Guest View

Don't you just love autumn? That certain nip in the air; the sun-washed fields of large, orange globes soon to be reborn as ghoulish characters dwelling on front porches; golden leaves falling from trees to be blown away by the wind; my extra thick and creamy pumpkin facial masque.

Who doesn't want sex offenders tracked and kept away from children? As the only provider of services for victims of sexual assault in South Santa Clara and San Benito counties, Community Solutions is committed to our community's safety and victims' rights. However, as such, we recognize that Proposition 83, dubbed Jessica's Law, will not be conducive to protecting our community from sexual predators.

In troubled times, it is too often easy to put pejorative labels on those who disagree with you. In recent speeches Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney have labeled those questioning the war in Iraq as appeasers and House Republican Leader John Boehner has said Democrats who question the administration's methods of interrogating and prosecuting terrorists are "more concerned about protecting terrorists than protecting the American people."  Boehner's comments were so distasteful that even President Bush said he wouldn't have said them the same way.

Today your Mushroom City Memoirs columnist, Gale Hammond, fills you in on all you need to know about … er, excuse me … we just returned from an "adventure at sea" (a.k.a. "cruise"), and I must learn to talk like a normal person again. After keeping company with "Snowball Scotty" and "Bruce," our naturalist, for the past week, I am desperately trying to check my enthusiasm.

Our national motto, "e pluribus unum" is Latin for "from many one." It spoke of the unity of sovereign states into one nation. It also spoke of the melding of many cultures into one American culture. That culture, conceived in the 1600s, and born in 1776, grew to become the most creative, most productive, most benevolent, most liberating and most sustainable culture in human history!

Over three-quarters of a century. That's how long my wife and I have lived. Now, only a few years before 80, we have experienced many, many of life's strange twists. But, I believe a circumstance this past August was, perhaps, the strangest of all. But, let me set the stage.

Problems with Proposition 90, that have devastating impacts on

Last week, dedicated workers and volunteers from more than 20 human service agencies brought food, clothing and services to unhoused people in South County.

You had better be sitting down for this. The other day I heard on the radio that some new study (conducted for God only knows what reason except to drive mothers crazy all over America) showed that there are more germs on the steering wheel of your car than on the seat of a public toilet!

A few weeks ago, in my column citing examples of lack of discipline in public schools, I said that the summer assignments at a Morgan Hill public school weren't collected. This is what I understood from conversations with not just my student, but another. When I tried to verify the information (phone system is awful to navigate, an email went unanswered), I opted for not giving the school the benefit of the doubt and printed what I believed was correct.