Thursday, 28 March 2024

Letters

The Sunday Press Democrat ran an article about a Trump rally in Ohio titled “Trump warns of blood bath if he loses.”

As a voter and a citizen, I don’t feel “warned,” I feel threatened. His exact words were: “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole … country.”

I consider that a direct threat. He did not say precisely whose blood will be flowing: election officials, Democratic voters, or perhaps just citizens in the street.

He also stated that if he didn’t win, “I don’t think you are going to have another election, or certainly not an election that’s meaningful.”

Obviously, Mr. Trump never played Little League where kids are taught how to be good at sports about winning and losing. Instead, he vows to kneecap the opposing team if they score more runs, and cancel any future games.

Mr. Trump, you are a disgrace! Your behavior would not be tolerated on any tee ball field and yet here you are running for the highest office of the land.

Your threats to voters and citizens are both pathetic and dangerous. Is there nothing that can be done about these overt calls for violence against the American people?

Carolynn Jarrett lives in Clearlake, California.

I was happy to read supportive comments made by Iceland’s prime minister about cultivated meat.

For those who aren’t familiar with the term, cultivated meat is grown from livestock cells, without slaughter. It has the potential to dramatically reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions, pandemic risk and the suffering we inflict on animals.

“Cultivated meat is one of the solutions to the climate challenge,” Katrín Jakobsdóttir said. “The Icelandic authorities are determined to pave the way for the adoption of new solutions in Iceland and we are eager to see the development of [a European Union] regulatory framework for cultivated meat.”

Instead of attempting to ban this new protein, as some American politicians have, our leaders should help advance the technology behind it.

For instance, cultivated meat is currently too expensive to mass produce. This can be rectified with increased public funding for cultivated-meat research, which legislators should support.

Jon Hochschartner is a journalist and author who has written about animal rights. He lives in Granby, Connecticut.

I firmly believe that changing the name of Kelseyville would be a mistake.

My wife and I set our roots down in Kelseyville years ago. We are raising our three amazing children here. We farm pears and run a manufacturing company here in Kelseyville. We are deeply involved, and invested in the community of Kelseyville.

My wife and I were fortunate enough to have had an opportunity to purchase Stokes Ladders in 2012. My grandfather, Russell Stokes, founded Stokes Ladders, in his garage, right here in Kelseyville in the early 1960s. Ever since then, we have been sending our Stokes ladders of all shapes and sizes to customers from all over the US and Canada, to South America, the Middle East, Europe, and Australia.

On each one of these ladders over the past 60 something years, we have proudly stamped into the step: STOKES LADDERS, KELSEYVILLE, CA, right at eye level, on hundreds of thousands of ladders. Over the years, the font and styles have changed, but it has always displayed KELSEYVILLE, CA in all caps. There are people all over the world who have seen our name, KELSEYVILLE, CA.

When you change a name, you change a brand, you change our identity. Kelseyville has been building its brand for decades. I recently read a brilliant article by Brian Fisher: “A sucker punch to the people of Kelseyville.” He described in great detail all of the brand work that has been done on our behalf to build the name of Kelseyville into what it is today. He would know more than most the importance of brand recognition as a marketing executive.

I have a great example of this from last June. My brother was married in Palisades, California. I had never heard of this place. I had to look it up to know where it might be. This was pretty unusual as a guy who has lived in California my entire life, outside of military deployments.

I have always been interested in geography, so I am very familiar with the state of California. I didn’t realize until I was there that I was in what was previously known as “Squaw Valley, California.” I bet everyone has heard of Squaw Valley, California. If I were to look up “places to go snowboarding,” I probably would have scrolled right past Palisades to a different name that I was already familiar with.

I want to set emotions aside for a moment, and look at what would happen if we were forced to change our name.

By forcing the town of Kelseyville to change its name, which is interchangeable with brand, you will be doing so in full and complete understanding and recognition of the negative economic impacts you will be imposing on our town.

Business on Main Street is already tough enough. Main Street as everyone knows is the heart of Kelseyville. Any reduction in foot traffic, whatever the percentage, will directly affect Main Street’s bottom line. The bottom line that puts on all the events we know and love here in Kelseyville, and which brings in much needed tourism. The bottom line that affects the local employee’s ability to earn a livable wage.

A name change will have a negative economic outcome for our entire community, either directly, or indirectly.

By forcing this on our town, you will be forcing this reality on all of us, including the citizens you think you are helping.

Greg Panella lives in Kelseyville, California, home of “STOKES ORCHARD LADDERS, KELSEYVILLE CALIF” circa 1960s and “STOKES, KELSEYVILLE CA, USA,” present day.

In the March 13 LakeCoNews article “Supervisors form Big Valley Advisory Council to serve Kelseyville planning area,” Lucerne resident Alan Fletcher’s portrayal of the Kelseyville Business Association as an association “... determined to stamp the offensive name on everything (a new sign, and fund-raising for an arch) … and will then quote the expense of changing them” is a misleading and undeserved disparaging portrait of the many community minded, hard working people who have dedicated their time, energy and hard earned financial resources to building the organization and the town in which we live.

The Kelseyville Business Association, or KBA, was founded in the1960s for the purpose of promoting the economic interest of the town and the surrounding area. Today it is a 130-plus member strong business association made up of tattoo artists, candle makers, masseurs, shop and bar keepers, ministers, teachers, Realtors, electricians, small manufacturers, innkeepers and, most recently, a native owned dispensary.

