Library could be senior center

A group of us met recently for dinner and ended up discussing that none of us knew what the city of Camarillo was going to do with the old library site on Ponderosa Drive. We brainstormed and thought it would make a wonderful new senior citizen center similar to the ones in neighboring cities. It would be located near the new low-cost senior housing on Temple Avenue and Ponderosa Drive , plus it would be near the Boys & Girls Club.

We would be able to provide more tutors at the Boys & Girls club, provide events such as teas and parties for them and, most of all, we could be great mentors for them, getting into some gardening projects around the center with them.

I am sure we could get the Pleasant Valley Lions to help with the refurbishing. I know other civic groups would be willing to help the seniors to have their own place.

Come on, Camarillo council members, share your plans with us. Could there be a new senior center like the ones in Oxnard, Ventura and Moorpark? I am sure lots of seniors out there would love their own center.

If any other seniors see a need for a larger senior center, please write letters to the members of Camarillo's City Council. Maybe we have some seniors in Camarillo or Somis who could help by writing a grant for such a project.

— Ginger Schulze, Somis

Votes must be safeguarded

Re: your Aug. 5 article, "Disputed vote machines not issue for area":

This is the time to reaffirm this is the government of the people, if indeed it still is. Elections are the only way we can be heard. People decry the lack of voting among the populace.

Who will bother if elections are not secured by some safe method of protecting our votes?

— Marise Cherin, Ventura

Declining enrollment not true

Is there a parrot in the Pleasant Valley School District? There must be because only parrots would keep squawking the phrase "declining enrollment" when the facts indicate exactly the opposite. Even PVSD's new interim superintendent, Luis Villegas, seems to be parroting the same phrase. "Declining enrollment" has been cited as one of the reasons for closing several local schools.

Certainly, PVSD employees, the Board of Education and the interim superintendent know or should know that statistics on the California Department of Education Web site refute that statement. CDE Web site statistics show increasing, rather than declining, enrollment since the 2001-02 school year.

So I say, catch those parrots and send them somewhere for "re-education" — perhaps the Oxnard Union High School District.

— Constance Orth, Camarillo

Greatest cultural challenge

Re: Terry Paulson's Aug. 6 essay, "Relying on entitlements":

Great essay. For those of us who grew up when self-reliance was one of the first principles your parents taught you, it struck a resonating note. It is an ongoing discussion point when my friends and I get together — and what worries us most about the majority of Americans who now believe that they are entitled to free healthcare, education, job placement, housing assistance, opportunity and success.

They don't seem to have an answer when asked who provides the money that the "government" uses to provide these services. Hopefully, Paulson's essay will open up some new opportunities for discussion about this critical issue.

Paulson expressed so eloquently what some of us see as the greatest cultural challenge the people of America are now facing.

— Judy McLaughlin, Simi Valley

Governor no friend of the GOP

Re: your Aug. 3 article, "Governor reprimands GOP":

The article stated, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that Senate Republicans who are holding up passage of the state budget had been presented with a plan that met their original demands."

The plan was for Republicans to vote for the Democrats' budget and trust Schwarzenegger's promise to line-item veto $700 million worth of items. He declined to list the items he would veto. Trusting Schwarzenegger is foolish. His politics are not based on principles; they are based on a lust for power. Although he ran as a Republican promising to balance the budget, he realized the Democrats are in control and for him to be powerful, he had to side with them. The Democrats' budget is not balanced. Schwarzenegger is a lame-duck governor with nothing to lose by ignoring Republicans after they approve the Democrats' budget. If he were intellectually honest, he would switch his voter registration.

Although he blames Republicans for the stalemate, it is a bloated Democrat budget that could only attract one Republican vote. The Democrats killed a Republican motion for $10 billion in continuing funding and a Republican motion to continue discussions. The Senate pro tem, a Democrat, sent everyone home until Aug. 20.

No, I am not a Republican.

— Bill Stanley, Westlake Village

A discouraging word at the fair

My 12-year-old daughter went with her 12-year-old friend and her friend's dad to the fair Monday. She got home and proceeded to tell me what was said on stage by the opening act for the Hinder concert. I was mortified. The guy said, using a profanity, he would expose himself but there were a lot of families there, so would keep it "PG."

I am going to e-mail every family that I know and advise them not to attend the fair. I will not ever be attending with my family.

— Jack Haynes, Simi Valley