Boy, I thought Thursday”s opinion page commentary by Mr. Worth was great. Then came Friday”s opinion page. All the contributors made excellent remarks about our government and how it is being run.
Ms. Garnett is very right when she says there is nothing for children to do in most of Lake County. The fact that the Board of Supervisors (BOS) allowed the water park complex to be torn down is a real disgrace.
The BOS doesn”t think twice about spending millions on castles and RV parks that are dubious in their financial returns. With the algae problems the lake is experiencing the last couple of years, a water park would probably turn out to be a gold mine.
Mr. Strasser and Mr. Woodruff both made excellent points in their commentary, but Mr. Worth”s was my favorite. His writing is always calm and to the point. I think that with all of the letters he has written, I have taken issue with him once. I have to agree with him regarding confusing and misleading political speak. It is time to use plain English to explain their positions.
Mr. Worth also made reference to legislators changing their position on a given issue; again he is right. Take for example our Congressmembers who voted to invade Iraq.
Their decision was based on false information from the Bush administration and in some cases outright lies. When they found out the truth they changed their minds and voted not to fund that war. I for one, applaud them.
In my opinion it is time to take the gloves off and place some of the blame where it belongs. It has long been a belief of mine that many of our problems were exacerbated by the Republican party.
The only thing the Republicans seem to be concerned about is protecting the rich and corporations from taxes. It does not matter how much it hurts the rest of the country. If you do not believe me just check out why the Republicans won”t agree to a compromise. It would result in higher taxes on both. What a shame, they might have to pay their fair share.
Former President Reagan started the ball rolling with deregulation. Former President Clinton helped it along with the signing of NAFTA and the Republicans and the Bush administration finished it off with more deregulation that led to the collapse of Wall Street and financial institutions.
It would appear that voters” memories are very short. President Obama did not cause the problems we face now and he may have made mistakes trying to fix them.
One thing for sure is, if he did not bail out many of the large companies as he did, we would be in far worse shape than we are now.
Just try to imagine the unemployment numbers if the auto industry and its subsidiaries had been allowed to fail. Millions more Americans would be out of work, possibly causing our economy to completely fail.
In the words of TV talk show host Craig Ferguson; I look forward to your letters.
Ray Richards
Clearlake Park
