Care about the homeless
I read the article on Pastor Kelly Kennemer, “Minister struggles…” March 25, 2015 with great interest. I can’t put into words how wonderful it was to read of someone who actually cares about the homeless and is stepping up to the plate to do something about it. You, Pastor Kennemer, are an angel! We need more people such as yourself in our communities.
However, I am also very disappointed in the mayor of Clearlake. Instead of helping Pastor Kennemer with his shelter she allows it to be closed down, stating excuses such as “… no suitable building… needing collaboration…,” and so forth. Seems to me the pastor already had a building for a shelter. Why not help him bring this building up to code? Wouldn’t this be considered collaborating? I get really tired of hearing (or reading) about how homelessness is a problem and how there “isn’t any money…” yet, when someone tries to do something to help the homeless and doesn’t even ask the city for money, he gets closed down! Tell me, what is wrong with this picture?
Also, why didn’t the Record-Bee include an address or something for the public to offer monetary or volunteer help to Pastor Kennemer? There are those of us who really do care about the homeless.
Jeanene Parnell, Kelseyville
(Editor’s note: You may contact Pastor Kennemer at 480-5523)
Hospice
My name is Laisné Hamilton. I began volunteering with Hospice Services of Lake County one year ago and it has been a wonderful experience. My personal introduction to hospice was in 1994 in Humboldt Co. when my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was given a prognosis of 3 months and hospice was called. They gave us material to read and encouragement but most of all they gave us support. We didn’t feel alone. When I came back to Lake County I joined a bereavement group and worked through some issues.
Five years later my sister was killed in a tragic car accident. I once again came to group with Hospice. The group helped me to work through the traumatic experience. Hospice has given me something solid to connect with in my times of grief. They didn’t tell me answers but guided me to discover the answers for myself.
It is now 2015 and I have made the space and time to give back to Hospice Services of Lake County. It is amazing that with all the volunteering with clients, office help, and camps, the more I give, the more full I feel. My efforts to repay Hospice have turned into a “paying it forward” experience. The trainings have enabled me to meet some truly gracious people both in the office and clients. My fellow volunteers are encouraging and uplifting. They help me to see that we need to work together to share the caring dignity that Hospice provides.
The best thing about the trainings is the gentle reassurance that I feel from the interactions with the trainers and other participants. I feel honored to be able to work with Hospice. If I can help people feel they are not alone and feel valued, I will be happy. If I were in charge of the world, I would want everyone to know and understand how hospice is not a negative noun but a gentle, peaceful verb.
Laisne Hamilton, Kelseyville
The reason
Senator Harry Reid, in 2012, said he had been informed that Mitt Romney had not paid his taxes for 10 years. Romney produced proof that he had paid his taxes. The next year during a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) asked former IRS Commissioner Shulman, “Do you know how Mr. Reid obtained that information? Did you look into this?” Even though the claim had already been debunked Rep. Gosar was using it as a ‘fact’ to lash Obama and the IRS.
Senator Ted Cruz said that the IRS should be shut down and the 110 thousand agents be sent to patrol the borders. This beside the fact that the IRS has only 82 thousand employees of which only 25 percent are agents. He also referenced a 1975 Newsweek article concerning global cooling, stating that this represented the state of thought of the scientific community so global warming could also be discounted. The author of the article now admits that this was not the consensus at the time and most of the information was bogus.
John Boehner, in forming the latest Benghazi committee, asks “why didn’t we attempt to rescue” Americans under siege and why were some U.S. personnel “told not to get involved”? Both of these questions have already been answered by seven other reviews, two of them by Republican committees. Yet this new committee will get to the bottom of the conspiracy, with more spending of taxpayer money. Is this a serious investigation or just an attempt to drag this out through the 2016 election? Asked by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough about the possibility that Gowdy’s panel’s work would continue into the 2016 election campaign Gowdy replied, “if an administration is slow-walking document production, I can’t end a trial simply because the defense won’t cooperate.” This from the man who held only two hearings the first eight months and did not request documents until this year.
Why do people trust these Republicans and vote for them? Must be the same reasons Democrats get elected.
Kevin Bracken, Kelseyville
Speech and thought
In Les Vygotsky’s “Thought and Language,” bottom of page 6, he says a meaningful word is both word and thought; so, according to Vygotsky, a form of speech and thought can be one and the same; and if all meaningful words constitute an entity that is both thought and language, then only nonsense syllables can be words that are not also thought. I don’t understand Vygotsky here. I mean is he or ain’t he? He’s supposed to believe thought is too nice to associate with language. Granting the above of him, can there be a thought that is not reified (made real) by some real or imaginary communicatory act? I think not. Man soliloquizes (talks to himself actually or imaginatively) all the time that he is thinking; for a word that has meaning cannot be used without expressing a thought; and a thought cannot be conceived without some manner of real or imaginary reification. I wouldn’t say a word and a physical motion are the same, but either can be used to express a communiqué (to indicate meaning; one might instance a thumbs down [or finger up] gesture).
I’m no worse than Geoffrey Chaucer.
Dean Sparks, Lucerne
