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Ventura County Board of Supervisors to Decide Who is Qualified to Run For Public Office

The Ventura County, California, Board of Supervisors believes that they should have to power to decide who is, and who is not, qualified to run for public office. Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long believes that “the board is responsible to minimize potential risk and protect taxpayer funds” so she, and the rest of the Board of Supervisors have passed an ordinance which requires that a person who wishes to run for Ventura County Treasurer, must have certain qualifications. If they do not, they will be prohibited from seeking public office, no matter what other qualifications they may have.

State Assemblywomen Audra Strickland, a Republican who has served her area quite well for the past eight years, is now prohibited by law to continue to do so because of term limits. Now, she is also prohibited by law to seek another office, that of County Treasurer because of the new qualifications the democratic Board of Supervisors has put into place. They not only have prevented Strickland from seeking this office, but anyone who has not “served in a senior financial management position with a public agency or has a degree in accounting or finance.”

You now need a degree to run for public office in Ventura County. Strange how there is no such requirement to run for Supervisor, or Congress, or even President of the United States! It seems the Ventura Board of Supervisors considers the office of County Treasurer to be more important than that of the President , whose only qualification is that they are a natural born American citizen and 35 years of age or older.

Contrary to the opinion of Kathy Long, it is not the responsibility of the Board of Supervisors to determine who the voters should have the opportunity to vote for and who they should not. The voters can read election pamphlets and the candidates are free to list their many qualifications, or lack thereof. Not having a college degree should not prevent anyone from seeking public office.

Putting any pre-requisite on the opportunity to run for office is discriminatory at the very least, and potentially racist at the very worst. How large, I wonder, is the pool of individuals who have “senior financial management position with a public agency? How many of these “qualified” individuals are women or minorities? Audra Stickland, for one, does not have any of these qualifications. Then again, neither does Bill Gates or Steve Job.

If members of Congress, some of whom have no prior experience in public office, financial or otherwise, need not fill out a job resume before seeking public office, then it is ludicrous for the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to impose such restrictions on this, or any other elected position. They claim the new ordinance had nothing to do with the fact Republican Audra Strickland was planning on running for the office. They claim that they are just following other counties, such as Orange County which enacted qualification requirements in the mid-90's because of the “risky investments” by their tax-collector.

If that is the reason for this new ordinance, than every member of Congress should also be required to submit a resume before they are permitted to file candidacy papers.

What is more astonishing, is that the editor of the Acorn came out in favor of this new restriction. He wrote: “The good news is that the Board of Supervisors will establish job requirements for the office of County treasurer”. He further went on to say that this restriction should have been done years ago.

With laws preventing individuals from seeking public office, the voters in Ventura County are losing their Constitutional right to vote for the candidate of their choice, no matter what their prior education or job experience. If the voters believe that Audra Strickland, with her many years of public service in the State Assembly is not qualified to serve as County treasurer, then the voters will make that decision, not the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

The new ordinance not only prevents Strickland from serving our county, it completely robs the voters of our rights to elect her.

The position of county treasurer is an elected, not an appointed one. As are all elected offices, it is up to the people, not the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to decide who is qualified and who is not.

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, Do Not Go Gently Into that Good-Night

Tiger Woods, a name which once was synonymous with excellence in golf, has now been thrashed by every puritanical, sanctimonious news and sports reporter who has a microphone, or internet access. While this holier than thou attitude has brought down governors, congressmen, almost a U.S. President and nearly the Catholic church, but when it comes to sports, most athletes, the public and the media, just let it ride.

There is a huge difference between hypocritical self-righteous preachers of "family values" and a guy who hits a little ball into a hole.

The guy who hits a little ball into a hole with almost super human precision, was discovered to be only an ordinary man who couldn't keep his putter in his pants. Tiger Woods never preached family values in order to win an election. Woods never took a solemn vow of chastity, then hooked up with little boys. Woods never bet on his sport, or dog fights, took steroids or murdered anyone.

Before he was married, the media didn't care that Woods enjoyed sex. The media didn't care that Woods enjoyed sex with many women. But wow did they suddenly care that he enjoyed sex with many women who were not his wife.

Tiger Woods is an athlete. He's a man who has somehow managed to excite the world's most boring sport. Even the fans are boring.

Back in the day, sports figures like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and "Broadway Joe" Namath to name only a spare few, were notorious for their wild behavior. Not one of them were forced to take an indefinite leave from their game. The list of wild and some law breaking celebrities could fill a football stadium, and the public eats it up. And the public buys their albums, and the rag-mags with their faces on every cover, make millions at the expense of individuals whose only "crime" is that they wish to excel in their chosen profession.

Not Tiger Woods. He didn't call a press conference. He didn't stand on a podium next to his wife and cry before the media. He said that his private life was no one else's business except his and his family's. Then he took his little ball and went home.

And the press, ever diligent, keep on talking. It was no longer important how many Golf tournaments Woods has won, but how many women he supposedly slept with. The numbers are mounting, the talk shows are inundated with calls for interviews of Wood's line-up of ladies. I'm almost certain there are book deals being offered with million dollar advances.

The "sharks" continually feed off the blood of this one incredible young man who could hit a ball into a hole better than anyone else....ever.

Tiger Woods and his foundation actively promote parental responsibility and involvement in the lives of children. He's used his fame and fortune to help support the Rainforest Foundation Fund and formed the Tiger Woods Foundation and the Tiger Woods Learning Center.

But none of that matters anymore.

There is a famous quote by Julius Caesar which states, "The evil men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones."

Tiger Woods cheated on his wife. His career is over.

And golf is still boring.

