L.A.Times

Commentary

Wednesday, January 12, 2011.

“Brown’s plan-- pain everywhere”, by Tim Rutten

This is a well written, savvy explanation of Governor Brown’s plan for the new budget cycle. Even a financial neophyte like myself can get a grip on the Governor’s thinking. Continuing the twelve billion dollar tax increase corrupted out of the Schwarzenegger administration must be passed by the voters for the plan to work. The other half of the plan is to cut state services and salaries to the tune of twelve billion. Both of these extraordinarily difficult budgetary moves may stumble over their politics.

Does the governor have the political capital to pull off this miracle in Sacramento? The odds on his success will be very, very long. What are we to do if the voters turn down the taxes and we are already into the budget year, more craziness out of Sacramento? A more informed voice needs to speak to that potential situation but the plan has another significant flaw.

The plan is not fair. Newspaper editors like to use a piece title to please their primary constituency but the piece does not say what the title says. There is a disconnect. One would suppose that the editors assume that their readers are not reading, interesting. I am making this observation on my own and have no personal knowledge of nor contact with Mr. Rutten. In addition this criticism applies to our local paper. Integrity would seem to be the issue.

In this case the title, “Brown’s plan- pain everywhere”, is not supported by the text. The pain is not everywhere. Please let me quote Mr. Rutten, "Two categories of spending , however, are striking for their exemption from pain: kindergarten through 12th grade education and the state’s prison system. The prison guards , in fact, got one of the budgets only increases--from $8.9 billion to $9.1 billion…..".

This reader is a cynic about our politics. The unfairness of this preferential budget is a payoff to the unions who helped get Governor Moonbeam elected. Politics has not changed in 40 years but California sure has reaped it’s downside.

The simple assessment is that the plan is too short and too late and too unfair.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Sunny Comment

Voice of the People

The Sun

4030 N. Georgia Blvd.

San Bernardino, Ca 92407

voice@inlandnewspapers.com

Please excuse this letter from a Victorville resident. Mom just took the Sun newspaper because we didn’t have the heart to say no to the young man at the door. I have found the paper very informative as to what’s happening down the hill. More importantly, Mom has an extra crossword puzzle to work. You wouldn’t believe her vocabulary.

May I make a quick comment about the excellent article, Sunday, October 3, by Wendy Leung, “Two homes for two beliefs”? The folks at RPYA have a blessed mission. There is clearly a difference of opinion about homosexuality expressed by those involved in the mission, a division that is descriptive of our culture, nurture or nature. The purpose of this comment is not to make a choice between the two but say that the Bible does not clearly make the choice either. Ms. Rosales has a right to her understanding of Scripture but it is an incorrect over simplification.

Do we all worship a God who rains death down on gay people or one who calls us to love even our enemies? Which is it, both are in the Bible? As the community of Sun newspaper readers, let us practice the biblical truth that Jesus taught, loving all our brothers and sisters. We must love especially those we may not understand. Are they not less dangerous than our enemies, or are they?

G.Goslaw

Victorville, CA

An Open Letter

January 13, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for being there for we Americans in Tucson this Wednesday, January 12, 2011. This observer is not about to demean anyone’s heartfelt motives but please allow me to ask a question. Was the last four days about the actual victims of the Tucson tragedy or was it about our own agenda’s? This question is not a “trick or treat” question, it is not a veiled threat. This sincere question comes from “the old school”, for a few of us got in the way of that mad man's bullets this Saturday. As a group of Americans we have done our thing and are most concerned about the future of our families and our America.

As much as I speak for any of my countrymen and women, we have a duty to ask this question. The most powerful line from your excellent address at the memorial service was, “this we can not do”! This noble sentiment was repeated at least three times. The direction was so appropriate, at such a time as this, the circumstances should not build up the walls between us but bridge the differences and unite all of us as Americans. We must pull together to preserve the union. You are familiar, indeed, with this motive as expressed by your most admired other president, President Abraham Lincoln.

The Civil War story was a crisis in American history similar to our current crisis. The question then was fundamentally the same as now, was this America to be built on the divisions among us or a national identity that was inclusive as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution. Is the government a servant of all the people or an earthly organization of the few organized to empower the lives of the few. That negative modality is the way the rest of the world operates, we Americans do not, or at least should not. Our history is not pure at this point but your seat as the leader of all Americans speaks of progress.

From the vantage point of one who cares about our American destiny, the current crisis seems to be a like minded attempt by the few to warp our union toward their control. Our first instinct is to think the best of people but at this time it is difficult not to be a conspiracy theorist, events appear orchestrated, one wonders who is plucking the strings? The implication is not that there is a sinister Anti-Christ amongst us, causing all these tragedies over and over again. Mad men kill in Tucson, New York City, Oklahoma City, Texas, and hundreds of other cities throughout our history. Killing is nothing new.