All of these industrious, community focused people are keeping the retail space in town at near 100% occupancy.

Membership is hardly exclusive. Any member of the community is welcome to contribute $80 and fill out an online form to join.

This membership provides a number of benefits to members and a portion goes to enabling a number of community-wide amenities including the free wi-fi KBA offers to any and all visitors.

The organization funds www.visitkelseyivlle.com, the longest continuous operational website of any town in Lake County.

KBA also operates the largest, most followed Facebook page of any town in Lake County which just this week received over 251,000 unique visitors, almost four times the population of Lake County.

People of the KBA are of all colors and flags: Farmers, retirees, involved citizens sharing a common goal of economic prosperity who live in a town with no city council, no management boards, no home owner associations.

KBA is made up of people who do for themselves. KBA members install their own street lights and maintain them, install and plant street gardens and water them, install garbage cans and empty them, hire bands to perform at street dances open to everyone to attend at no charge, and host huge festivals celebrating the diversity of our town and bountiful land.

And, every November KBA members dig out holiday decorations from a self storage unit and, on a borrowed forklift, decorate the town for the holiday season. And, then they open their businesses offering food and drink to everyone free of charge before the huge ”Christmas in the Country” parade makes its way down Main Street with Mt Konocti in the background.

Comments like those offered by Mr. Fletcher makes it feel like the KBA and our community is being thrust into the bullseye of today’s cultural war and being told by people who don’t live here to pay with our name.

And to add insult to injury, we are then being forced to take a new name in which we had no voice in choosing.

And, yes, we do dream of an arch that might one day welcome people to what we think is The Friendliest Country Town in Lake County.

Brian Fisher is owner of www.suiteonmain.com and a KBA member since 2006.

In the Sunday Chronicle recently I read a quote from Matt Ridley. (I’m not sure who he is but I’d like to share it with you).

He said: “We overestimate crime’s frequency because it dominates the news. Random violence is newsworthy since it’s rare. Routine kindness isn’t reported; it’s too common. Relax! Our world’s doing better than you imagine.”

It’s so easy to be dismayed by the cruelties and suffering of war and the injustices that exist, we tend to overlook the kindness, cooperation and consideration that we receive from friends, family and strangers.

Carolynn Jarrett lives in Clearlake, California.

It’s time for everyone to stand up and speak out about the proposed name change of Kelseyville.

To start with, if you were to change the name of Kelseyville, the taxpayers would be paying a tremendous amount to enforce the name change of state and county offices/districts and businesses, such as the Kelseyville Post Office, Kelseyville Schools and Kelseyville Fire Departments … just to name a few.

With the fire department it’s not just a simple statement of saying, “We will have a new sign on the building.” It’s having to remove all decals on every truck and every building and pay for new decals and labor to put them on.

Additionally, it will be changing all uniforms as well as badges and/or hats and anything else that has the name Kelseyville in it.

A good example of an enormous waste of government spending was years ago when the state changed the name of “CDF” (California Division of Forestry and Fire Protection) to “Cal Fire.” Sounded like a good idea from some idiot who got politicians to agree to it and then realized they had to change all the decals on every truck in the state along with new signs for every “CDF” building and all uniforms, badges, business cards, etc. for every one of those employees in the state.

The cost ran into millions of dollars and what did it accomplish? Half (if not most) of the people still refer to it as “CDF,” and the bottom line is what does “Cal Fire” stand for? You guessed it, “California Division of Forestry and Fire Protection.” They perform all the same duties, but wear a different name at the taxpayers’ expense.

Regarding all of the Kelseyville schools:

You might erase the name, but good luck trying to tell people that they can’t say “I grew up in Kelseyville” or “I went to school in ‘Kelseyville’” or “ I’m gonna run into Kelseyville to get groceries and fuel.”

You simply can’t erase history, good or bad. Are all Kelseyville graduates going to destroy their Kelseyville yearbooks? I don’t think so.

From a business perspective: Do the proponents of the name change think they can force local businesses like Kelseyville Lumber, Kelseyville Pharmacy, Kelseyville Food Center and Kelseyville Appliance to change their name? Again, that’s just a few of the businesses that have the name Kelseyville in them.

Any business that supports changing their name, just go ahead and do it!

Local businesses will be hit with a huge expense, again, not with just a new sign on the building, but changing any clothing, advertisements and business cards, emblems and decals on their vehicles, etc.

Again, this is an unnecessary change that will have no effect on people who will continue to refer to it as “Kelseyville.”

The Board of Supervisors does have the power to take a stand on this issue, the supervisors could be unanimous on their recommendation to the Board on Geographic Names.

Tim Prather lives in Cobb, California.

Upcoming Calendar

30Mar
03.30.2024 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Lakeport Community Cleanup Day
30Mar
03.30.2024 9:00 am - 11:00 am
Second annual Bunny Brunch
30Mar
03.30.2024 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Lake County poet laureate inauguration
31Mar
03.31.2024
Easter Sunday
31Mar
03.31.2024 1:15 pm - 1:45 pm
Lakeport Rotary Club Easter Egg Hunt
1Apr
04.01.2024
Easter Monday
1Apr
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04.15.2024
Tax Day

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