An open letter to:

Senator Dianne Feinstein

Governor Jerry Brown

Assemblymember Bill Monning (27th District)
 
Lou Calcagno, Monterey County Supervisor

Dear Senator Feinstein, Governor Brown, Assemblymember Monning, and Supervisor Calcagno,

I used to think, every day as I drove to work from my wonderful town of Aromas, how lucky we are to be able to drive around in the bubble of our cars in a free country, what a gift, what a privilege.

I'd think, how amazing to think we can drive around without fear of gunfire, with clean water, utilities so we can cook and stay warm, with a roof over our heads.  How unusual, considering most of the world can't do these simple things.  We could be in the mideast, or in another country, worrying about whether our parent or brother across town had electricity or water, without a way to contact them.  Just the struggle to know these basics define people's lives in war zones and many countries in the world.  As a small example of the chaos that reigns when our world shatters, we can remember how hard it was for us here in California after the '89 earthquake, and how hard for the east coast U.S. residents after and during the Hurricane Sandy.  What a gift to not have to worry every day about our existence.  What a luxury, to have a career we can focus on, rather than constant, gripping stress, wondering if our families will be safe.

Now I believe, due to gun violence, we are far behind in perceiving the threat to our collective safety.  We're at risk, without a method to ensure we are safe from gun violence. 

Our safety is a gift.  We are right on top of the danger of driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol or distractions, and methods of determining this.  But we are not 'getting it' with automatic weapons, etc. availability: since 2001 September 11, when we collectively woke up and united with each other as a nation, we can do this, we are ready to create  thoughtful gun use law now.  We need a meaningful modality in place regarding gun violence, and to determine appropriate gun weapon use.  Gun target practice, hunting with guns are clearly very different than automatic weapon availability and use.

Our state's minimal hospitalization and recovery period practices/laws for mentally ill is frighteningly short-sighted and also a necessary part of the gun violence discussion.   As you may know, "....In 2002, California passed legislation ("Laura's Law") allowing judges to order involuntary outpatient treatment for people with severe mental illnesses if they have a history....Short-term involuntary hospitalization was already legal in California in cases where patients had already shown they were a danger to themselves or others. But Laura's Law was touted as a preventative measure allowing family members, mental health workers or parole officers to request treatment for the ill before they do anything harmful, especially in cases where a patient's condition inhibits them from making rational decisions about treatment. The law, however, left it up to counties to decide if they want to implement it....Almost a decade later, only one of California's 58 counties has adopted it, Wilcox's Nevada County....." (from http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2098044,00.html#ixzz2IGidTAua).

Funding mental illness involuntary outpatient treatment partially from gun sales and other similar sales / use is an idea.  To offset cost, the savings by law enforcement via fewer mentally ill incidents, though harder to assess is significant.

We need to be our own agents for change.  I ask you to answer the safety from gun violence question.


Sincerely,


Catherine Kauer,
Monterey County Business Owner, Employer


Catherine L. Kauer

Landscape Architect No. 3526
Landscape Contractor License No. 892821

1300 Anton Place
Aromas, CA 95004-9758

ckauer@sbcglobal.net

408-202-9168
831-726-2340

kauerdesign.com

Licensed, Bonded, Insured

Now is the time to load up on holiday goodies on sale, and yes, that means delightful dormant oil, sulfur and anti-fungal sprays, wrapped in a delightful spreader-sticker combo.  If that doesn't start your gardening spirit buzzing, nothing will, at least if you're the gardener I think you are.

As we California gardeners all know, or rather are supposed to remember, the holidays were created with the express idea that we'd be able to spend the day off doing the minimum, thrice-yearly winter fruit tree sprays: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.  Since it is past Thanksgiving, I am sure you have already done the first spray, the least important of the three.  And do not let weather deter you!  Rain high jinks will merely whet your appetite for accomplishing the task in a timely fashion.  Speaking of fashion I hope you remembered to add a Santa hat to your white Tyvek spray suit and protective mask get-up for the holiday look.  We all know the serious weather will not start until directly after your next spray, whenever that occurs.  However you do it, the major pruning will not become apparent until you have put away your winter gardening suit and put your feet up on the couch, coffee table or dog as the case may be.  At this point, just when you are settling in to a good book, a storm will whip up and send your Eureka Lemon branches to a 90 degree angle, lying across your neighbor's prize roses.  You will have to think about where you left your excellent pruning saw, or whether you really care about anything but getting thoroughly into your book.   In fact you are much happier with the performance of the Meyer Lemon, as it does so well without any help, once you figure out how big it would be and provided a good spot for it; so why bother with the Eureka?  After several pages, uncomfortable feelings start, and you go down to the garage to rummage around for something relatively sharp with which to neatly hack off branches.  When you start the task, you realize that the unmentionable branches are fifteen feet along, and will catapult across the yard into something even more precious to your neighbor than the roses…nothing is as straightforward as it seems, in the garden. So eventually you discard the idea of guying the branches as more trouble, remember you have an extended reach branch lopper/saw for the express purpose of pruning high branches, and neatly cut off the branches in two steps.  At this point, you are just getting warmed up and feel like pruning your neighbor’s trees just a tad, where they block your favorite view of the mountains.  The neighbor is away, it would be so easy… but you dimly remember the verb ‘trespassing’ at the last second and try to forget the idea.  You decide once the neighbor is home you can discuss it with him and gain enthusiastic cooperation, whereas no one likes a pruning surprise.  I, you, he, she, it, we, they trespass…. Considering this, you step backward and crush your Euryops pecinatus, also known by almost no one as California Bush Daisy, which never looks good after the second year, and which you were working up the courage to rip out.  Now you happily have a reason to remove them all!  This will open up possibilities for change in the garden and also satisfy the ever-present urge to cut off things.  Nothing is so inspiring as thinking about what might replace the Euryops.  Change is a fun thing in the garden, at least when we initiate it.