Here are two letters to the Paso Robles Press, posted Tuesday. Four cents of opinion from a couple of conservatives. Two who are willing to fight for the old landmarks that others are trying to remove. Brave Old Worlders who get my vote for remembering the good old days in Paso Robles.
Letters 10-14
Posted: Tuesday, Oct 14th, 2008
Editor: I have lived in Paso Robles for 15 years. I like living here. I trust this town. But now I am questioning the good faith I had in its decency and moral goodness of its citizens.
I put up a Proposition 8 sign in my front yard. I was warned it might be stolen, but really had more faith in the people of Paso Robles. It was stolen. I feel violated. The thieves were in my yard, taking something that belonged to me. This letter isn’t about politics. It’s about morals and doing the ethical thing.
The person/people who stole it are obviously against Proposition 8. That’s fine. They have the freedom to vote how they want and speak the way they want. But, what happened to my freedom of speech?
It was on my private property. Apparently, they want freedom to marry whoever they want, but not freedom for somebody else who doesn’t agree with them to voice their opinion on their own property. I don’t steal their “No on Prop. 8” sign. I personally don’t celebrate Halloween, but I wouldn’t go to my neighbors and tear down their Halloween decorations outside their house.
Why does this get ignored? It’s a crime. They stole. Apparently, not only is same-sex marriage acceptable to some, so is trespassing and theft — thus no morals or ethics. What are they teaching their children? This made a bad statement of those who oppose Proposition 8.
Grow up, citizens of Paso Robles! Respect people even though they disagree with you. Stealing signs is so juvenile — though I know it wasn’t children who did this. There is a sign for a candidate running for mayor right across the street — and it’s been up for weeks. An adolescent who just wanted to cause trouble would take all yards signs; they wouldn’t care what it was about.
Americans can campaign with stickers, buttons, booths, fliers, signs, compassing, phone calls, etc. Or is it just some Americans that can? Liberals preach tolerance constantly, but for them it seems to go only one way. They want to receive it, but not give it.
Everybody is entitled to their opinion — unless you’re a conservative, then it’s stolen from you.
Sarah-Kate Correa
Paso Robles
Editor: I want to thank the Pioneer Day Committee for another great Pioneer Day. For me the clear highlight was the display of antique equipment. I don’t know of anywhere in the world you could be able to see display of operating equipment like that.
Prior to Pioneer Day, one of our most beloved citizens, Phil Dirkx, writing in the liberal county paper, suggested that we have to give Pioneer Day more pizzazz. Those of us that have been here for awhile are for sure concerned that Pioneer Day may not survive in this “new Paso Robles”
If it were the Farmers’ Market, you could pizzazz it up like San Luis Obispo did. To me Pioneer Day — from its founding — defined the character and soul of Paso Robles. If that is no longer important to the people who now live in Paso, I just think the character of the town has changed. I don’t think you can make it more important to people by putting more pizzazz in it.
In this last fight over who should pay for the water so development can continue, the change in character was clear. The traditional — or authentic — Paso Robles was the part of the community that was concerned about the people here. The new thinking — the new majority — believe that we have to make Paso a nice place to live so it will attract tourists and new residents.
Change happens. It used to be that when people moved here — like Phil Dirkx — they accepted the culture of the community and became part of it. During our period of rapid development, people moved to Paso for economic reasons, not because they wanted the culture that existed here. As those numbers increased, so did the pressure to change Paso Robles.
If we need to pizzazz things up, maybe the big advance forward would be to change the town name to something that would reflect our new values and attract tourists.
Walter Heer
Paso Robles
