Unfair ATM fees?
I would like to bring to your attention and the attention of our community the unfair treatment that persons of limited means experience when using ATMs. For example a person withdrawing $20 from an ATM usually pays $3. On the other hand if that person withdraws $600 the fee is still $3. This means that the fee for the $20 withdrawal is 15 percent of the withdrawal. However, the percentage for the $600 withdrawal is just .005 percent. Clearly this is quite unfair. There is no reason why ATMs can’t be programed to charge a fee at an equal percentage for all withdrawals. Our representatives need to investigate and correct this mutation of what seems to be usury.
—Max Butler, Upper Lake
The Star
The Lake County Chamber wishes to extend a huge “thank you” to Russ Hamel, Managing Director of Konocti Harbor Resort and his crew for the brand new Star they constructed for the 2019 Stars of Lake County Community Awards program. The original Star built 20 years ago by the former owners of the resort had disappeared during the years the resort was shut down.
Upon learning of this very important feature for the Stars event, Mr. Hamel graciously stepped up to have a new Star built, complete with lights. As can be seen in any photos taken at Stars, this is indeed a focal point for the presentation of the awards. Feb. 9 saw an additional 22 Stars presented, bringing the total number of awards to almost 450.
Thank you to Konocti Harbor Resort and we know everyone is looking forward to their opening in late May, 2019!
—Melissa Fulton, CEO Lake County Chamber of Commerce
No real scriptural basis for the claim that the Christian God is pro-life
In all the right-wing agenda of “guns, gays, abortion and the wall,” abortion always seems to be the hottest topic. I went to a Christian School early on with my eyes wide open. My Christian education was full of cultish lies and they tried to extinguish critical thinking. I was taught that it was OK to worship a hateful man like Trump because secretly hating ourselves and outwardly hating others was “sacred.” Case in point the “sacred” Bible when it comes to abortion . The Bible, either the Old Testament or the New says absolutely nothing about abortion. OUt of more than 600 Laws of Moses, none comment on abortion.
I was taught the Bible says it’s wrong to murder a person and since the unborn are real people abortion is wrong. Sure, there are a few vague verses that allude to that. For example, Luke 1:41 “The Baby leaped in her womb” and Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” But according to all versions of the Bible, life begins at birth when a baby draws its first breath. The Bible defines life as “breath” in several significant passage including the story of Adam’s creation in Genesis 2:7 when God “Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Jewish law also maintains that priesthood begins at birth. Anti-abortionists seem desperate for a Biblical basis for their beliefs, constantly citing obscure passages, usually metaphors or poetic phrasing such as “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). This is pretty darn sexist and says nothing about abortion. If it was so important why didn’t the Bible say so?
If you are an honest reader you have to admit the Bible constantly contradicts itself. Far from protecting the sanctity of life, the Bible condones killing people for the smallest of supposed infractions all over the place. Clearly the Bible is not pro-life when the Lord casually orders Moses to massacre 24,000 Israelites (Numbers 15:32-35). In fact mass slaughters were routinely ordered by the God of the Bible including innocent babies and pregnant women in passage after gory passage. Come on folks, there is no real scriptural basis for the claim that the Christian God is pro-life. In face, spontaneous abortions according to Gynecology textbooks cite a 15 percent miscarriage rate naturally and 90 percent in very early pregnancy. That would make the Christian God in charge of nature the greatest abortionist in history. So the Bible does not condemn abortion, but even if it did, we do not live in a theocracy (which the Republicans are pushing for), we live under a secular Constitution of church and state, the right to privacy and a woman’s legal right to freedom of choice.
—William Hui, Clearlake.
