Love permeates all of nature

I saw love this week when a papa quail chased furiously after a fleeing roadrunner, an aggressive carnivore trying to snatch one of his chicks. I saw love when a hummingbird fed her minuscule chicks. I saw love between a young heterosexual couple sitting in a park in Escondido, and I saw tender love when a young fellow kissed his boyfriend furtively.

I have seen the deep and unconditional love between a man and his dog, and a woman and her horse. Many a person has died trying to rescue their pet from danger, and myriad are the stories of pets saving their "owners."

Love fills the world. We cannot explain its many mysterious facets, its ubiquity. Some say it's in the genes, yet they deny there is a gay gene while simultaneously blindly assuming they themselves have heterosexual genes. I do not know whether there is a gay gene, or a heterosexual gene. It's really not important. I say it's in the heart. It matters only that love edifies and uplifts us.

Love has no bounds, permeates all nature, and should be celebrated however it flowers, for love is the essential image of the good God.

J. Howard Crews

Fallbrook

Dems just don't get it

Well, Karen Bass and her Dem buddies are at it again ("Democrats considering taxes to close state deficit," June 17). Do they live under a rock or something? Did they miss the results of the last election again? Californians do not want more taxes, but the Dems are going to try to push them through despite the voters.

What California needs to do is change the dynamics of Sacramento to two-thirds Republican. Watch how fast California will return to prosperity.

Tax and spend, tax and spend, tax and spend does not work.

Jim Jones

Fallbrook

Questions regarding 'free lunch' policy

Re: "Local schools offer free summer meals," June 14: The average American taxpayer may have the following questions regarding this article: Why on earth should we pay for free food, three meals per day, for an 18-year-old man or woman? When did the education industry get into the business of selling food in the summer, presumably for profit? What is a "mid-meal snack"? What kind of parent feeds his or her child in such a manner that "pizzas and burritos," as an alternative, are "quality foods," and "nutritious"?

How do these poor victims survive over the weekend? Or are the schools open on weekends to give away food at taxpayer expense?

Spokesman Steve Lombard's assertion that "It's been shown that kids that eat well tend to have better results in school" has a few flaws:

1. Most "kids" are not in school in the summer.

2. Most kids who eat well come from responsible homes. The parent who feeds his child well is the parent who encourages and supports his child in school and demands responsibility and accountability.

Taking a child from a dysfunctional home and feeding him free pizza and burritos is not likely to improve his results in school.

Jim Steinberg

Rancho Bernardo

Defacing our natural landscape

While traveling north on the I-15 last night, I couldn't help to notice a large, brightly lit sign, a la Las Vegas, advertising Pala Casino. Not only does the billboard look out of place, it's just plain ugly.

If you have ever driven the stretch of highway between Gopher Canyon and Highway 76, the scenery is serene and beautiful. No, it's not Highway 1, but nonetheless, it has a certain appeal â€"â€" one for sure that shouldn't be littered with billboards, especially those lit with bright lights.

I have little problem with the casinos. I do have a problem with billboards.

Not only this one, but the many others that clutter the landscape and destroy the natural beauty.

Who allows this to happen? Someone needs to … get a clue.

John Klink

Fallbrook

Faith in humanity restored

My faith in humanity has been restored. On June 10, I lost my wallet at Burger King. A family sat in the same booth after we left. I didn't get home until late and my neighbor called and said a lady had left my wallet. She didn't get her name, so there was no way I could thank her.

If she sees this and she knows where I live, please contact me so I can thank you in person.

Muriel Bryant

Escondido

Thankful column wasn't Barone's

First, after almost having heart failure when reading a nasty diatribe on Sarah Palin which I thought Michael Barone had written and feeling totally betrayed, I realized that the picture (and column) was not that of Michael Barone ("Sarah Palin, the real joke in all this is on you," June 15). Thank heavens! Michael Barone is one of the smartest men I know of, and not a numbskull such as the author of the column regarding Gov. Palin.

Second, I would like to issue a warning to anyone living in a community where homeowners fees are assessed. Because of the crisis in foreclosures that has hit homeowners and renters, there is very much a dip in the number of owners who are paying their monthly HOA dues on time or at all.

In order to make up for the lack of income, it has become apparent to us that some associations are starting to assess frivolous fees and assessments to those of us who pay our association dues on time. Please be advised that this is happening and make certain that there is proof of any fines, etc., for which you are assessed.

Barbara Peterson

Escondido

Obama's health plan offers choice

The United States is the only industrial nation not providing unconditional, quality health care, with greed being the common denominator.

This year alone, pharmaceuticals and health providers have spent $134 million to blitz the airwaves with scare tactics, hiring the advertising team that brought us the infamous "Swift Boaters" who claim change is socialism and will take away all of your control (who would now give up their "socialist" Social Security, VA care or Medicare?). Their CEO, Rick Smith, is the former head of Health and Human Services who ripped off taxpayers for millions in bogus claims. Fired, he was allowed to walk away with $10 million severance and $30 million in stocks.

