Hawthorne - Bakersfield of the South Bay!

For such a "liberal" paper, the L.A. Times article reads very favorably to the IGWT side.

 

Bakersfield has grown, and overgrown over the past few years. Bakersfield has gained national recognition as has Kern County in numerous areas as being recognized as an innovative leader. Oil and agricultural have been taken over as the leading industries as Bakersfield modernizes. That means new and diverse opinions as how to deal with the new growth, growing the infrastructure to handle the growth, realization that property owners cannot absorb all the costs for everyone else including industry. In most cases, standard development fees imposed on new projects do not begin to cover the actual costs of the impacts once the developers leave town with their profits having dumped the projects on the residents with the approval of our elected officials. One of the greatest political decisions in Kern County was to control growth without evaluation of what I call "smart growth" techniques. Smart growth involves looking at how government will pay for the impacts of cumulative developments, including but not limited to water, sewer, delivery of safety services including the two most important, Police and Fire, but also schools, traffic, air pollution, noise, and the cost of preserving funding for delivery of these services. Comparison with the CITY OF HAWTHORNE CALIFORNIA IS AN ABSURDITY!  Hawthorne has been engaged in dumb growth for the past twelve years. The City is controlled by a Mayor who spends large amounts of money in every election to assure that more "robots" will be elected who will vote how they are told at his direction. Hanging a banner "In God We Trust" in the Hawthorne City Council chambers is because they fear being a non-believer may not protect them when the wrath of Law Enforcement comes down upon them when they get caught. Councilman Velez was recently indicted under Government Code Section 1090 for conflicts of interest that were not disclosed following his alleged attempt to justify his actions before the vote by tape recording an alleged conversation he had with the FPPC. Councilwoman Lambert has voted on projects concerning the Church she belongs to and tithes at without disclosure. Her Pastor was recently removed from his Church by Church officials. A rather good look at Hawthorne can be viewed at,  www.guidiwatch.com, or at www.markschoenfeld.com.  Bakersfield may have it's political differences among its citizens, but doesn't appear to be governed by officials that believe the public's general fund is their personal piggy bank. I am a new 2 1/2 year resident of Kern County. I am very impressed with the way Bakersfield is attempting to control the land use and environmental issues it is currently faced with. No comparison with City of Hawthorne.

It is not God that I would like to keep out of the schools - theoretically that would be impossible - but rather politicians I want out of the classroom.  My daughter attends Christian school and the very nice thing about that is that politicians never demogogue the teaching, students or curriculum there.  There is no public policy interference or political grandstanding.  I'm convinced it is people like Chad Vargas who actually make the public schools much worse in the long run.   Ultimately, ofcourse, then, they provide that much more fruit for the next election. 

To Christopherv, your thoughts are exactly the correct public policy reasons that exist for school vouchers. You are obviously a great parent doing your best to raise your young daughter with the best possible education and moral values. A good religious school of any faith is generally accepted as having the appropriate standards with a minimum that equals public education. That is why it makes total sense to allow you to recover what you contribute to public schooling through your taxes and allow you to take those credits to educate your daughter without having to pay twice. During my lifetime, I have known numerous people that have been educated in religious schools outside their own faith. Government officials are generally afraid to interfere in secular schools for fear of expensive litigation which they likely will lose. The Educator's Unions do not favor private although accredited education because of the fear of losing the ADA, (Average Daily Attendance) that the public schools receive from the State. So Chris, thanks for being a good and responsible parent for your daughter. You should be given the equivalent to what your daughters education would cost in public school and credited toward what you pay for her private school. Conversely, if you are paying less, you should be required to return the difference, if any, to the public coffers.

I have said before that the phrase "In God We Trust" doesn't really bother me, me being an agnostic, however, when people with specific agendas are allowed to push their beliefs for a specific agenda IE bringing god in the classroom or what not, is wrong and immoral, why not in Buddha we trust, or the flying spaghetti monster? I'm sure this politician is implying "In the Christian God We Trust" it's disgusting to see these things being pushed in the public arena. Don't get me wrong I don't mind it on our coins and what not, it's tradition, I really don't care, but when illogical thinking is allowed to continue it will only lead to us reaching the Dark Ages once again, where we are tortured for saying the Grand Canyon is more than ten thousand years old, sincerely your grumpy skeptic

www.thegrumpyskeptic.blogspot.com

Right Wing Christian Theocracy Conspiracy nuts are at it again.  First you have to assume what, if anything, is being implied.  Then you warn that we are regressing back to the Dark Ages.  I think it would be more accurate to state that there is less Christianity in American culture today than at any point in this country's history.

Bakersfield  -    We're famous for our heat and our conservative biased leadership.  I dislike both of them equally.