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Gary Horton: If not in intent, it’s racist in deed
I think back to a personal story told to me by a friend who works in the financial industry. Intrinsic to this story is that my financier friend is black and grew up in South Los Angeles. That makes his life experience much different than the majority of the Santa Clarita Valley.

	Kevin Buck: All of politics is a local issue Earlier this year, the editors of The Signal invited all of the local opinion columnists to a breakfast meeting at the paper's Creekside Road offices.
	Steve Lunetta: Obama, the Modern Prometheus “Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched devil! You reproach me with your creation; come on, then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed.”
	W.E. Gutman: Whiners, killjoys and curmudgeons "No one likes the bearer of bad news." - Antigone, Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) Journalists and whistleblowers share common traits. They are perceived as arrogant, insensitive and vexing meddlers. Their exposés are seldom appreciated. Both seek the truth, one in the interest of history, the other in the service of justice.
	Tim Myers: It all comes down to manners While I spoke to him by phone on Feb. 26, he sounded really shook up. Our oldest son, calling from his apartment in the Claremont area of San Diego, related his in-person, on-campus view that Friday of the rally where 300 students occupied the chancellor's office of the University of California, San Diego, demanding quick justice for a disgrace to the human race caught hanging a noose in an area of the Theodore Geisel Library, ...
	Bob Kellar: One stop, less stress at new city Permit Center The city of Santa Clarita works hard to continue a high quality of life for residents and foster a healthy economic climate for businesses.
	Tom Pattantyus: A true immigrant entrepreneur In the June 19, 1969, Congressional Record we can read a message by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan: "Colonel Ágoston Haraszthy can well be called the father of the wine industry in California. ... Ever since that time, from the 300 varieties he brought to California and planted, the wine industry in our Golden State has been improving until in the last few decades California wines have become renowned around the world as second to none."
	Graham Silver: Making the most of the time I’ve been given Two weeks ago, I fell down the stairs and broke my back as I tried to stop my 2-year-old daughter from tumbling down head-first toward our tile floor.
	Cam Noltemeyer: One valley, one water agency — is bigger really better? At a February meeting, the Castaic Lake Water Agency announced its decision to expand its retail authority to encompass its full boundaries. Currently it can only provide retail service for the Santa Clarita Water Co.
	Gary Horton: It’s what you don’t see that matters most In marketing it’s called “negative space.” That is, the space that’s not expressly part of a graphic image that communicates a marketing message as forcefully as the image itself.
	Jonathan Kraut: We do have choices As long as we supply tax revenues, elect officials to manage funds and public contracts and allow imperfect humans to make decisions, we can anticipate that greed and personal gain will take advantage of our free society.
	Jami Kennedy: Don't let them get you down I have read all the letters in The Signal, Daily News and the Los Angeles Times regarding comments made by Santa Clarita City Councilman Bob Kellar about illegal immigrants. Wow, I've never heard or seen such a brouhaha on a subject before.
	Steve Lunetta: A Fairy Tale Once upon a time in the land of Nutsnfruits, lived the very wise and good King Arnold. The people loved King Arnold and the king loved them. Well, they used to until he knuckled under to the ogre and troll union a few years ago and gave away the goose that lays the golden (state) egg.
	Holly Schroeder: Greener and greener buildings Just what does it mean to call a building a "green building?" In the past, there were easy ways to make this determination. Most commonly, green buildings followed an environmental rating system. These systems are developed and administered by private companies and they identify certain building practices - such as limiting energy use or water consumption - that meant the resulting building was "green." There are several such rating systems that operate in California - ...
	W.E. Gutman: Voyage of the damned Last Tuesday marked the 68th anniversary of a now-forgotten event, the first of two incomprehensible acts of mass murder. Both would be eclipsed by the convulsions of a world at war then trivialized by the passage of time.
