Thank you
The extended Steely Family wishes to express our deep gratitude for the care and support shown to us by the Lake County Law enforcement community and our community as whole.
Thank you to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, Lakeport Police Department, Lakeport Fire Department and Lakeport Area CHP for honoring Deputy Jacob Steely and his family so well through his transport home, memorial service and your continued support. Thank you to Lake County Sheriff’s department Chaplain Terry Cara for being an ever present source of comfort and help to us through the trauma of Jacob’s battle and eventual passing.
Our family was overwhelmed by the honor and love shown to us by his brothers and sisters in uniform and our community who were strangers to us before but now feel like family. Thank you to Chapel of the Lakes for the donation of your time and resources, Lake County Lions Club for your generous donation, Lakeport and Kelseyville Unified School districts and Lakeport Fairgrounds for the donation of your facilities, Lakeport Boy Scouts for setting up flags and many more businesses, individuals and agencies that donated, fundraised and showered us will love and support. They are too numerous to recount individually but please know we are so very grateful.
This connection with our community has left a profound mark on us which we will treasure always
Leabeth York, Lakeport
Strong will and opposition
It is refreshing to see Truth and Liberty rising at Donald Trump events.
Yet it is shocking to see racist protesters flying the flag of another country initiating third world style violence.
I do not recall seeing conservative Republicans behaving in this manner when we lost this country and state to the Democrats.
The San Jose police chief should be fired for collaboration and failing to provide public safety.
Strong wills have always met violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Craig Stankiewicz, Kelseyville
Hypocrisy, or what?
Over and over we Americans reaffirm our country’s goals: No one of our fellows should die from lack of shelter, from lack of food, or from lack of medical care. Then we add more: Lower taxes, reduction of the national debt, and the maintenance of our national culture and lifestyle as well as our devotion to risk aversion that borders on paranoia, our dislike/refusal to make important decisions and the setting of priorities that never satisfies everyone.
Following these is a dedication to such things as “rights’: Civil, property, water, and privacy. The “cherry on top” is our irrational regard of life, ghastly fear of dying, and our tendency to bankrupt ourselves and families to postpone someone’s life one more day whether it is warranted or desired by the person in question, to say nothing of our emotional overvaluing of the value of (any) human life that makes tort lawyers so happy!
Talk about having our cake and eating it too! No wonder why so many of us play with our I phones so much of the time.
Let’s face it, folks, — there is no way our country can have (even a large part of) what we want without making some serious decisions and living with consequences particularly with the country and world changing at an accelerated rate. Regardless of who or what is to blame, the odds are that population will continue to rise as will the sea level, our fresh water supply will probably remain where it is which suggests that per capita and per acre availability will continue to decrease. And so on!
As far as I can, the secret lies in a lot of sacrifice and some changes in what we feel we can accept in both loss of “rights” and increased revenue raising with changes in the way we spend what we have, recognizing that every action forces a reaction.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a money tree?
Guff Worth, Lakeport
Political correctness
We don’t need more laws telling people “What Matters.”
What we need is more of a sense of humor, because it’s gotten to the point of absurdity.
R. Toni Hyden, Lakeport
Critical thinking
A week or so ago the major internet news services ran a story entitled “Portland School Board Bans Climate Change-Denying Material”. The news outlets referred to an article written by Shasta Kearns Moore on May 19th apparently for the Portland Tribune (portlandtribune.com/sl/307848-185832-portland-school-board). The resolution calls for the school district to “get rid of textbooks or other materials that cast doubt on whether climate change is occurring and that the activity of humans is responsible”. What I found particularly interesting was that all the reader comments addressed the validity or non-validity of climate change. They all missed the point! The reader comments should not have been about climate change but, rather, the attempt to stifle critical thinking.
A man named Bill Bigelow, a former Portland Public School teacher, is currently curriculum editor for Rethinking Schools. Rethinking Schools is a magazine concerned with educational issues. Mr. Bigelow worked with environmental groups to present the banning resolution. He accused the publishing industry of “bowing to pressure from the fossil fuel companies”. I find his comments extremely disturbing, not for the content of climate change, but for the successful attempt to suppress any thinking that does not agree with their particular agenda. Among his comments were, “A lot of text materials are kind of thick with the language of doubt, and obviously the science says otherwise.” and, “We don’t want kids in Portland learning material courtesy of the fossil fuel industry.”.
I have often stated, “If you cannot argue the other sides position intelligently, you will lose on your side”. Unfortunately, people like Mr. Bigelow do not want people, particularly students, to be able to do that.
Peter MacRae, Lakeport
