Opinion

Russians, who don’t have Americans’ long democratic tradition and thus have contributed millions of energetic refugees to our country, have an old saying, usually said with a sigh: “You vote with your feet.” So on Small Business Saturday last weekend, millions of Americans voted with their feet. They shopped @ local, non-job-exporting, not-too-big-to-fail small businesses. Because small businesses create 2/3 of American jobs and consumer spending is 2/3 of the American economy. And so, as Ben Franklin quipped after he signed the treasonous Declaration of Independence from Mad King George, “If we don’t all hang together, we’ll surely all hang separately.”

On behalf of the Measure E Committee I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for all the voters that helped pass Measure E. We feel you did a great service for your City. We appreciate your commitment and investment for our hometown Hollister.  We acknowledge the nay votes and hope that in the near future you will come to realize the importance of this measure meant to ensure our sustainability until better days. Thanks to the many endorsers but most notably the “first ten” signers of the ballot measure. It was you who put you name on the line in the very early days of our campaign. We are most grateful for your support and with your help we were able to proceed with our campaign with you as individual leaders that believed in their community.  We are most appreciative of your early efforts. We also give thanks to the huge neighborhood watch program and the animal shelter volunteers that assisted us in spreading the word throughout the community of our need to maintain public safety. You probably don't realize your importance in the Measure E campaign so we just want to say thank you to all of you. To our Latino community; we tried diligently to bring the message to you and felt that we were successful in providing you with information in both English and Spanish literature, radio and most importantly bilingual canvassers. We felt a pressing need to communicate to all citizens in Hollister realizing the importance of all factions that makeup our community.

In regards to the article “Deeper discussion offered on proposed oil exploration rules” (San Benito County Today, Oct. 26, 2012), I wish to correct a statement in the article. The article suggested I opposed the role of a petroleum administrator.  In fact the opposite is true.  My concern is that the county will not be able to afford a petroleum administrator and the task will fall to the Planning Department. The current draft petroleum ordinance is very complex, duplicates state and federal regulation, and may overburden the planning department.