Letters to the editor

A little rain, a gentle reminder

A little bit of rain — doesn’t do much?

My husband Greg, my 87-year-old father Yoshi and I just returned from Hilo, Hawaii, where there is a little bit of rain every day. Within a week’s time, a crop of mildew started permeating the walls of our otherwise lovely B & B overlooking Honolii Pali. We also saw rusty jeeps and collapsed old plantation houses with to-tan (corrugated tin) roofs, being taken over by lilikoi vines.

In Hilo, one can tell how a family is doing financially, and how responsible the parents are by the condition of their roofs. Yoshi shook his head in dismay when he saw the black mildew lacing the newish faux tile roof installed by the present owners of his old house in Papaikou. It’s understood that a neglected roof will lead to more trouble in the home it is to protect, and that will cause a home’s demise one day. My uncle’s house had to be bulldozed after he died, and it was because of a badly neglected roof.

When we returned to San Diego, we learned that a little bit of rain had blessed Ramona. It was much needed rain and it kept alive our lone hibiscus bush, amongst acres of elephant boulders and agave.

But in Ramona, a little bit of rain, say 14 inches or so every year, over leaky school roofs, with no pitch for drainage, patched, and repatched, over decades. What is going to happen to these school buildings, in a few years, in a decade, in a generation?

Mildew in the walls and flooring, wood rot in rafters, beams, — teachers resorting to using buckets to catch the water dripping from their classroom ceilings. How long before these school buildings need to be bulldozed?

A little rain is a gentle reminder that our school roofs need fixing and replacing, Ramona.

Please contact David Patterson, project chair at dpatterson998@yahoo.com, or mail your check made out to “FORUS Roof Project” at 1003 Sixth Street, Ramona, CA 92065.

A FORUS meeting was held Sunday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m. at the Ramona Sentinel office. The next meeting will be in three weeks, the first Sunday of November at 6 p.m.

Gracias, Mahalo, Arigato, Abrigado, Thank You: Don and Denise Truett, Amanda Guttierez PhD, and Charlie and Sandy Teichert, and Chris and Jon Dahlke, for their recent generous donations to the FORUS Roof Project.

FORUS is a California nonprofit organization awaiting 501c3 status.

Jane Tanaka, MD

Ramona

Supports opinion writers

Re: Oct. 3 issue, “Our First Amendment is under attack” commentary.I support Mr. Reynolds.I know Mr. Beck. Long may he rave!

Don Russell

Ramona

What will life be like ‘after tomorrow?’

Re: Connie Bull’s “Stay informed, stay involved, and speak up” commentary in last week’sSentinel.Mrs. Bull’s letter was “right on.”Not only did the administration close the commissaries on-base, they also refused to allow families of our deceased warriors to meet their remains.Deplorable.So, what can the conservative Ramona citizen actually do?The next opportunity we have to really “effect change” as legal citizens is the 2014 elections. However, our local Congressman, Duncan D. Hunter, both believes as do we and always votes same. And, our vote in 2014 for senator in California will likely be useless — the opposition party will certainly win — regardless. Sorry folks, that’s the way it is.And what when the president wins both houses in 2014 — and pushes for a Constitutional Amendment allowing for more than two terms? Think it can’t happen? Haaah!Want to know what life may be like “after tomorrow?”With the able assistance and active contribution of the Ramona Christian Writer’s Guild I (we) wrote a novel in 2010 titled “Disruption, the Day after Tomorrow.” It’s uncanny and scary that the events forecast in the novel then are actually closer to reality today. Want to know what Ramona may well look like “after?” Where and how your children might have to live?Want to awaken friends and family in congressional districts not represented by the likes of Congressman Hunter? Simply blow 99 cents on your Kindle, download the book, and send it to your friends and family living in opposition party districts.If we don’t DO something, then we all will receive that which is given.

Joe Halsted

Ramona

Tea Party proves we’re far from perfect

Whoever came up with the name Tea Party for a political organization has much to answer for. Every bored housewife understands the lure of a tea party with fancy sandwiches, sweet cakes and gossip.

But the Tea Party sessions also offered entertaining speakers. The talks were rife with themes of ogre-Obama, tales of the scandalous government and dastardly Democratic doings. It was all such fun with clever hats of dangling tea bags.

The enthusiastic anti-government speakers won their elections and went to Washington where they found that they themselves were now “the government,” but without a clue as to what to do next. The had won on the prevailing Republican policy of “just defeat the Democrats” so the obvious thing was just keep doing what they did best — trying to win.

They found that even at this level winning was not so difficult. Just saying “No” blocked every opposition proposal. What they were doing was not about governing, just about winning with never a thought to long-range consequences.

It has been stated that both President Obama and the Republican Party failed to appreciate the power of this small contingent of freshman legislators. The damage was done. They have proved to the world that our democratic form of government is far from perfect.

But who has anything better to offer? At least in a democracy there is a regular peaceful transfer of government, unlike what we are watching in the Middle East these days. Ironically that is the area where human civilization was born. But their tribal warfare system has continued through the ages to dominate with death and destruction, limiting civilized advancement.

Perhaps it is time to invent some improvement on our own system of tribal Republicans and Democrats?

Edalee Orcutt Harwell

Ramona