California’s Illnesses Are Serious

Recently two local men wrote letters to the editor, with one preaching America’s doom from over-commercialization and the other warned us that we are destroying all of nature. It seems both writers were reacting to the growth of modern civilization that has overtaken us.

In my childhood, I felt mistreated because we had no sidewalks on my local area. We could not roller skate like the kids in the cities. Now I look back fondly on those gravel roads that provided so much more.

Things changed back in the early ’80s when

Saul Price opened his first Price Club in the San

Diego area. I was working for JC Penney’s at the time and I predicted that the world had just shifted. It is natural that as we grow older, we hearken back to those things that are gone. Modern commerce is and always has been driven by the desire to make a profit and prosper in life. It is natural and is part of the human spirit.

A number of us find that we are growing more uncomfortable with our circumstance and that how things are moving past us and we have no ability to alter or save that which is now gone.

All of nature is under assault. There are more people and they require food and housing. Particularly in California, we are governed by individuals who have lost the concept of personal freedom. They no longer realize that it is the individual that accomplishes things and not some government agency.

In other words, too many citizens on our state lack adequate representation.

We have a housing problem in California that has been totally caused by overregulation. We must ask ourselves why we elect the least qualified individuals to lead us. Do we have a death wish like lemmings that we must throw ourselves off a cliff to our destruction? How often have we said that a 12-year-old could do a better job?

Our problems are complex and the solutions tend to require commonsense solutions. It is the old story about the truck that became stuck in the tunnel because it was too high. No one knew what to do until a 12-year-old girl suggested that they let some air out of each tire to lower it and thus pass through the tunnel. Most of life can be lived with common sense.

Climate change is another boondoggle that has beset us. Every 10 years, it seems, someone comes up with another crisis. In the ’60s, we would deplete our petroleum reserves in 10 years. In the ’70s it was another Ice Age in 10 years. In the ’80s acid rain was going to destroy our crops. In the ’90s it was the depletion of the ozone layer. In 2000 all the ice caps were melting. The upshot of all these so-called calamities has been more regulations and higher taxes.

It is contradictory to nature that we are guided by individuals that are not too bright. Take Assembly Bill 5 as an example. A useless law that was manufactured to satisfy unions while California’s businesses and workers have been saddled with it. The real purpose is clear.

Locally, our Assembly district has Assemblywoman Christy Smith to thank for helping escort the very harmful AB5 decision in. Collectively, most California politicians compare favorably to rocks as intellects.

Christy Smith has demonstrated she is extremely pro-union, anti-business and pro-tax increases. All of these are not favorable to our hard-working citizens. In extension, we do not need, nor can we afford, Christy Smith representing our district in the U.S. Congress.

Politicians have the mistaken view that once that they are elected, they somehow have been granted wisdom. What a foolish belief!

We, the people have the final say about what is done to us. There is an element that wants to sit above us and dictate how things are done. Our last election finally shows that people will not constantly vote themselves into additional taxation in spite of what the unions want. California has a union problem and nothing is being done to mitigate the effect.

We have a bullet train to nowhere that continues to soak up billions of California taxpayer dollars for the sole purpose of placating the unions. Nothing will ever be accomplished but the enrichment of the unions involved.

Moreover, no positive accomplishments will occur until we have prudent leadership and efficient financial stewards in California.

We, the people have the final say about what is done to us. There is an element that wants to sit above us and dictate how things are done. Our last election finally shows that people will not constantly vote themselves into additional taxation in spite of what the unions want. California has a union problem and nothing is being done to mitigate the effect.

Jim Horton is a Santa Clarita resident. “Right Here, Right Now” appears Saturdays, and rotates among local Republicans.