The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Writer

Watching the previews of the 2010 Winter Olympics made me realize how very much alone we, as writers are in own field of dreams. Each athlete has personal stories to tell about coaches, teammates, family, friends and sometimes entire towns cheering them on.

When they had doubts, when they fell on the ice, or landed in a pile of snow, numerous supporters were ready at a moments notice to help them back on their feet. And when they were finally in the arena, thousands of spectators watched, cheered and applauded their every achievement as well as felt their anguish when they didn’t quite make it to the finish line.

Yet, in our own “Wide Wide World of Writing”, the only “applause” we hear is from our fingers hitting the keyboard. Our biggest motivator is the blinking cursor on a blank screen “screaming” at us to KEEP GOING. Writing is a passion unlike any other. It comes from deep within, and has few rewards on the other side. The road is rifted with obstacles, and laden with the hazzards of rejection. Most of our friends and family members can’t possibly understand that our burning desire to create the “perfect” sentence is just as strong as any skater’s quest to nail the “perfect” triple axle. Yet, we press on. Alone.

We watch an athlete practice for the great event and can feel their struggle. We see the “thrill of victory” and “the agony of defeat” as the camera zooms in on their faces at the end of a competition. The “team” hugs each other in triumph, or consoles each other through tragedy. It is a magnificent show of physical ability, strength and endurance, as they go for the gold, the trophy, the championship ring.

No one else can “feel” the enormous weight of a writer’s block, or the pressure of a looming deadline. And no one but a writer knows the absolute, total thrill when, after hours of mental aguish, we find the one word that makes us literally jump up from our chair and yell “YES!” Usually, to an empty room.

The world revolves around athletes. From the youngest to the professional, families work their schedules around practices and games. Laundry, dishes and other household chores are for the “less talented” members of the family. If one of them happens to be a writer, it’s their world that constantly gets interrupted. (Pause here while I take the laundry out of the dryer).

Team pictures line the walls in an athlete’s home along with trophies, medals and other awards of achievement. And while it is true that the writing profession does have its own established awards, you won’t find many trophies for writers displayed inside glass cases in local high schools or colleges.

Writing is not a competitive sport, (although I know some writers who might disagree). For most of us who started down this road, either by choice or by chance, we chose to walk it, initially, alone. But on the way, something miraculous occurred. We meet other writers who wear similar scars of repeated rejections, and bruises from scathing reviews, and yet somehow found the strength to continue the journey.

We find “comrades in arms” through writing organizations, or meet many faceless friends on-line, who offer support and encouragement. And with each new writer we meet, we begin to feel not quite so alone as we did when we started the journey.

Not everyone can be an Olympic Athlete and in spite of what many people thing, not everyone can be a writer. We may never be on the pitcher’s mound in Yankee Stadium, but we can write a great story about an athlete who is. We may never sign a multi-million dollar product endorsement contract, but we can create a dynamite thirty second commercial spot. We may never stand on a podium and receive a gold medal, but we will always be there writing the script for the announcer who tells the world of their achievement.

Even if we don’t perform for thousands of cheering fans, we will always have this one fact to keep us going: Civilization will still exist without the Olympics, the Super Bowl or the World Series. But without writers...

50,000 words plus! We have a WINNER!

To say this was the most exciting challenge I've ever attempted and SUCCEEDED, is to put it mildly. With only 3 days to go, and 8,000 words to write, I really put my fingers and creativity into high gear! Didn't help that near the end, my main character said one line...ONE LINE, that took the entire plot into a completely different direction. I had to kill off one of the main characters, and I really hated to do that, but there just wasn't any other way to solve the problem.

The book could easily end right here, but there is still another chapter, a love scene, to add and some loose ends to tie up, and then, of course the hours and hours of re-writes and edits that will be necessary before I send my new baby out in the world, so stay tuned!

For those of you who would like to download the FREE e-book preview, remember it's a work in progress, go to

http://www.smashwords.com/dashboard and under the title Cry UNCLE, the code is FR75B (not case sensitive).

Halfway to 50,000 words Halfway through November

I must either be a writing fool, or just a foolish writer, but since I signed up for November Novel in a Month, my laptop is, well, on my lap and I just passed the 25,000 word count at 1/2 way through the month, so 50,000 doesn't seem as nearly as impossible as it did 2 weeks ago.

Now, this third novel of mine I actually started WAY back in 2001. Sad to say 8 years have flown by with not much more than the title and a sketchy outline. There were always so many excuses, but maybe what was preventing me from moving forward was the block in my head, or the blockhead in my bed, or whatever gave me the message that no one would want to read the finished product.

Now, if maybe I'd run for VP, and lost, then quit my "job", then wrote a book about it, which would soar to #1 no matter how badly written it was, or if I was an actor playing the part of a writer who had written a fake best seller that became a real book not written by the actor who played the fake writer who wrote the fake best seller....uh, am I'm losing anyone yet?
Then, maybe I'd have a chance!

It's a very sorry state of affairs when a fake writer and a fake political candidate, (or, sorry, I thought that was Tina Fey) can hit the best seller list and real live people can't even break into the top 100 of Amazon.com.

Ok, I lied. This real person actually writes under a "fake" name and my book, Blood Tastes Lousy With Scotch by Robin C. Westmiller, J.D. has, in fact made it to the top 100 of the Amazon best seller list in the category of elder abuse (it's not a Vampire novel as some have suggested, and Red Wine For Breakfast is NOT a cookbook)

So, with no negative thoughts of what I'm going to do after this book is completed, how I'm going to pitch it to an agent who will try to pitch it to a "traditional" publisher, or go the print on demand route, or how I'll market the book, and all the rest of that part of publishing, I'm just going to not think about anything BUT making that goal of 50,000 words by Nov 30.

I think that's a pretty huge goal for now...for a "real" writer!