Our Readers Write

Grateful recipient of Helping Hands

It really warmed my heart to read about all of the churches who have come together to do good things for our fellow Ramonans and our community.

I was the grateful recipient of one of those good acts today. Our church, First Congregational Church, acted through its “Helping Hands” ministry to build a ramp in our sunken family room. I am dealing with a progressive neurological disease and this will not only make it safer to walk down to that area now, but is a great help when I will be using my scooter more in our house.

I am so grateful to Hal Mortier, Ed Wylie and George Mussen for taking time on this beautiful day to enrich my life. Thank you also to Carole Wylie, who used her architectural skills to design the ramp.

In light of all the horrible things going on in our country, how lucky we are to live in such a loving and caring town!

Jeanne Cannon

Ramona

Who’s militaristic?

In Dave Patterson’s caustic critique of the September Ramona TEA’d Forum, he concluded “the meeting was wholly militaristic with God providing the cover for placing liberals and Muslims in the cross-hairs of their rhetoric.”

Perhaps I attended a different Ramona Tea’d Forum. It was my experience that:

We exposed, in a video, Antifa’s violent tactics to shut down free speech — and we were accused of being militaristic?

We prayed for God’s intervention against the assault on the Bill of Rights, especially the First and Second Amendments that form the basis for our unique form of government — and we were militaristic?

We expressed concern that our country was in a Civil War of Ideas, as evidenced by the daily assaults on our Founding, our Founding Fathers, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, our Right to Bear Arms, Free Enterprise and Capitalism — and we were militaristic?

We had a speaker from California Screaming Eagles, a new organization that evolved from Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, a pro-family, pro-life group that supports our country’s founding principles —and we were militaristic?

We hosted a speaker on the successful lawsuit against San Diego Unified School District and its collusion with the Council on American & Islamic Relation, an unindicted, co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Trial — and we were militaristic?

We presented a speaker who “blew the whistle” on the Obama Administration’s destruction of intelligence files on terrorist cells within the U.S. — and we were militaristic?

You want things militaristic? How about Antifa, Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street? Then of course there is the far left Indivisibles. Its performance at Congressman Duncan Hunter’s Town Hall in Ramona earlier this year was ugly and uncivilized. Now that was militaristic.

Jim Fontana, 30-year Navy veteran

Chairman of Ramona Tea’d

Wonderful people live and work here

I would like to thank the employees at the 99 Cent Store for finding and keeping my purse safe when I accidentally left it in a shopping cart in the parking lot. If anyone has ever had a purse stolen, or lost a wallet, they know how traumatic it is to have to cancel everything and start over again with driver’s license, credit cards, and worry about identity theft.

I also want to thank the mysterious person who paid for my breakfast and my guest’s breakfast at the Ramona Café. We will certainly pay it forward.

Ramona has some wonderful people who live and work here.

Christina West

Ramona

Opinion page recommendation

The San Diego Union Tribune, the parent company of the Ramona Sentinel, has a policy governing the publication of Letters to the Editor and Commentaries.

Specifically, it is the policy of the SDUT to publish no more than one Letter to the Editor from the same author within 30 days. Letters are limited to 150 words. Further, the SDUT will not publish more than one Commentary from the same author within four months. Commentaries are limited to 700 to 750 words. Both may be edited, for length and clarity.

I recommend that the Ramona Sentinel adhere to the same policy. Doing so may tick off some of your more compulsive and self-absorbed letter writers, but it will improve the quality and diversity of your Opinion Section.

Dennis J. McCarthy

Ramona

No big box store in Ramona

Most of us live here for the same reason — to get away from the hustle of a bigger town than Ramona is. Here are three things to consider:

1. Letting in a big box store will increase the number of people who would consider moving to Ramona because they will have the convenience of a big box store “‘up the hill,” right here at home. Isn’t traffic on Main Street already bad enough?