Since 1940, attempts to regulate health provider costs have failed because of congressional ties to pharmaceutical industries who promised that companies would regulate themselves (a joke). Until there is campaign finance reform, the best plan, single-payer, which has been successfully scuttled through misinformation, has no chance.

We are left with two options: Keep the plan you have, or choose competition, which brings prices down. The Obama plan offers just that â€"â€" choice.

Delores Feicht

Fallbrook

Kern recall is pure nonsense

The current efforts to recall Councilman Jerry Kern by a group of Oceanside residents are just the latest shabby political attempt by recalcitrants who have long plagued the city's politics during the years.

Coupled with the recent attack on the city's planning department for approving a logical commercial development at Oceanside Boulevard and Vine Street, the recall campaign is detrimental to the city.

The taxpayers will reject this foolishness by not signing the recall petitions as they also shake their heads in dismay at futile attempts to stop logical commercial development.

These efforts are destructive of good government, and over the years have made Oceanside the political laughingstock of North County. To suggest that Jerry Kern does not represent the best interests of the city is pure nonsense.

Jeordie Fellner

Oceanside

Local company supports community

UltraStar Cinemas, based in Vista, operates movie theaters throughout San Diego County (and Southern California). UltraStar recently sponsored a public service announcement produced by the California Smokers' Helpline (800-NO-BUTTS), to show in all local theaters this summer.

The California Smokers' Helpline provides free counseling and education for smokers to quit, and UltraStar Cinemas has made a great contribution to community health for advertising Helpline cessation services.

We can all thank UltraStar by watching a movie at its local theaters this summer!

Francisco Manzano

Tobacco-Free

Communities Coalition

San Diego

Where's story on slain soldiers?

I was wondering why the North County Times has not mentioned anything in the paper about the one soldier that was killed and another wounded in front of a recruiting office in Arkansas? We have a very large military community in North County, and I believe they and all of us need to be informed about these news stories. Here is the latest link from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/04recruit.html?ref=us.

Please, NCT, cover the stories that affect the people that make up our community. God bless our military!

Mark Pfeiler

Vista

Sotomayor's critics have selective memory

Re: "Sotomayor addresses bias suspicions," June 3: The Republican conservative activists who are slinging slurs at Judge Sonia Sotomayor for commenting in 2001 that "our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging" have selective memory.

During Judge Samuel Alito's confirmation hearing for Supreme Court justice (appointed by George W. Bush), Alito was asked whether his immigrant background (Italian-American) mattered to him. He answered, "When I get a case about discrimination, I think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion, or because of gender, and I do take that into account."

Although his statement is similar to Sotomayor's, no member of either party voiced outrage. Sotomayor deserves the same respect.

Bunny Landis

Oceanside

How to save California

1. Send every undocumented alien in our prisons to Mexico to serve their sentences. This would reduce the number of prison guards and relieve pension costs.

2. Privatize the Department of Motor Vehicles.

3. Privatize Caltrans. There are currently 22,000 engineers employed by Caltrans. Why, when we are not building freeways? These steps will lower the cost of CalPERS for retirement benefits.

4. Offer offshore oil drilling rights beyond the 50-mile limit, just as Alaska has done. This would bring billions of dollars to the state and also be a step in the right direction for energy independence.

5. Cut overlapping and redundant state departments and commissions. Two departments in particular are CalOSHA and CalEPA that duplicate federal agencies. Also the Regional Water Quality Control Board. It is penalty-driven and has inflated construction costs.

John Sable

Vista

Letter writer needs to grow up

Robert Green had an anti-gun screed in the June 7 paper wherein he intimates that the National Rifle Association and gun owners encourage mass murders.

At the end, he encourages America "to grow up." Given the depth of thought used to write the letter, I would encourage Mr. Green to grow up.

Dan Shapiro

Oceanside

Wrong on nation's foundational heritage?

Mr. Douglas Dunn (Letters, May 27) and Josh Petty (Letters, May 31) were correct in believing our nation was not founded on Judeo-Christian heritage.

Those on the Mayflower were actually Muslims disguising themselves as Christians. Jefferson's "creator" in the Declaration was actually Allah (or evolution), and when John Q. Adams said, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity," he was taken out of context and it was meant as sarcasm.

When Alexis de Tocqueville said, "There is no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America," it was a derisive comment.

The Supreme Court was also biting its tongue when it wrote in Runkle v. Winemiller in 1799 â€"â€" "By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing."

Dunn and Petty are so right!

The Constitution doesn't mention God (it's a document of Law), but Christian principles are there four times: "Oaths" (5), Article VII, Article I, Sec. 7 and Article VI.

Irvin Forbing

Escondido