OPINION

Purple is the New Party How the Newsom stole Thanksgiving not to go, so that my family wouldn’t potentially get in trouble, and so I wouldn’t have to self-quarantine for 14 days, as California suggests. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer STAFF WRITER Kimberly Rivers CONTRIBUTORS by Paul Moomjean They simply were misled or, inten- • Gatherings should be two This type of overreach is beyond Michael Cervin, David Michael Courtland, Ivor Davis, Emily Dodi, paulmoomjean@yahoo.com tionally, were misleading people. We hours or less reasonable. It is one thing to create Alicia Doyle, David Goldstein, Chuck Graham, Chris Jay, Daphne

Whave not put out Thanksgiving guide- • Singing, chanting and shouting rules for places of business, as peo- Khalida Kilea, Karen Lindell, Paul Moomjean, Mike Nelson, Tim ith the election now behind us, COVID-19 still with us, and a cold winter packed with usually commemorated holidays before us, 2020 isn’t celebrating a happy ending any time soon. In fact, California Governor Gavin Newsom is throwing out even more guidelines and restrictions for families who want to spend the holiday season together. With Thanksgiving a week away, families were getting a lot of information about lines.” He then promised those specific guidelines were “coming soon.” Until then, look at how you are supposed to spend the holidays together. These are a few of the restrictions taken directly from the California Department of Health website: • Gatherings that include more than three households are prohibited • Collect names of all attendees and contact information • All gatherings must be held outside are strongly discouraged, but if happening, gatherers should wear face coverings at all times, and sing quietly • Instrumental music is allowed as long as the musicians maintain at least a six-foot physical distance. Musicians must be from one of the three households. Playing of wind instruments (any instrument played by the mouth, such as a trumpet or clarinet) is strongly discouraged Well, I guess I won’t be bringple share that space, and workers should be protected from owners and CEOs who could have no problem putting lower wage employees in harm’s way. We must have some regulations created. But once Newsom reached into the homes of people, he went too far. He might be able to restrict the capacity of a business, but on private property, where people decide their own lifestyle choices, he needs to back off. People should not be Pompey, Emily Savage, Kathy Jean Schultz, Alan Sculley, Kit Stolz, Mark Storer, Alex Wilson, Leslie A. Westbrook, Kateri Wozny GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Bret Hooper, Paul Braun, Elaine Cota SALES TEAM LEADER Warren Barrett ADVERTISING SALES Barbara Kroon CLASSIFIEDS Ann Turrietta Advertising information, call 805.648.2244 Classified Ads | Display Ads EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICE how they should spend their social • Attendees may go inside to use ing my jazz band over for turkey prisoners in their own homes, with 805.648.2244 gatherings with proper social dis- restrooms as long as the restrooms day this year. weird bathroom and food prep rules. warren@vcreporter.com (Advertising) tancing. The guidelines, when first are frequently sanitized What these guidelines really are is It’s easy for him and his cronies to nancy@vcreporter.com (Editorial) announced in late October, were met • Gatherings may occur in outdoor a way for the rich to accommodate follow these guidelines. They have aturrietta@timespublications.com (Classifieds) with earned mockery, but since then, Newsom has come out and stated his spaces that are covered by umbrellas, canopies, awnings, themselves and the poor and lonely to remain isolated. How many peoservants to prepare the food and build the backyard setups, and plenty The Ventura County Reporter is distributed every Thursday in Ventura, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Camarillo, Ojai, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills. The guidelines are just that, guidelines. I was a teacher once. If I told my students late papers weren’t accepted, that was not a guideline; it was a rule. These series of guidelines are easy for wealthy people with families, but are a nightmare for poorer people who just want to see their families. Newsom was mocked hard after roofs and other shade structures • The space must be large enough so that everyone at a gathering can maintain at least a six-foot physical distance from others • A place to wash hands or hand sanitizer must be available for participants to use • As much as possible, any food ple don’t have households to visit because their family lives in another state? Does Newsom want people to choose between which cousins to invite without being shamed by him? What about people who already bought plane tickets months ago and they are non-refundable? I know this because my family of space to separate. The average California resident does not. With all these stupid suggestions by inept men, I can’t help but remember Ronald Reagan’s famous line. It applies today as well: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. It isn’t Reporter is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. The Reporter may be distributed only by Reporter authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of the Reporter, take more than one copy of each Reporter issue. The Reporter is copyright ©2020 by Times Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part in any form or by any means without permission in writing by the publisher. An adjudicated Newspaper of General Circulation (SP50329). Submissions of all kinds are welcomed. However, the publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. A stamped, self-addressed envelope must accompany all submissions expected to be returned. AD PROOF Client: So Cal Gas Ad Executive: Warren Barrett (805) 648-2244 Please check this proof over carefully and indicate all corrections clearly. You will have a “1st Proof”, “2nd Proof”, and “Final Proof”. If we receive no proof after the 1st or 2nd Proofs, AD WILL RUN AS IS. If this proof meets your approval on the 1st proof, check off “FINAL PROOF (APPROVED)” box, date and sign at the bottom. ISSUE: 11/19/20NOTICE: PLEASE FAX THIS PROOF TO (805) 648-2245 ASAP his guidelines were announced. “I or beverages at outdoor lives in Washington, and with their so much that liberals are ignorant, read somewhere some folks asserting gatherings must be in even harder restrictions being put it’s just that they know so much PRESIDENT Steve Strickbine we put out guidelines for the holidays. single-serve disposable containers into effect, I had to make the choice that isn’t so.” VICE PRESIDENT Michael Hiatt

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