We will always experience such tragedies but at present the potentially violent people in trouble are being increasingly ignored by our elected officials. Every city in America can list a string of violence and cruelty in their own communities. Yet mental health resources are continuously being phased out leaving the ill without a viable option. Even when the ill do not seek help most of our communities have the legal resources to question aberrant behavior. We don’t until it's to late. We should be a community that intervenes civilly to help our neighbors. Where are the neighbors, the parents, the police and friends to confront those of us who are in trouble and give them an alternative?

These days have thrust upon us the added mad man violence of terrorism. We all have learned that this is the indiscriminate killing of like human beings for political and religious agendas, an insanity even more insane than the routine madness. Since 9/11, fear confronts us in response to this threat. The fear is real and justified, the threat is real but what does our government do? Republican and Democrat alike play politics with our fears, seeking to manipulate the body politic toward a prescribed agenda. The stated agenda is war abroad and carefully crafted politically sensitive regulation at home. This old goat, however, smells a dead rat.

There is only one motive that is consistent across party lines and Presidencies. The primary motive is not to keep us safe but to spend. Spend and spend, the politicians must feed the hungry beast of the military industrial complex regardless of the fallout on the average American citizen. Business and corporate interests cross feed on the lazy money of Wall Street. Every Washington office holder seems to have been birthed in the financial sector, all the moneyed lobbyists at least influence our politicians of every flavor. The political faces change but the influence does not. As a result we live under a runaway government that is intent on our demise as the world’s hope for justice among men.

In view of this suspicion let me return to my original question. What was the last four days about? Some of us would confess to being less than impartial observers but from all appearances there was an orchestrated opportunistic attempt to access blame for the shooting in an attempt to influence the politics of the moment. Without a shred of evidence the liberal elitist attack dogs were given the “sic’em” command. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, even to give priority to their mouths instead of their brains, but it appeared duly orchestrated.

Where were you for four days Mr. President? Were you relishing the blame game and all the name calling? Were you giving the commands so that you could ride into the fracas on a white steed and save the day? Or were you just following along with the playbook? Whose playbook may we ask? Did you allow the mourning process for these American heroes to become fodder in the guns of war for political supremacy? Must we politicize everything?

We expected an A-political Memorial Service intended to promote the grieving solidarity of this nation with the grieving victims of the Massacre on the Corner. Why did we get instead a political rally replete with liberal political agendas and the ambiance of a basketball game? I can not answer these questions for you Mr. President and you will not. However, many of us are intelligent enough to recognize the ploy and the diversion in the last for days and remain steadfast to our conviction that we are one America.

We aware Americans, will seek at the ballot box an equitable, for all, Constitutional government, in spite of every appearance of political manipulation. The Almighty dollar that is devastating the middle class will no longer be in charge of our government and our politicians. Unless, of course we as the citizenry of this great country deny our specialness, succumb to spending politics and become like the rest of the world. "This we can not do"!

Best wishes and kindest regards,

G.Goslaw

Victorville, California

Hey Jerry ...

Are you a proponent of the advertised Democratic motto of representing the disadvantaged? This budget plan declares war on the little guy, the bottom 20% of the economic ladder in California. Are we as a mature society to make the least of us support the economic greed of the working advantaged? It is positively sinful.

These are desperate times for all Californians with the necessity for dramatic cuts to governmental services. Please, the public sector has to bear the cuts. The grossly overpaid working secure unions have to be confronted with their greed, not assisted in their felony by our politicians. You may pay a price by being a one term governor but do it for California.

Besides union cuts, the welfare system needs targeting for it is broken. Welfare should be taxpayer funded for the dangerously needy but this state has a system that reeks of a ballooned undeserving clientele. Fraud, illegal aliens, mismanagement and those who are milking the system combine to bleed the honest taxpayer. It is not fair as well as sinful. We do not understand how the thieves among us can sit in church under a cloud of self imposed self righteousness. The blind are following the blind.

Our concern is primarily resources for the disabled. On a visit to the doctor a young man in a wheel chair struck up a casual conversation with those of us in the waiting room. He is facing his limitation with great courage but we as taxpayers want to assist him not the selfish. To make this distinction is a difficult job but take this moment in your long career and be the change agent that will give California a future. The departing governor missed his opportunity for the change he promised. This is your hour. No halfway measure will work.

Who knows I could even vote for you next time.

Kindest Regards,

G.Goslaw

Victorville, California

Our Heroes

January 11, 2011

Moments crash upon us that demand we put on Superman’s cape in the face of injustice. Such a moment occurred in Tucson Arizona on Saturday, 01/08/11. Outrage is the order of the day and a natural reaction to the injustice of such a senseless mass killing. We Americans are good at it, breeding mass killers. Some would blame the American psyche or the confrontational national rhetoric, both are slight of hand intended to manipulate the public to further another agenda. In reality these folk are more despicable than the killer.

