Opinion

Ruth Erickson: “Many people don’t have the means to pay for health  care insurance. They are more worried about finding employment to  earn enough to pay for food and shelter. Not all senior citizens or  families have the funds to purchase any kind of insurance! They are  just scraping by and having to make difficult choices between eating  or taking necessary medications. There are definitely many parts of  the 2,700-page ‘Obamacare’ health insurance laws which can be saved,  discussed, refined, rewritten and implemented, but to mandate that  each person MUST buy health insurance is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!”

As a business owner in Hollister who is grievously affected by the lack of a rally, my frustration continues to mount. I’ve sadly observed as every year without a rally the number of people who make the journey to Hollister on Fourth of July weekend declines. Thank God for Mike and the folks at Corbin. His annual Rider Appreciation Day, this year held on June 30th, draws thousands of motorcyclists to Hollister. Local media did not find it newsworthy, but last year the Corbin Open House drew an estimated 5,500 attendees. I would guess that somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 of them made it downtown and for a short time it looked like the good old days on San Benito Street. Without Corbin’s efforts, Hollister would have been a ghost town; if only we could talk him into a two-day event.

While leaders can always improve on considerations of ethnicity in  schools, San Benito High School Trustee Raymond Rodriguez took a superfluous leap in contending differing drug-awareness presentations  – one in English, the other in Spanish – were a reflection of  institutional racism.

Are you interested in healthy people and communities in San Benito County? National Public Health Week is an annual opportunity for everyone to take a few days to think about, celebrate and take action to improve the health of all of us. This year National and San Benito County Public Health Week is April 2-9.

Bill Mifsud: “No. We are now living in a technological society but  some things should still remain private. If an employer can't find  out about a prospective employee through a basic back ground check  then the job applicant should seek employment some where else.”

The Hollister School District's request for a class-size waiver and  extension of a contract for an optional fiscal adviser - who acts as  a five-figure “final set of eyes” - underscore a cultural acceptance  of fiscal irresponsibility.