I HAVE BEEN a big supporter of San Buenaventura Friends of the Library's dogged efforts to save their beloved Wright Library from closure due to cutbacks in the Ventura County Library System. They've done event after event and even invited science fiction legend Ray Bradbury to be the featured speaker at a fundraiser. So far they've raised $92,000.

But there comes a time when even the most devoted volunteers get tired. Volunteer-driven fundraising efforts cannot always be sustained. I've been there, done that myself when in 2003 as part of an equally determined group of moms we raised $84,000 to save the School Resource Officer program in Ventura's middle schools for just one year. We couldn't do it again the next.

So the Friends are pinning their hopes on the passage of Ventura's Measure A, the 1/2-percent sales tax measure on November's ballot. The estimated $8 million raised locally by the measure would stay in Ventura and wouldn't be subject to a raid from Sacramento. The state is taking $4 million from the city's now balanced budget to solve the state's budget crisis -- "borrowing" $2.8 million in property taxes and taking an additional $1.2 million from the city's Redevelopment Agency.

The spending plan for the revenue measure, which sunsets in four years, would do much to restore some of the service cuts our older, full-service city has had to make in the last few years to balance the budget. Supplementing the county's funding for our libraries would keep Wright open and maintain hours at our other library facilities.

Today the Friends and other community leaders and local families officially kicked off the campaign for Measure A in front of the Wright Library. The measure has broad community support if the endorsement list is any indication. On the growing list is the Ventura Auto Center Dealers Association and other local business leaders. 

SBFOL President Will Thompson put an impassioned plea in the group's latest newsletter: "So, it will be up to us voters to save Wright Library. ... We are, in the face of so many voters in previous elections who just said "NO," the voters who now have the opportunity and the privilege to say "YES." We love Ventura and are eager to save our Wright Library!"

WHAT WILL Ventura County be like in the year 2035 with an estimated 200,000 more people and how can we start planning for it today?

That is the task participants were charged with last week at the first of Compact for a Sustainable Ventura County's citizen workshops. The Compact is a broad partnership of the 10 cities, the county and various agencies, along with the Southern California Association of Governments, which funded the exercise.

The workshop was led by Ted Knowlton of the Planning Center who ran through a series of questions for the group before we began a mapping exercise. The consensus? Most of us felt with that with 200,000 more people, the quality of our lives would likely suffer.

According to baseline projections for 2035 on the group's website, the hours lost to traffic congestion will increase by 166 percent and carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles will go up 129 percent. We'll need almost $1 billion in new local infrastructure projects to handle the population.

And so we began in small groups to tackle the task of what urban planners should do to make life in the future comfortable for residents.

With a map of the county spread out before us which tracked where development and protected open space lies, we were given paper tokens for future housing and commercial areas, along with colored tapes for transit, freeways and hiking trails. 

OUR GROUP decided to invest in more mass transit opportunities with town centers situated near transit stations. These areas would encompass living, shopping and high-wage centers in one spot. To do this we had to trade in most of our single-family home tokens, a decision that didn't sit well with everyone in the group. We didn't add major highways, but added connector roads instead to alleviate congestion on major thoroughfares and freeways.

The exercise was a bit like playing Monopoly and just like that drawn-out game, we didn't quite get finished before it was our time to present.

Our Ventura workshop was just one of several scheduled throughout the county last week and next. Our input will be compiled and will help shape future planning decisions. It was a good learning experience for everyone.

What is apparent is that our single-car commuter lifestyle is not sustainable. New federal and state laws will also change the way we plan. And the sooner we change our existing mindset the better.

IN JULY I REPORTED how the last-minute impasse staged by Senate Republicans to derail stopgap measures already approved by the Assembly added $7 billion to the state's deficit.

Now it has been widely reported that the recalcitrant "Just Say No" crowd, including our own State Sen. Tony Strickland has just added to the pain our cities will feel as the state takes $2 billion in property tax revenues away from local governments  to balance its own budget. These gaps will leave cities scrambling to plug holes they thought they had already filled in their own budget-balancing woes this year.

While the state is obligated to pay the money back in 2013 through provisions in 2004's Prop. 1A, most local officials I talk to don't really believe it will happen. 

So cities and counties were counting on Senate Bill 67 to pass in the whirlwind of the last legislative session which ended Sept. 11. This was "cleanup" legislation which would allow a consortium made up of the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties to accept the state's IOUs for the borrowed property tax and issues bonds to local governments to make up for the loss.

But this legislation, along with other bills which required a 2/3 passage, got hung up in a political snit over several unrelated matters, including a vote sought by Republicans on behalf of Intuit, the makers of Turbo Tax, to deny tax preparation services to low-income people through a program called ReadyReturn. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat and the Los Angeles Times took Strickland to task for his part in this scheme. Strickland has accepted $1 million in campaign cash from Intuit, the Times pointed out. And this OpEd piece points out just how wrong Intuit is in pursuing this matter.

