More of Gov. Newsom’s mismanagement failures.
While we have all heard of Gov. Newsom’s failures and excesses with respect to our children missing a year and a half of public education and massive small business closures, there are other matters that merit our attention. His mismanagement of the state’s recycling fees we are all charged whenever you buy a bottle or can of water, soda or beer has not been in the news. The state’s recycling laws require that either stores buyback containers or there needs to be a nearby buyback center. Newsom has not enforced this law but continues to collect CRV fees. As a result of this failure the state is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in CRV fees and you have no close or convenient place to redeem the monies you have paid. He needs to either enforce the law and give us convenient places to get our CRV fees back or get his Democratic legislature to repeal CRV fees and quit illegally taking our money. If he spent more time doing his job and less time at the French laundry this problem wouldn’t exist.
Another issue the media has missed is Gov. Newsom’s closure of many of the state’s conservation camps. The camps house state prisoners who have historically provided a significant amount of low-cost firefighters to support Cal Fire and protect our state from wildfires. The new tax funded firefighter positions that Gov. Newsom now brags about, are simply replacing the prisoners that have been turned loose on early release in the state while the taxpayers pay for their replacements. It looks like the taxpayers have lost twice. Two more reasons to recall Gov. Newsom.
—Bob Bridges, Lakeport
What is agriculture doing to conserve water?
I keep reading about the seriousness of the current drought and the need for conservation of every precious drop of water. Homeowners and the general public are encouraged to water plants and gardens less, take shorter showers, and only have their car washed at a station that recycles their water. I am all for these measures and will do what I can to help out.
What irritates and confounds me however is the fact that while the general public only uses 20% of our available water, agriculture uses the other 80%. So far I have heard nothing about what agriculture, and especially the giant ag conglomerates, is doing to conserve water. Let’s hear what they are doing!
—Carolynn Jarrett, Clearlake
A letter to the Class of 2021 – Choose your own path
In America, high school graduation represents one of the few rights of passage into adulthood.
The trappings of graduation—the cap and gown, the playing of Pomp and Circumstance, the moving of the tassel from right to left—link you to graduates in big cities and small towns from coast to coast. And the school colors of the cap and gown link you to graduates from your school’s past and its future. As you strike out into the world, leaving compulsory education behind you, it is important to celebrate and to choose a path of your own.
In recent memory, no class has had a stranger senior year than you. When the pandemic hit in spring of 2020, many thought you’d all be back on campus by fall, then by winter. As the virus rampaged through our nation and our world, you had to adjust to the reality that school would not return to normal. The great thing about your class is that many of you came to grips with this relatively quickly and made the best of it.
If COVID-19 taught us anything it is that the traditional path is only one of many routes available. As you contemplate your future, I encourage you to remember that. It is easy to get swept up in the expectations of others, to follow a traditional path that seems right mostly because you never really considered any others. Cue the famous poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken.
When I was a young teacher, I had to choose between teaching art history near my home on the East Coast or teaching ceramics on the other side of the country in Humboldt County, California. Art history comes with a nice, intellectual shine. It is a thinking person’s subject, worthy of respect and admiration, I was drawn by the faculty in this remote region. These people did not wait for others to enable their dreams, but rather held art shows, competitions, and other fund raisers to construct a state-of-the-art ceramics studio at their high school. These teachers were passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship and art, and they were hellbent on instilling those qualities in their students.
So, I gave up everything that was familiar and moved across the country to be mentored by these teachers. I met my husband there and the rest, as they say, is history. I share this not to bore you to distraction but to illustrate that a little risk can create incredible potential for your future.
As you begin on your post-secondary path, imagine what it would feel like if each experience wasn’t judged as a success or failure, but instead as an opportunity to gain knowledge and wisdom, and to move you along on your journey.
Enjoy today. Seek new experiences. Spend time with people you enjoy. Don’t worry too much about the future. It will unfold as it is meant to.
—Michelle Hutchins, Mendocino County superintendent of schools
