The voters of Baldwin Park recently voted against a similar ban, a fact the pro-fireworks folks will be reminding you of by means of expensive mailers sent to your homes before you vote.
What they won't tell you is that the big money fireworks interests (mainly American Promotional Events, Inc. dba TNT Fireworks of Fullerton, and Fireworks of California, LLC, of Springfield, Mo.), contributed $79,055 to win the Baldwin Park election. The vote was 1,513 for and 2,098 against a ban. That works out to approximately $38 per "no" vote.
Keep that cost in mind when the next expensive mailer arrives telling you how you are "robbing" local non-profit community groups by banning fireworks. The fact is only a fraction of the many non-profit groups in Downey have a permit to sell fireworks.
Measure L is written to not take effect until 2003 to allow the groups that do sell fireworks time to find other means of fundraising.
A ban on all backyard fireworks doesn't mean it will stop immediately, but it does mean that fire and police can enforce the ban without having to stop and decide in each case what is and isn't legal. Public safety personnel are overworked on the 4th of July anyway. Both the fire chief and police chief have said they favor Measure L.
Downey was a dangerous place the last 4th of July, with more street and backyard pyrotechnics than ever before. Many of our new neighbors don't consider the safety of persons or property when they light off on the 4th. We were very lucky not to have had a major fire, according to public safety personnel.
If you are tired of having your children endangered, your property at risk and your eardrums and pets outraged by fireworks, make yourself known at the polls March 5 by voting "YES" on Measure L.
It might be nice to show the world (and the fireworks interests) that they can't "buy" Downey with flashy mailers the way they did Baldwin Park.
"The bottom line is that residents in the affected areas (including Downey) are unlikely to be victimized by what we call a 100-year flood, which can result from the kind of storms our area might experience about once every century," explained Knabe. "Now, 500,000 residents in 14 communities will no longer be required to purchase flood insurance, and we brought that change about five years early and $150 million under budget."
Congressman Steve Horn (R-38th, Long Beach and Downey), deserves credit for rallying the California delegation to make sure the work was fully funded. And the Corps of Engineers deserve praise for expediting the construction.
The flood control system in the affected areas can now handle more water as a result of extensive work, including work to raise the height on 21-miles of existing levees and modify 23 bridges over the Los Angeles River and Rio Hondo Channel.
The Puritans, who H.L. Mencken observed much later "lived in constant fear that someone, somewhere is having a good time," in fact, did not have much tolerance for girls having hallucinations writhing on the floor, not knowing who they were, and generally acting as though possessed by the devil. Of course those who were witness to these events comprised the "proof." Science then was even more speculation than empirical, so the explanation of this religious madness had to wait another three centuries for discovery.
This saga of hysteria started in the wet winter of 1692 in a remote farming area of Boston where eight young girls started feeling ill, having hallucinations, convulsions and skin sensations. No one knew what was wrong, even the minister father of one of the girls. The magnitude of this tragedy cannot be overstated. Over the spring and summer months some 150 people were arrested as witches and 25 men and women were put to death; drowned, burned, or just died in jail.
After three centuries, how did we finally learn what happened? A young college student, Linnda Caporael, in the early 1970s read a story about a similar event in France that happened in 1951. By this time LSD had entered the language and the hallucinogenic effects were LSD-like. This was the magic connection.
PBS, and KCET locally, had a definitive show on this story from the "Secrets of the Dead" series and told how Caporael had found that LSD is a derivative of ergot, a fungus that lives and spreads in grains, especially rye grain growing during a cold, wet winter. She found the conditions were right in 1692 Salem and in 1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit and were suspect in other times and places from historical stories. Rye was a much more commonly used grain back then and there were many small mills, so a bad crop could get concentrated to a small group of people or to a small town with only one flour mill. In eating bread every day, a small group of people could have some very bad "acid trips." All from eating a little fungus.
There have been many medical mistreatments over the eons, but as science caught up to them, people were made well again. Unfortunately, religion has no such safety net, so we frequently have superstition, mass hysteria and general debauchery instead of spiritual growth. Such is usually the case when faith outruns reason.
Linnda Caporael can be very proud of her fine detective work and PBS can be equally proud of presenting the story.
Congress can and should follow the President's lead by making health care a top priority this year. In particular, our nation faces new healthcare challenges as a result of September 11th. Thousands of workers were displaced and left without health insurance - joining an already large group of 38.7 million uninsured Americans. To address this, the President has proposed $9.3 billion to help unemployed workers find jobs and keep their health insurance. The budget calls for $89 billion nationwide over 10 years for a refundable tax credit for low and middle-income Americans who do not have employer health coverage. The tax credit would subsidize up to 90 percent of the cost of health insurance.
The budget also includes $1.6 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for bioterrorism preparedness. The funding will be used for advancing research, stocking up on vaccines to prevent small pox and anthrax, and building up local response capabilities in the event of a major biological or chemical attack. As chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management, and Intergovernmental Relations, I plan to focus attention on the needs of communities across the country in increasing the preparedness of police, fire, and health agencies to meet this challenge.
Another major component of the President's budget is the need for comprehensive Medicare reform. Medicare must be overhauled to reflect the realities of modern medicine and that means it must include prescription drug coverage. The Medicare system is 36 years old and has failed to keep up with new developments in drug treatments and preventive care that fight diseases such as breast and prostate cancer, heart disease, and AIDS. The President's budget calls for $190 billion over 10 years for comprehensive Medicare reform that would modernize the system to include prescription drug coverage, access to preventive care, expansion of private health plan options, and significant improvements in financial management and claims processing.
As a first step, Medicare will endorse a prescription drug-discount card that will give seniors immediate access to drug discounts that best meet their needs. Although the details must be worked out, the goal is to provide immediate assistance with prescription drugs while the federal government addresses long-term subsidized prescription drug coverage.
The President's budget also completes the national commitment to double research funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to a total of $27.2 billion in 2003. This $3.7 billion increase will fund crucial research on life-threatening diseases such as Parkinson's, AIDS, cancer, Lou Gehrig's and Alzheimer's.
The President's budget maintains our strong commitment to health programs for children and low-income families, beginning with $159 billion for the federal share of Medicaid. Federal support would be increased for the State Children's Health Insurance Program for uninsured children by providing states with $3.2 billion in unused federal funding, that was to be returned to the U.S. Treasury. Community health centers that provide critical care to more than 11 million people in underserved communities would be expanded from 3,400 to 4,600 sites nationwide - allowing 6.1 million more patients to be served by 2006.
Also, Congress must move forward with the long overdue patients' bill of rights that would give doctors and patients the right to make their own health care decisions and hold decision-makers accountable when they harm someone. The House passed a strong Patients' Bill of Rights last year and the Senate passed a different version. Now Congress and the President must work out a compromise so that this bill can become law.
All of these initiatives will help to bring our nation closer to ensuring that every American has access to quality health care. Congress must work diligently and responsibly to put these vital reforms into action.