Secession ideas go to new lows

The idea of splitting California into two states is nothing new. No place as large as California, with its almost 170,000 square miles and its largestin-the-nation population of 39.2 million — even after los ing 600,000 residents in the last few years — will ever be immune from people who believe smaller is better, as ex-Gov. Jerry Brown loudly proclaimed in the 1970s.

As early as the 1940s, some in California’s most northern reaches began seeking a divorce from the rest of the state. Their proposal has never earned a legislative or popular vote above the county level.

Since then, other splitting proposals suggested carving the state into seven parts, or three, or cut it in two along vertical north-south lines that would separate coastal counties from those a little bit inland.

But until recently, all such plans called for large new states – smaller than California, but nothing like Wyoming or Alaska, whose areas are large, but support populations of 700,000 or less.

Now, though, some folks in two counties that feel neglected want out. Last fall, voters in San Bernardino County – with the largest acreage of any American county – voted by a 50.6 percent majority to study separating from California to form a one-county state. Half a year later, that study has yet to begin in earnest.

More recently, a separatist movement has arisen in El Dorado County, best known for containing part of the gorgeous Lake Tahoe. The El Dorado portion includes what many consider Lake Tahoe’s prettiest area, Emerald Bay, and its rocky Fannette Island, whose permanent population has never exceeded one. That was a sometime 19th Century English sea captain who built his own tomb and chapel on the peaked islet he considered a paradise.

El Dorado County’s population is somewhat larger than that at 193,000, but South Lake Tahoe remains its biggest city, with 21,350 residents. The county seat of Placerville has half as many folks, while other towns like Grizzly Flats, Pollock Pines and Camino are far smaller.

But that doesn’t matter to some residents, who now support statehood for their large, mostly mountainous and wooded county.

Responses to the responses

Gender and race are, as Dave Hart points out, "states of being," distinguishable also as "attributes." As such, John Clark is correct in his view regarding the need to prevent government from from adopting, endorsing or expressing support for particular issues or attributes in the public square, as distinguished from government adoption of duly considered legislation that may affect individuals and groups with such attributes. Governmental celebration of an attribute, on the other hand, is a needlessly provocative, wrong-headed, unlegislated, divisive and undemocratic exercise of governance.

Bob Comarow, in his rebuttal regarding cooking with propane, offers what may be valid options to its use. However, a problem with his assertions is that they are not presented with any credible research, studies or other references to substantiate his claims. The same is true for opinions expressed in the original,

Speak out

President

“We all know that our problem is representation,” complained one statehood supporter. “We don’t have a voice. We don’t have one representative in state or federal government that lives in El Dorado County.”

Her sentiment echoed feelings in many Northern California counties, some of whose people have tried for decades to create a new 21-county State of Jefferson, which would putatively include everything from the Oregon state line south to the Sacramento and San Francisco Bay areas. The state capital would be in Redding, largest city in the area and the Shasta County seat.

Statehood activists in those counties long sought to ally with rural Oregon counties to make a somewhat larger state. But rural Oregon now appears more bent on trying the “Greater Idaho” concept, seeking to move the Idaho state line west to take in virtually all of Oregon east of the Cascade mountain range. Because that, like Jefferson, would probably take a statewide “yes” vote, it’s highly unlikely, but still a fun fantasy for a lot of folks.

That’s also pretty much the situation in San Bernardino and El Dorado counties, which lack many resources needed to sustain a state.

Such realism, though, never dents enthusiasm for independence. That’s how it offending commentary as well as many (most?) opinions that we are everywhere asked to accept as fact. If the devil is in the details, we should expect many more of them from any source seeking our attention and support.

Jon Sugarman Davis

The concept of time

What is time? Stop and think for a moment. How often do we use the word to refer to something? What time is it?

How much more time is left? Can you check the time? We use this word so much in everyday life, and yet do we really know what time actually is?

Some call time the fourth dimension.

Just like how the other three dimensions are intangible, time is as well. Keeping this in mind, how exactly would you define time? Is it a physical occurrence? Is it simply our way to measure something? Ultimately, as time has no physical tangibility, it is a concept. Now, concepts can be difficult to grasp sometimes. However, when you really think about

224-3553; email: https://www.padilla .senate.gov/contact/contact-form/

House of Representatives

The Hon. Joe Biden, The White House, Washington, D.C., 20500; 202-456-1111 (comments), 202-456-1414 (switchboard); email: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

U.S. Senate

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 331 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202224-3841; email: http://feinstein.senate. gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

Sen. Alex Padilla, 112 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202- is in El Dorado, where statehood supporter Sharon Durst, 84, believes the county could appeal directly to Congress to separate it from California, even though some western parts of the county are effectively rural bedroom suburbs of the state capital of Sacramento.

“We think we have grounds to stand on (with) the fact that El Dorado was actually a county before California was a state,” she wrote in an online essay. “It is impossible to believe that the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence would be of a mind to hold a people hostage of an oppressive state any more than an oppressive king.”

Much of that could also have been said by Jefferson advocates and those behind all the other 40-odd state splitting plans that have been proposed for California.

So chances are El Dorado and San Bernardino county enthusiasts won’t get any farther than their predecessors. But these days, few things are absolutely certain. Elias is author of the current book “The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign to Squelch It,” now available in an updated third edition. His email address is tdelias@aol.com it, a concept is something humankind invented. We try to put a name to things we don’t understand to have it make sense to our minds. In this sense, time is a concept, which is in turn, human-made. So really, the definition of time is an invention of the human race to mark the passage of various increments. We created this measurement in an attempt to comprehend something that, in actuality, is very difficult to understand. As you go about your day, think about how time affects us and what it really is. Try to figure out what time means to you.

Kyla Steen Davis

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Rep. Mike Thompson, 268 Cannon Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515; 202225-3311. District office: 622 Main Street, Suite 106, Woodland, CA 95695; 530-7535301; email: https:// https://mikethomp sonforms.house.gov/contact/

Governor Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814; 916-4452841; email: visit https://govapps.gov. ca.gov/gov40mail/

California Senate

Sen. Bill Dodd, State Capitol, Room 5063, Sacramento, CA 95814; 916-651-4003; fax: 916-651-4903; email: visit sd03.senate.ca. gov. District office: 555 Mason St., Suite 275, Vacaville, CA 95688; 707-454-3808; fax: 707-454-3811.

California Assembly

Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0004; 916-319-2004; fax: 916319-2104; email: visit www.asm.ca.gov/ aguiar-curry. District office: 600 A St., Suite D, Davis, CA 95616; 530-757-1034

By Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Charles M. Schulz

Mark Honbo/uc davis atHLetics-courtesy pHoto

Members of the UC Davis women’s swimming team get ready to start a race during the spring season.

UCD swim and dive named a Scholar All-America squad

RICHMOND, Va. — For the second time this year, the UC Davis women’s swim and dive team has been honored as a Scholar All-America Team for its collective excellence in the classroom by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA).

The CSCAA Scholar All-America Team is given out twice a year, once in the fall, and again in the spring.