No to Dollar General
A guy walks into a bar, and is summarily thrown out, landing on the sidewalk. Bewildered, he goes back inside and is ejected again. He cannot understand this. He stands up, dusts himself off, and tries one more time, with the same result.
“I think I know what’s wrong with those people,” he mutters to a passer-by. “They don’t want me in there.”
A lot of us in Kelseyville don’t want Dollar General in here, either, but they’ve dusted themselves off and are still trying to walk in the door. Kelseyville has pride, and our posture as a unique country town is evidence of this. Our architecture, the products of our shops, the community involvement of our character all point to this. We want to keep things that way.
Imagine your disgust if you were to attend a craft fair, enjoying the handmade quilts, handbags, original wall hangings, and furniture lovingly crafted from wine barrels, when your sensitivities are shocked by a vendor selling cheap plastic toys and tacky souvenirs. He just doesn’t belong there, any more than a Dollar General store belongs in our town.
It isn’t just the proposed location that alarms us — planned, as it is, across the street from the high school. We don’t want them at all.
A petition is circulating in protest to this invasion. Please add your name. And on August 28, attend the Board of Supervisors meeting and let your opposition be heard.
Robin C. Harris, Kelseyville
Health
Medicare has just passed fifty years old. What is commonly called “Obamacare” really just started. Essentially both are based on the (relative) consensus that people not be allowed to die for lack of medical attention which, when we moan and groan about health expenses, makes a whole lot of us hypocrites to the Nth degree.
Collectively we do not choose to pay for the health level we desire. It may not even be possible since between some religious views, the misplaced desire to “live” as long as we can (well beyond our contribution limit and our family’s pocketbook) afford, as well as the fact that we American’ are gutless to establish the lower limit of “health” we are allowed prior to death. Too many old people apparently have lived a life that they feel has earned them the reward of oblivion or that they figure their family owes them care to the end. On top of that, in most places we are not allowed to “self terminate” even when the subject (or legally designated representative) in question has determined it is the optimum action. As far as I can see, we elderly should feel the responsibility for minimalizing our “departure” as our prehistoric predecessors did. The good of the family/group was paramount!
Americans were content, if not happy with the level of medical technology it 1965. We griped about expenses then, and yet have continued to pay for and receive the benefits of ever improving medical technology since 1965. The problem, as I see it, is that the mass of research has evolved from what really benefits the wide population (small pox, diphtheria , diabetes) to, more and more, to those whose can afford costly treatment, whether or not their lives are worth it, through family wealth or some manner of insurance. I think we need, importantly, to model what our present health care costs would be if we had stopped medical technology and progress at 1970. I suspect that our country would not be much different than it is now — but the deficit might be far less,
As a last thought, I think we Americans should give a whole lot of thought to what our individual responsibility is for our own health. To me there are far too many things that the average person could do to help their own health condition. Admittedly, I am not very sympathetic to those with conditions that might well be affected by their own actions. I am particularly intolerant to those who have serious complications from unattended diabetes. Close control takes a lot of attention, none of which is particularly enjoyable, but is necessary. On our marriage day, Mary Ann’s endocrinologist warned me that with the medical technology of 1952, don’t expect her to get to our tenth anniversary. She made age 84 when she just “wore out,” but our collaboration on close control allowed her a great life. When I see examples of over weight people with diabetic complications due to their lack of attention to their condition I find a lack of sympathy. Being overweight is a widespread condition What you eat is a direct influence on how you look and how you look has a great affect on how you are accepted by society.
Sadly, to me, far too many of our country’s medical problems are due to irresponsibility, and their belief that the country will take care of them, no matter what!
Guff Worth, Lakeport
Treat the garden right
It is common knowledge that politicians treat voters like mushrooms: keep them in the dark and cover them with manure.
Brent Pomeroy, Lakeport