	Tim Myers: Something different - a positive story For the past many weeks, against the backdrop of a local election with accusations of secret cabals and unholy triumvirates - including a candidate's revelation of past misdemeanors that might disqualify them for certain security clearances and result in a red flag on most employer background checks - the engaged community got numbed with a tidal wave of bad news.
	Marsha McLean: I'll do the best I can for Santa Clarita Editor's note: This is one in a series of columns from candidates in the 2010 Santa Clarita City Council race. You elected me four years ago and I have been your full-time city councilwoman, available every day to personally answer your e-mail, speak to you by phone, visit with you at City Hall or stop to chat with you while out and about in our community.
	Nathan Imhoff: More empty words from Gitlin "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." - Noam Chomsky While observing all the talking, shouting and letters to the editor in recent days on the topic of free speech, I was reminded of the many chats I had with my dad in our family garage while I was growing up.
	Bill Kennedy: What’s the cost of honor? "Sir, are you listening to the radio?" Catching me at home at 6:45 a.m. as I was preparing to leave for my job as base commander of Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, I knew instantly this was not an idle inquiry from my executive officer.
	Condescending, not persuading Diana Shaw's column ("Two-thirds or not two-thirds," The Signal, Jan. 19) takes on a more condescending than persuasive tone with statements like "the People of Arkansas are eminently more rational than Californians" and "Guess what? We live in a democracy."
	Lynne Plambeck: Stand up and protect the taxpayer “The public is not your credit card!” That sign appeared boldly painted in red at the front of a recent tea party rally. I have to say I agree. Anger at bailouts for big banks and big corporations; increases in health care costs from companies such as Anthem Blue Cross in spite of huge profits; and poor investments by pension funds that will cost all of us as public agencies are required to ...
	Phil Rizzo: Nostalgia makes you feel good Don’t read this unless you’re over 50 years old. My wife Suzie and I wax nostalgic listening to the distant train whistles in the silent evening. That sound generates the same good feeling that occurs when I’m in a public or personal library — especially if the books are old and just a little tattered. The feeling must be experienced by others, as I notice well-used books on shelves, leaning on each other and ...
	Cary Quashen: Keep your kids drug-free Community leaders nationwide have come together in a weeklong effort to curb the biggest drug problem facing our youth today — prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse.
	Patricia Sulpizio: Shame on you, Mr. McKeon Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon could have reached across the aisle and made his first women’s conference a truly excellent nonpartisan event, but his choice of keynote speakers made it clear who he represents.
	David Gauny: An imperfect man vs. a well-oiled machine Editor's note: This is the first in a series of columns from candidates in the 2010 Santa Clarita City Council race. David Gauny: Imperfect man vs. well-oiled machine Scott Wilk declared in his Jan. 29 column that he could "outperform Nostradamus" by predicting that all three City Council incumbents would be re-elected in 2010.
	Steve Lunetta: Politics playing 'Schneider!' My kids used to play this incredibly dorky game in their earlier years. When they were traveling in the car, they would look for the big, orange container trucks that have the name “Schneider” emblazoned across the front.
	Cameron Smyth: The uproar obscures the issues In recent weeks, Santa Clarita has been the focus of national news stories over the comments of City Councilman Bob Kellar. I have known Kellar for more than a dozen years and spent six years serving with him on the Santa Clarita City Council.
	Terry Comp: Help is on the way As a regular follower of The Signal, I read with great interest Linda Malerba's opinion column on Feb. 12 about homelessness.
	W.E. Gutman: Strangers in 'paradise' It is in a genteel, lily-white Connecticut town, where old-moneyed gentry and upstarts coexist in mutual disdain, that I met and befriended six "illegals."
	Scott Wilk: Even an imperfect man ought to know the truth I wasn't feeling the love Valentine's Day morning when I read City Council candidate David Gauny's column ("An imperfect man vs. a well-oiled machine," Feb. 14). Gauny, in his mea culpa for his past indiscretions, made several factually incorrect statements about me, City Councilwoman Laurie Ender and City Councilman Frank Ferry.