There is little new here, when life doesn’t pan out according to advertised expectations, one option for the individual is to allow anger to consume, both themselves and whomever gets in the way. If we were Clark Kent, if we could jump into the nearest telephone booth and put on the cape to crusade against this injustice, what would we do? For most of us this is an anxiety producing question. We could apply a few Band-Aids to our American condition but regrettably this injustice seems to be an unavoidable byproduct of a free society.

The real insanity is to slavishly surrender our freedoms to a societal designer who would, supposedly, make life sweet and predictable. These lying folk or systems come along regularly to hawk their wares to a nervous public. Should we fear the insane few or the insane multitude who would destroy our freedoms? An overbearing federal government is one such threat. Just because there are a few unstable people who co-op the rhetoric doesn’t make the rhetoric insane.

Freedom is expensive and a few of us will always pay a higher price. Today’s freedom fighters were in Tucson, to include their families who suffer greatly. We mourn together. They are our heroes as much as any who have sacrificed for this Promised Land. The purveyors of hate and murder will always challenge us to be someone other than the shinning light on a hill, the American light of freedom that we were created to be. The fallen have joined a long list of freedom fighters and we are proud and a bit ashamed.

Ashamed at our own reluctance to step up to serve others by over prioritizing our own personal comfort. The American way is more than a job, a white house and our IRA accounts. We are not the world, we are better than this, we are Americans. How many times do we look the other way instead of getting involved? How many times do people in trouble cross our path and we ignore them? How often do our politicians increase the defense budget and skim away at the mental heath resources for our neighbors? We all are guilty.

As Americans, when we are at our best, we are just insane enough to believe that it is up to us individually to put on Superman’s cape and value our freedoms. The best of our freedoms is, as the Constitution states, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Do we value the life freedom for all? Do we give each American the opportunity to pursue their own dreams? Are we as demanding for the other guys freedom to chose their own way, as we are demanding of our own way? These freedoms are not for the few but all Americans.

Grab your Superman capes and let us follow our heroes.

G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca

The Happiness Hypothesis

The obviously brilliant Bertrand Russell asks us to consider his methodology for life in his book, "The Conquest of Happiness”. In 1930 it was the social ethic of happiness. We just need to learn about ourselves and how to get along, a path that will lead to happiness. The description of the methodology is engaging, accurate, clear and to some extent an enjoyable read. Over the last eighty years Americans have been content to swallow and chew on Russell’s happiness hypothesis.

The result was and is the often advertised American dream. As Americans we can lift ourselves by the boot straps to achieve upward mobility. To this point Dr. Russell says nothing wrong or that is injurious to our society, however, his thinking does have one flaw. It is merely a human endeavor to shape life around human priorities, it is secular thinking that has no divine imperative. Does God lead by the happiness hypothesis?

The Scriptures say no but instead of confronting Russell, the church decided to co-mingle the Gospel and the hypothesis of happiness. In ignorance, I hope, the church advertised itself by using self help methodology offering happiness, upward mobility, prosperity, success, health and social acceptance. This partnership with Russell, whom the church despises on paper, has denigrated the authenticity of the church. The Scriptures have no patience with Russell or the church at this point.

Moses was asked to go from the happiness of Midian to confront the other God, the Pharaoh of Egypt. Jesus was asked to leave the happiness of the countryside to go to the conflict in Jerusalem. The Pharisee of Pharisees was asked to leave the confines of his religious community to be a Christian renegade. A monk in an Egyptian monastery is asked to leave the comfort of his garden tending to go to Rome and their to be slaughtered in the Arena, shaming the audience for their unethical understanding of happiness. These are only a few of the inherent contradictions between the happiness hypothesis and the Gospel of God.

The Gospel is about giving it up, happiness that is, under the direction of God. Bertrand Russell considered God talk human insecurity and of no concern in his hypothesis of happiness. Instead of siding with Dr. Russell the church should be presenting the truth of the gospel, as unattractive as that may be.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, CA.

Our Fine Feathered Friends

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

P.O. Box 1389

Victorville, Ca. 92392

Well, our fine feathered friends are back doing our business in Washington, D. C. Sorry for the less than respectful nomenclature but Washington has run us into a cavernous ditch.

There is a new flock in town squawking promises to we the people. There is cause to hope but are they really listening? We shall see but change has to be now for we will not be placated. Across the board sizable cuts including military, defense and Home Land Security .... this is what we are demanding of you. The people want an end to giveaway trade deals that also play to the lazy money on Wall Street.

Our fine feathered friends, start squawking a hopeful tune that is real not just politics. Are you still listening? Are you eagles or sparrows? Please, fly high our fine feathered friends.

G. Goslaw

Victorville, CA