Road Ruminations – 19apr08

George Rebane

We just pulled into Flagstaff, Arizona.   This morning we left from Laughlin, Nevada for the short trip here.  Our friends Russ and Ellen Steele were first on the road with their Airstream and GMC2500 prime mover.  For Jo Ann and me this is our RV trip without an RV.  We were supposed tag along with the Steeles in our rented Class A RV learning the fine art of trailering and RVing.  However, a last minute malfunction caused us to return the RV, shown in our driveway, and put Plan B into action.  We travel in our Grand Cherokee (Ol’ Faithful) and sleep in a motel near the RV park where we spend the evenings with our friends taking turns cooking suppers – lots of fun.  We’re still learning a bunch about what makes all these thousands of people travel in those huge rigs, and then spend nights parked cheek-by-jowl with other rigs on a parcel of land that is usually the cheapest in the neighborhood.  But there is a method to this madness the discovery of  which we will file in future reports.

The proposed Managed Growth Initiative, if passed, will manage to stop all growth in western Nevada County and is now bringing on a very illuminating silly season.  I think in the end it will benefit our community by shining a light into ideological corners that have been hidden too long.  I’m not sure that the coalition cobbled together to fight MGI will serve the county’s conservative cause, but there is still time to wordsmith a proper response to the proposal forwarded by (drum roll) The Stagnators.

The lack of clarity and truth that has characterized the presidential campaign so far got a bit foggier when Senator Obama was attacked for his remarks about the frustrated common folks clinging to their religion and guns.  Like a good liberal exposed, the senator has been trying to backpedal on this remarkable flash of insight.  Instead doing the ‘I didn’t mean it like it came out’ two-step, he should stick to his guns (sic) because he nailed it the first time.  All of us lucky enough to have religion and guns have always tended to get closer to them when things got tough – most certainly our Founders did.  After all, that’s why God invented guns and gave us religion in the first place.  As the song says, “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition”.

Comments

[Jeff Pelline]

Dangerous commentary:

"I’m not sure that the coalition cobbled together to fight MGI will serve the county’s conservative cause, ..."

Putting ideology in the front seat at the expense of solving a community problem. The extremists in this community, on the right and the left, are bringing us down. I hope this shines a light on this destructive practice as well.

[russ]

Jeff,

I am not sure what you are trying to say. George looked at both sides of the issues and found both wanting. The real community issue is the lack of growth needed to sustain a robust economy. The Stagnators want to stop even the meager growth we have today, let alone the 2% growth defined in the General Plan. To win the argument against the Stagnators will require some stronger arguments than offered in the draft talking points of groups opposing the MGI.

I was hoping The Union might write some insightful analysis of the issues. But, if you insist on writing from a neutral stance on the fence, why waste our time to write about it. If the Union does not have the back bone to support the real needs of the community just say so, and we can look to other media outlets for support.

Be a community leader or get the hell out of the way.