Our Readers Write

What is a life worth?

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017, the news of yet another death on state Route 67 in Ramona was reported, caused by a head-on collision between two vehicles.

According to the article, one of the vehicles crossed through the yellow channelizer posts in the highway’s center line. Although these posts are being installed to help prevent head-on collisions, it’s painfully obvious that they do not do their intended job.

This accident, along with those before, and those that will undoubtedly occur in the future, begs the question of what is a life worth? At one point, I believe there had been discussion of installing concrete K rails along the center divide on Highway 67. My recollection was that this idea was abandoned in favor of the “less expensive” yellow posts, a solution that does nothing to prevent or contain a vehicle crossing the center line for whatever reason.

It would seem that those costs should be revisited in light of another death, and two families lives impacted: One, the family of the woman who died, and the other of the young man who fell asleep at the wheel and crossed the center line through the totally ineffective yellow plastic posts.

What price should be put on a life, when it comes to public safety on a known dangerous road?

Bill Williams

Ramona

Let’s eliminate tribe mentality

As I do every Thursday, I opened up the Ramona Sentinel to the commentary and letters section first. I lived a metropolitan life until 20 years ago when we moved to Ramona and I became acquainted with small town life and opinions.

For most of the past year, when I opened this section of the paper, I was usually amused at the whining drivel of Susan Conrad and Peter Quercia. It seemed to have no end, but was always similarly themed.

Similar, but different memes would come from David Patterson, but less often. I always disagree with him, but I respect him because I see him in town, giving back to the community, so how can you not love that. Also, he is said to have put in his time in the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam. God love him even in his wayward thinking.

He reminds me of a good friend of mine from high school. When we graduated in 1969, my friend’s mindset took him to Woodstock and mine took me to the Marine Corps and Vietnam. Our lives continued on those paths we had struck and we are 180 degrees apart in most of our views, but we are friends and can banter about it with each other all day and continue to be friends and respect each other.

I miss seeing that today and I wonder why we all can’t respectfully disagree. When the time comes, vote your guys in. For right now, let’s eliminate our “tribe” mentality and bring our attitudes down a notch. Those of us who have lived through this before know it will burn out, but let’s speed it up a bit. Maybe Patterson will buy me a beer at the VFW and we’ll find a way to bring meaningfulness to this discussion.

Tim Stanton

Ramona

Time for a change

When asked recently why he still supports President Trump, Congressman Duncan Hunter replied, “He’s an asshole, but he’s our asshole.”

To be sure, there’s definitely something wrong with Hunter’s demeanor as our representative. Not to mention the fraud investigation. Isn’t it time for a change?

Sandy Arsham

Ramona

Nation’s reputation at stake

There comes a time when people of good conscience have to do the right thing, and how we react regarding the demise of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) will define us for a very long time.

The reputation of our nation is at stake, defined by the following question: Is America a place where people exploit people for profit, no holds barred, or a place where we take care of each other?

DACA provides legal protection for the approximately 800,000 foreign born children brought to the United States and raised as Americans. The 1990s’ economic boom was used to fill many bank accounts while exploiting the cheap labor of those without legal immigration documents.

From what I could see, virtually all aspects of our local economy were bolstered by the undocumented. People hired them to labor in their yards, businesses hired them for construction and real-estate folks and banks sold them homes while everyone in the chain stuffed their pockets. All the while the undocumented worked hard and raised their children as Americans, hoping that their kids would eventually be assimilated. Now we throw them and their kids under the bus.

The message the world will get from this is that America is a place where we exploit people without conscience, money is the end game. The reputation of our nation and we as human beings is at stake. Will we allow America to be stained by greed, your kids and mine exploited forever?

Dave Patterson

Ramona

Opinion mirrors article

Peter Quercia’s Opinion Page letter about the 50-year anniversary of the Hippie Invasion was written very well, and gave me a double sense of deja vu, both in taking me back to those memorable years, and also to an article I previously read in the Aug./Sept. edition of the AARP Magazine written by Robert Love. The AARP article, aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-2017/

remembering-the-summer-of-love-50th-

anniversary.html , shares many similarities to Mr. Quercia’s letter, and, in fact, some statements are, as they say in Latin, verbatim. Peter really should have given credit to Robert Love. It just might have bolstered his credibility.

David Morris

Ramona

Promoting change

Good old humanity. Truly a diversity university. And the Ramona Sentinel defined it so well with the choice of letters published in the Aug. 31 issue.

Plants and animals are usually dependent on an unchanging environment. Don’t people, by managing their own environments, through their diversity promote change? And won’t it require change, as yet unimagined, to rescue life when, far down the road our planet, our world, has run its physical course?

Edalee Orcutt Harwell

Ramona

P.S. I wish that the Sentinel would continue letters on page 5 instead of page 6 so that the interesting personal opinions could be saved for review and sharing on a single page, front and back. I have included this suggestion, which could be considered a criticism, to prove that I’m human.

Beliefs are result of experience, evidence

If Gary Myers’ letter had ended after the first paragraph it would have been accurate. Indivisible is a political activist organization aiming to disrupt the Trump agenda that we believe is based on racism, hostility toward women, climate change denial, and contempt for science, the environment, and our public lands.

These beliefs come from the experience we’ve lived and the evidence we look at just as those who believe in free markets, small government, and unfettered capitalism develop their ideas from what they know. That people have differing beliefs doesn’t mean anyone has been gaslighted, deceived, played by the media, or is the victim of a cabal.

One of our freedoms as Americans is the right to contribute to organizations that are doing work we support. George Soros has the same right I do to donate to Planned Parenthood or any other organization. He just has a whole lot more money. And he’s not hiding behind a curtain either. His philanthropy in this country and around the world is well documented.

The source of his wealth is appropriately controversial. Hedge fund managers as a group haven’t done the world any favors. They earn unimaginable amounts of income exploiting small differences in value through huge numbers of trades, treating the markets like a giant casino. The results for the rest of us can be devastating. How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour by Les Leopold is a very readable account of how this works.

Soros himself said, “I’m a player and I think all players should be regulated. There have to be rules of the game.” As long as there aren’t, hedge fund managers will have the power to create disaster in the markets.

One more thing: George Soros (b. 1930) was a child and young teenager in Hungary when he lived under a Christian identity to evade the Nazis. The trip with his godfather to inventory a Jewish estate that serves as the basis for collaboration charges is described in a biography by Michael Kaufman and referenced on snopes.com, the fact-checking website. He did not turn in fellow Jews, confiscate their property, or send anyone to the death camps. He was 14 years old at the time.

Lark Burkhart

Ramona