A little bit about a lot of things:

• The arrival of Memorial Day weekend means summer is here.

Activities abound over this three-day weekend, from hitting the water and campgrounds to visiting Newman’s 11th annual Fun Run on Sunday.

We remind our communities, though, that Memorial Day is not about Hogs’ and Hot Rods or about celebrating the traditional arrival of summer.

This holiday is one dedicated to those who served, to the fallen comrades who laid down their lives in the defense of the freedoms that we enjoy today.

Our communities are rich with veterans who served their nation, and in some cases lost their lives doing so.

Whether they served in time of war or peace, in whatever role, all who answered the call to duty are deeply deserving of our appreciation.

Many of our friends and neighbors, the people who we pass on the street each day or greet in the supermarket, endured hardship to serve or suffered through unthinkable horrors of war, be it in World War II, Korea, Vietnam or Iraq.

Those sacrifices continue today, as young men and women from Newman, Gustine and the surrounding West Side are among those going in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Memorial Day programs will be held Sunday at the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery and Monday at Hills Ferry Cemetery. Each begins at 11 a.m.

We encourage community members to set aside a little of their own time this weekend to join in honoring those who did – and continue to do – so much for us all.

• Just call them champs....again.

Orestimba High School’s softball Lady Warriors dismantled Linden 12-0 Saturday to claim their second consecutive section championship in impressive fashion.

Orestimba has been one of the region’s top small-school softball programs for years, and this group took the program to an even higher level.

A core group of talented seniors wrapped up their high school careers on a winning note, leaving their own legacy in the school record books.

More impressive than the individual talent (and there was plenty of that) was the cohesiveness of the Lady Warriors as a team, their support for one another and their sheer enjoyment in playing the game at a level few teams can match.

Our congratulations to a remarkable group of young women and their coaches for their memorable achievements.

• Deserving of credit as well: Coach Manuel Bettencourt and his baseball Redskins, who earned a post-season berth with a solid credit.

Gustine High’s athletic program has wrestled with hard times in recent years (although last year’s softball team did also qualify for the playoffs), and hopefully a taste of success is the first step toward bringing the Redskins teams back to a competitive playing field.

What we liked more than the wins and losses, though, was the way the team went about its business, with hard work and positive attitudes.

Those attributes are truly the foundation for a successful program.

• Too hot, too early....July-like temperatures scorched the valley last weekend, a reminder of what is ahead in the summer months.

Hopefully the early season heat wave is not a sign of what is to come....although weather extremes seem to be increasingly the norm instead of the exception these days.

• So.....our state has a $15 billion budget deficit projected for 2008-09, give or take a billion here or a billion there, and one of the governor’s solutions is to borrow against future lottery revenues and to revise lottery games in order to maximize performance.

In short, that means getting more people to put down their hard-earned money for gambling to help the state out of a massive fiscal crisis.

Don’t get me wrong.....I’m not anti-lottery. We play regularly, and I occasionally pick up a scratcher ticket or two on the way home from work. There’s nothing wrong with that.

What is wrong, I believe, is that the state is going to maximize its efforts to separate more people from more money through legalized gambling at a time when many people are literally fighting to keep a roof over their head, gas in the tank and food on the table.

I thought government was supposed to serve the people, not soak the people.

If we’re gambling on the lottery to help pave the road to recovery, California is indeed in very desperate straits.

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