanking as “daily beatings.”
Gura”s rhetoric is good. Unfortunately, he watches too many Hollywood movies. A Hollywood spanking is a 6-foot-6 lumberjack (without shirt or shoes) holding a beer can in one hand, clutching a huge belt in the other, and going after a trembling child praying by his bed. Hollywood never shows a terrified mother swatting kids who made a campfire under the house when she taught them not to play with fire.
Spanking is the “Gospel according to Watkins,” Gura writes. Spanking, however, is not Watkins” gospel at all. Spanking is a 400-year-old American tradition taught by wise men and still, thank God, widely practiced. Wise men say, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.” Gura”s Hollywood ideas don”t educate children and provide discipline for Konocti”s classrooms.
Darrell Watkins
Kelseyville
City has to clean up its act
As a frequent visitor to Lake County and the city of Clearlake, with the possibility of future residence here, I would like to make some comments as an outsider.
From the shores and surrounding hillsides of the city of Clearlake, are some of the more beautiful views of Mt. Konocti and I think how fortunate the people who live here are to have such surrounding beauty. Then I start driving around on the city streets and county roads. I am appalled at their condition. I have seen the conditions of many of the homes and yards, with cars and trash lying around everywhere.
I have seen many dilapidated buildings with boarded-up windows, some I have been told, are owned by the city and even the chief of police. How are the residents going to get the incentive to clean up their properties when the city allows the disrepair of its own?
I heard on a local radio station that the budget for maintaining streets within Clearlake was only $25,000! I was stunned; that is not even enough to repair one street. I was equally stunned when the residents of Clearlake turned down the one-half cent tax increase request on the latest election ballet which was earmarked for road repairs. Could that be because residents did not see any improvements after the previous road tax increases?
What has happened to the pride of home ownership? Why are homeowners not cleaning up their properties? And for those who do keep up your properties, kudos for you.
How about some of you residents who do care starting a grassroots move to encourage other homeowners to do the same? Have a community meeting of homeowners to find out what can be done to help each other clean up the area. Granted, some are aging citizens who may not have the money or other resources but why not organize to put heads together and come up with solutions? See if businesses are willing to donate paint, or any other building materials. Maybe painting contractors have left-over paint that could be combined. Think of ways to get good used materials. Those who have trucks, offer to haul trash to the dumps. Get the kids involved; imagine what that would do to their self esteem by volunteering. Show those sitting on the city council that you care and are willing to do something to make this city what it should be and maybe they will do something about the buildings they own that are such an eyesore. Take the bull by the horns and be proud of your community.
Jean Davis
Ukiah
Cable and phone companies need to talk about PEG access
PEG channels under new state franchises in section 5870: In any local entity (city, county) the existing cable company is called the “incumbent” and any new competitor that holds a state franchise is called the “holder.” The law”s language seems to imply that there will never be more than one competitor. This would make sense if they are making the assumption that no new company is going to be pulling cables all over a small city or county. Competition will forever mean “the existing cable company against the existing phone company” until the technology dramatically changes.
In sub section (a) we get the answer to the question “when is the PEG channel going to be on the phone lines?” Three months after the local entity requests it. The three months doesn”t start until it is “technically feasible.” For us this means the completion of the joint powers authority for the purpose of operating public access and the technical determination that will be made described in sub section (h).
For all practical purposes, sub section (h) says the cable company has “to negotiate in good faith” with the phone company “to interconnect their networks for the purpose of providing PEG programming.” They may be reluctant to do so and there is no stated time limit in the law for the two companies to work things out before we can push our second option.
Our second option gives a future Clearlake/County joint powers authority the right to require the cable company to allow the phone company to plug into the cable system any place they technically can. If the phone company can”t find a place to interconnect for our public access channel(s) then the phone company is going to be required to pay for a facility to interconnect and make it available to the cable company. At this time the three months will start for the phone company to be required to carry TV8.
Since the possibility for technical issues causing a delay in the phone company providing public access is large I would urge the PEG Committee to ask the cable and phone companies to start talking now, before the formation of the joint powers authority, to identify any technical problems early.
Dante DeAmicis
Clearlake
