What a great country we have created in more than 220 years. Here in the U.S. we all exercise our First Amendment rights (citizens, legal residents and even the occasional tourist), one way or another. This time however, I want to address the sticky part of our expressions: The bumper stickers!

I understand why Monica Cooper’s experience during the recent Napa Valley College campus lockdown would cause her to muse about the root causes of violence in society (“The real root of violence in society,” May 6).

You have to be kidding? The state waits until AFTER it fails in its attempt to force Propositions 1A-1E on voters before enacting an 18 percent pay cut on all elected officials?

The announcement that health-care industry groups plan to voluntarily shave $2 trillion off the rate of increase in health spending over the next 10 years reminded me of the voluntary effort launched with similar fanfare in the Carter administration.

What if there were a way to pay for expanding health coverage that would also help hold down health-care costs and be fairer to low-income Americans than the current system?

Dear editor, If the parents in town haven’t heard yet, Scientopia Discovery Center has finally opened and we need to thank the Napa City Council (after a few months’ lapse) and Marcy and Jonathan Deeds for their tenacity, perseverance and patience. I guess that’s what happens when you have a dream and a love for science, along with the even deeper love you have for your kids.

Dear editor, I had to write to call your attention to the very misleading headline on May 18’s front page. The headline reads “Medical marijuana may come to Napa.” It led me and most likely many readers to believe that a medical marijuana dispensary is in talks to relocate to Napa. Yet the second paragraph plainly states that Dr. Fisher is looking to locate an office, “stressing it would be just that — an office and not a dispensary — ...” So where’s this “pot coming to Napa”?

Dear editor, To Berryessa Pines residents: The Spanish Flat Water District says it needs money, and it counts on everyone who has to pay to think there is nothing we can do. What a bunch of sheep they think we are.

Tuesday the Supervisors are going to take up an ordinance, seventeen pages in length that we have had only the weekend to try to digest, further restricting property rights in Napa. This is the spawn of a woman who lives in Yountville "most weekends" and got upset because a neighbor nearby wanted to adjust lot lines on a large parcel in order to potentially build six houses on it.

In what was rather anti-climactic the five state propositions devoted to the state budget mess went down tonight. Most voters simply checked out in what looks like it will be the lowest voter turn out for a state election in decades. That alone tells you that something was seriously wrong, and it will be up to the legislature and the media to try to sort out what the message is here.

The abduction and death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu last month in Tracy brought up a difficult topic for parents everywhere.

Left v. right, liberal v. conservative in a type-until-your fingers bleed death match.

This is your blog to talk about local, state or national non-political topics.