Also lost in this power play by the No Crowd was money for battered women's shelters, federal money for swine flu preparations and a bill allowing the state to renegotiate letters of credit with banks, saving the state about $850 million this year.

Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, was the only one to break from his party and vote for the measures. "At the end of the day we were sent to Sacramento to govern, not play politics," he told the Lompoc Record.

BY THE WAY: If you are looking for more Republican non-responsiveness, look no further than Mike Stoker, Tony Strickland's aide and big-time polluter Greka Energy's spokesperson, who is running for the 35th Assembly District seat along with Susan Jordan and Das Williams. I watched him in action at a forum put together at a Gold Coast Hispanic Chamber of Commerce breakfast last week by The Paladin Principle, Republican Assembly District 37 candidate Jeff Gorell's firm. The press was of course alerted to this breakfast forum, attended by 18 people. 

Stoker's idea of debating is apparently interrupting and shouting over his opponent's voice. He isn't much of a listener.

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT the hysteria from rightwing media couldn't get much worse, I learned about the protests against President Barack Obama's televised pep talk to students today.

A sample of today's speech:

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

That's right. Our president wants your kids to be better learners and do their homework. Similar speeches were delivered by presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and shown to schoolchildren.

But leave it to a few shock jocks like Tammy Bruce to stir the pot and look for a sinister agenda. Per Bruce's Twitter feed calling for parents to pull their children out of school today rather than watch a televised speech from the president of the United States:

Remember, *you* are the moral tutor of your child, not some shady Chicago lawyer and his sycophants.

Bruce, formerly a Democrat, says she's now disavowed any party affiliation but chooses to do political commentary for FOX News.

And then we have 2012 presidential contender Gov. Tim Pawlenty also questioning the speech, calling it "uninvited." According to a radio interview, "the Republican governor says showing the address could be disruptive and raises questions of content and motive."

"I think we've reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said last week.

AT MY HOUSE, I realize my strong political opinions have permeated my children's belief system. When my youngest brought home a presidential scholarship award signed by Obama he couldn't resist pointing out to his older sister in a bit of triumphant sibling rivalry that hers was (alas) signed by George Bush.

But I've also taught them to respect the office. And no matter how much you disagree with a sitting president's politics, you owe it to your children to teach them that the great traditions of this country and our system of democracy should always be honored.

The text of Obama's speech can be found here.

While I don't doubt for a minute some of these anti-reform folks are genuinely concerned about the future of their health care, I can't help but suspect most of these protests are really just political theater for Republicans. A recent fundraising appeal for the GOP even hinted that Democrats would use reform efforts to deny health benefits to only Republicans. Oh brother.

It's a wedge issue for a party in decline and they have seized upon the media's penchant for covering controversy before substance. Lost in many news stories are the thoughtful discussion at these forums. We instead hear about the finger pointing and hurled insults.

Not that Democrats haven't pulled similar stunts themselves.

BUT THIS IS A DEBATE we really need to have in a reasoned, thoughtful manner. We all know our health care system is broken. The World Health Organization released an enlightening study in 2000 that showed the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world yet we rank only 37th in overall performance. What do we get for our money? It has been estimated that 19-24 percent of the total dollars spent are just on administrative costs for our complicated multi-payer system.

The health care system reflects our world of haves and have nots. And in this sort of world if you don't have the money for a Rolls Royce, you don't go out and buy one. But an appendectomy is not a luxury item and you can spend your life savings paying off a medical debt. These bills account for more than 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies.

Even those with good health care plans can be just one step away from panic. It happened to my own family. When my husband lost a good job years ago in the tech crash and became self-employed, we were forced to go out and buy our own insurance. The providers were happy to insure my healthy family, but I was denied coverage for a minor digestive disorder which nearly half of middle-aged adults have. Go out and buy high-risk health insurance from the state at exorbitant premiums, I was told.

I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN THAT. And I am sick at heart over what is happening to one of my dearest friends. A pillar of the community, she and her family are wracked with debt from expensive surgeries and treatments to fight a cancer raging within her body. Battling this disease is trying enough without having to worry about losing your house, too. 

There is enough real-life drama out there. It's time to end the political theater and get to work.

Unlike Gallegly -- who has yet to host a forum -- Congresswoman Lois Capps will co-host  a community information session on comprehensive health insurance reform for residents of the 23rd Congressional District on Friday, Sept. 4 from  6 - 7:30 p.m. at the Bethel AME Church, located at 855 South F Street in  Oxnard. Joining Capps in co-hosting the event are local faith community  members, including Pastor Robert Cox, of the Bethel AME Church. The Ventura County League of Women Voters will assist in administering this event. Capps will discuss comprehensive health insurance reform legislation being considered by Congress and answer audience questions about the legislation.