Progress

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Re: “Mayoral Opportunity“, W. Daniel Tate, April 7, 2011.

Thank you Mr. Tate for the wise words from the outback of Phelan. The intelligence and wisdom of this Victorville citizen is not in your league but our concern for real change in Victorville may be mutual. Let’s stifle the blame game and devise a way forward. It is a given that past decisions of this Council have proved ill advised. Have your new mayor put a plan before the Council and take a vote. Fire some people, hire new management, do something besides pointing fingers. As such you are making yourself a part of the problem of Victorville.

G.Goslaw

Victorville

Elemental Economics

The capitalistic economic system is not perfect but it is better than every other. In this system, if money is what turns you on, we are, each and every citizen, free to pursue that goal with all legal means. Freedom is the promise that the pursuit of money is open to all. However, freedom is not equal freedom.

Some of us have certain advantages in the pursuit of money within every economic system. Our birth circumstances, intelligence, talents, effort,vision, luck, creativity, race, education and social position are factors, but none are determining factors in capitalism. Every citizen has the opportunity to pursue money from every life circumstance, that is freedom. It is called free enterprise.

Freedom is not a guarantee of money, there will be haves and have not’s, which shall we be? In the capitalistic economic system, we all make a choice by our actions or inactions. We are all individually responsible for shaping our own lives. In any other system, the government picks winner's and loser's, this is the rule of big government and the resulting "nanny state". That is who we have become, The United Nanny States of America, let's just change the logo.

Are there more important life priorities than money? Again, we are free to choose.

G. Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Hell or Highwater

April 5, 2011

Speaking for those of us who hang our lives on the words of Scripture, we should welcome the efforts of those who challenge our theological assumptions. While it may be upsetting in the short term, as we grow together, these people may be the heroes of the faith. Such is the debt we owe to Dr. Thomas Talbott for his book written ten years ago, “The Inescapable Love of God”. The assumption that is challenged in this book is the church doctrine of eternal punishment.

What awaits each of us when we die? In Christian theology we assume that God is waiting to render payback for our sins on earth. That through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross at Calvary, we can escape the coming wrath of God and be warehoused together forever with the good guys. That is the understanding that unites us but what is the fate of the rest of humanity? That understanding divides Christian doctrine. Is the character of our God to condemn anyone to eternal punishment? Does he condemn to hell only those who have not jumped through our hoops? Can such a God be a God of Love?

The author traces through church history how the three major schools of church doctrine and how they answer these questions. The Augustinian, the Arminian and the universalist theological models for afterlife issues are argued logically in an attempt to at least rock our assumptions and get us thinking. We learn that the universalist interpretation of scriptures has always been a part of biblical dialogue. We learn that to be a universalist does not mean that one must discard the rest of Christian theology. We learn that free will is not the enemy of a really all powerful big God.

If yours is a School House God, don’t bother to attempt to read this book. The “Inescapable Love of God” is not a casual read. One cannot digest the content of this book without making theological choices. Take the time to get inside the thought of Thomas Talbot. You may come away with a better understanding of the scriptures and the things to come. This book may be the most important theological writing since Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the doors of the Castle Church, Wittenburg, Germany.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

A Memo

April 3, 2011

To: Mr. Mahlum, SVL Board chairman, and the lake elitists of SVL

From: Just a Proxy of SVL

Why should all the homeowners of SVL, all 4000, pay for lake upkeep for the very few who use it? What % of homeowners use these facilities? What is spent each year to maintain the lake? What does the safety department do? Where is it when needed, possibly on the phone to the sheriff? The lake is in trouble, water is expensive, how so? The association has to advertise for water rights in the want ads section of the Daily Press, why? How expensive will that be? Good luck.

When yearly fees were $300, the lake and the association overhead were not as much an issue, but at $900 they very much are. If the vote to renew the CC&Rs is passed, where will fees go in the next 15 years? The demise of the association as presently constituted, is inevitable. The board and it’s politicking can only stall that ending. Why not devise a cost structure that more fairly taxes the residents of SVL? You won’t and the reasons are obvious.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

State of the City

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville, ca 92392

Frank Sinatra will forever croon, “Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread”. O.K., on this day, in this time, this reader qualifies. Please allow a quick, amateurish and foolish stab at a possible Victorville “what now” scenario. Let us set aside the blame game, think together and try to apply common sense. Our city must begin now instead of waiting until 2012 and a new Council to give us direction in the hopes of a painless solution. There will be no painless solution, then or now.

Fundamental to meaningful change is for the council to stand up and represent we the people. The Council is the City rather than the paid management staffers. Who is in control? The grand experiment of SCLA and it’s multilayered management has left we the taxpayers to pick up the tab for a very expensive project that has not panned out as advertised. The jobs return has been minimal, despite all the millions of taxpayer money, projections for job gains into the future are minimal, the people say cut our losses.

Council why can’t we give up the “big dog” mentality? Please explore turning over the airport to the County and /or a board run by all the cities of the high desert. In the meantime curtail all expansion at the base, including the treatment plant. Leave power generation to the people who are in that business. We live in Victorville because we don’t want to be Orange County. Small government that efficiently tends to the necessities of the people is our model for this City into the future.

Stop the hiring, stop digging the hole deeper. The renegade city management staff has gotten us into this mess and the Council representing the people now has to clean it up. They have failed and have earned a pay cut in salary and benefits, Council oblige. If they resent the cut and don’t perform give them the liberty to go elsewhere or get fired. Promote from within the ranks of current city employees for management responsibilites. Devalue the expensive professional public employee in favor of someone who can just do the job and is committed to this community. Defund and downsize the bloated city bureacracy or hire someone who will.

Corporations have done this on a regular basis, why not the City of Victorville? Surely this solution is an over implication and many seeming barriers will be advanced to preclude such actions. Yet, this resident has heard of no other solutions. Council hang tough and do what is best now for Victorville.

G. Goslaw

Victorville, Ca