Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Fri, Sep 09 2005
Blog Which Part?
Sometimes a news story has so many angles and elements that it's difficult to find the main focus. And I'll bet this story on the Conaway Ranch is just the proverbial tip of the old iceberg. If I told you an Indian gaming tribe wanted to join with Yolo county government to seize more than 17,000 acres of land, by eminent domain, from a land developer who has fundraising ties to our California governor, wouldn't it sound a bit like a pitch for a new sitcom? Especially now that a bill to allow such a move had been passed by legislators and was ready for the governor to sign?
As someone once wisely put it-you can't make this stuff up.
posted at: 10:04 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
Sometimes a news story has so many angles and elements that it's difficult to find the main focus. And I'll bet this story on the Conaway Ranch is just the proverbial tip of the old iceberg. If I told you an Indian gaming tribe wanted to join with Yolo county government to seize more than 17,000 acres of land, by eminent domain, from a land developer who has fundraising ties to our California governor, wouldn't it sound a bit like a pitch for a new sitcom? Especially now that a bill to allow such a move had been passed by legislators and was ready for the governor to sign?
As someone once wisely put it-you can't make this stuff up.
posted at: 10:04 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
Telethon Two Cents' Worth
I'm no "star" but I'm going to say what I think anyway. My personal opinion is that there has been enough hedging and covering over of words concerning Hurricane Katrina. I'm glad that this weekend's telethon will not involve electronic muzzling of comments. Let's get the feelings and opinions out there. And then-then, please-let's learn from all this and get on with healing and rebuilding. All of this commenting about commenting is only serving to fuel spin speeches from politicians and agencies wanting to defend their respective positions.
Mistakes were made. It doesn't take an IQ of 265 to comprehend that. Now could we all please at least pretend to be grown-ups for awhile and deal with the situation as it is? We can't take back what happened. But we can work to make the next disaster response better. And we can learn to build and populate disaster-prone areas in the future with a lot more common sense. Each of us should admit that we need to have our eyes open to the dangers of any area in which we choose to live. We have to learn to take responsibility to make at least some of our own escape and survival plans, instead of waiting for governments and agencies and "somebody else" to do it all. And we have to learn to support only those decision makers in office who encourage a proactive lifestyle from every citizen. If we don't do that we're going to be useless. Useless hypocrites.
posted at: 08:56 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
I'm no "star" but I'm going to say what I think anyway. My personal opinion is that there has been enough hedging and covering over of words concerning Hurricane Katrina. I'm glad that this weekend's telethon will not involve electronic muzzling of comments. Let's get the feelings and opinions out there. And then-then, please-let's learn from all this and get on with healing and rebuilding. All of this commenting about commenting is only serving to fuel spin speeches from politicians and agencies wanting to defend their respective positions.
Mistakes were made. It doesn't take an IQ of 265 to comprehend that. Now could we all please at least pretend to be grown-ups for awhile and deal with the situation as it is? We can't take back what happened. But we can work to make the next disaster response better. And we can learn to build and populate disaster-prone areas in the future with a lot more common sense. Each of us should admit that we need to have our eyes open to the dangers of any area in which we choose to live. We have to learn to take responsibility to make at least some of our own escape and survival plans, instead of waiting for governments and agencies and "somebody else" to do it all. And we have to learn to support only those decision makers in office who encourage a proactive lifestyle from every citizen. If we don't do that we're going to be useless. Useless hypocrites.
posted at: 08:56 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