2. In theory, the current building that houses Kmart could easily fit another big box store (maybe of smaller size), so if Kmart ever goes under (Kmart is currently reducing the amount of stores in their chain, the Ramona location is not one of them: businessinsider.com/43-more-sears-and-

kmart-stores-are-closing-2017-7) Ramona would have TWO stores of that kind — just like that! Has anyone thought of this?

3. While the convenience and large stock of a place like Sprouts is great, please remember that our Ramona Family Naturals store would definitely suffer from that kind of competition. And while their (RFM) prices are pretty close, the owner of the smaller independent store on Sixth Street is able to pay his employees and himself a living wage. Small towns are defined by small business.

Eva Vorce

Ramona

Community sing-along, a new tradition

Come one, come all. That’s a cheery statement we don’t hear often enough in the present climate of political and social divisiveness.

But here in Ramona, we value family and community spirit with inclusive community events like our rodeo, country fair, and wonderful 4th of July festivities. And this Saturday night, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m., another event has been added to this list for your participation and enjoyment.

When I was a kid growing up in Newhall, a small town like Ramona, everyone looked forward the annual Sing-along. That’s exactly what our Ramona Community Singers are initiating at the Charles R. Nunn Performing Arts Center at Olive Peirce Middle School. The theme of the evening is “Ramona Meets Broadway” with everyone present encouraged to sing along.

Bring the whole family to this evening of lighthearted community camaraderie and merriment to usher in the holiday season on a positive (musical) note. And as they say, “the best things in life are free” — that’s right, a free evening out for the whole family

Felix Daoust

Ramona

Bias by omission

I can’t believe it. Ramona Tea’d got trolled by Dave Patterson. In typical online troll fashion, he sat through over an hour’s worth of the meeting without finding anything positive to say.

For all the time he spent describing mankind’s evolving powers of observations, I must say that he seemed to have checked his at the door. Or perhaps Steven Crowder’s, not chowder, promotional poster is true. Steven is a comedian, but the poster seen by Dave for about 20 seconds had a profound effect on him.

Those interested in the real content of Crowder’s video can see it is on YouTube, titled “Undercover in Antifa: their tactics and media support exposed!” Crowder and his crew went undercover to expose Antifa for what they are — thugs. It also shows how corrupt the mainstream media is and how they use bias by omission to ignore parts of stories that do not fit their liberal agenda. Ramona Tea’d has posted a link to the video on both their Facebook page and website.

Dave used bias by omission to write his report on his findings at the Ramona Tea’d meeting. Conservatives are used to being the targets of the media and dishonest liberals’ use of bias by omission. Bias by omission is incredibly dishonest and despicable. What is left after bias by omission is nothing less than propaganda.

Oh, and the featured speaker was Philip Haney, the Homeland Security whistleblower, a former DHS agent and author of the book “See Something, Say Nothing.” Philip assembled intel on terrorist groups outside the U.S. after 911. The 0bama administration closed his operation down and erased his data, data which he says could possibly have been used to prevent the Fort Hood shootings and others. For the life of me, I do not see how Dave could call that Islamophobic.

I encourage all those who read Dave’s letter to take him up on his challenge and come to a Ramona Tea’d meeting Oct. 28. It’s on another scary subject — taxes. Use your own powers of observation and come to your own independent conclusions.

Steve Yanke

Ramona

Successful fundraiser

The membership of the Backcountry Horsemen of California—San Diego Unit would like to publicly thank Tractor Supply and especially the manager for hosting our semiannual Tack, Barn and Whatever Sale in their parking lot on Sept. 23 and Oct. 7. The staff were very welcoming and helpful in our fundraising efforts. We were able to raise funds to support our mission of public land advocacy, education and service on our local multi-use trails.

We would also like to thank the other vendors who joined us in the parking lot to add to the event and the wonderful people of Ramona who came and found a unique array of items to purchase for their needs at a significantly reduced cost.

We plan to do this event again in the spring in the same location. See you then.

Terry Jorgensen

Public Lands Chair

San Diego Unit