Letters for April 3, 2014

Saluting the activist

Re “Bird strikes back” (Editorial, March 20):

As always, I salute Don Bird for staying after “James Wiley Nielsen”—aka Sen. Jim Nielsen.

Nielsen has lived in Woodland since 1969, and he has admitted that in various news reports. I know for a fact he used to live on Southwood Drive, both while a state senator (the first time around) and while appointed to the parole board.

Then, in 2004, he and his spouse bought a $997,000 home on Edgewood Court. Both addresses are in Woodland. And by buying a doublewide trailer in Gerber, he has been able to glean more tax-free per diem from the state than the 5-acre field and doublewide even cost. Yet his real residence is Woodland, where that per diem would have been taxable. Can anyone say “tax evasion”?

And Tehama District Attorney Greg Cohen is about as worthless as a three-dollar bill!

Charlie Schaupp
Esparto

Blaming the liberals

Re “The letters continue …” (Letters, by Laurel Heath, March 27):

Why not tell the truth when writing letters? The $151,000 the city spent on Measure A was caused by the liberal council failing to just put it on the ballot. They forced the signature gathering. Yeah, they were paid just like Andrew Merkel’s signature gatherers. And, no, $151,000 wouldn’t begin to hire two police officers.

If you want to spread the big, left-wing “I hate Larry [Wahl]” lie, just put it in honest words. Are you trying to see who can lie the most to people, you or Obama? He’s got you beat by a mile! It’s gotten to the point where the only way a Democrat can win an election is to lie to the people or bribe them. Laurel, you are an example of why millions are leaving both parties and becoming Independents.

Rick Clements
Paradise

Goodbye, Anthony

Re “See ya” (From the Edge, by Anthony Peyton Porter, March 27):

Anthony Peyton Porter’s column was always the first thing I would read in the CN&R. Often, it was the last as well.

David Kensinger
Paradise

I’m sorry to hear that Anthony Peyton Porter is leaving the CN&R. I enjoyed his column so much that it was often the first page I would turn to when I picked up the latest issue. He wrote in a very relatable and humble manner that accurately, albeit painfully, depicted both human emotion and existential dilemma.

He showed his soul to us readers, and I commend him for his bravery and thank him for sharing a portion of his humanity with us. Needless to say, the CN&R has lost a certain amount of depth and weight without an antidote From the Edge. Godspeed, Anthony. I wish you peace and love on the road—wherever it may take you.

Molly Connelly
Chico

Double standards?

Re “Feminism and Catholicism” (Second & Flume, by Melissa Daugherty, March 27) and “An apology, but no resignation” (Newslines, by Robert Speer, March 27):

Wait. Microaggression police here. Can’t call the editor “girl” (would “You go, girl!” for an excellent editorial be OK?). But it’s OK for reporter [Robert Speer] to describe Stephanie Taber and Sue Hubbard as “scolds”?

Michael Jones
Chico

Editor’s note: Robert Speer referred not only to Taber and Hubbard as scolds, but also to two men: Michael Reilley and John Salyer.

Connecting the dots

Re “Feminism and Catholicism” (Second & Flume, by Melissa Daugherty, March 27):

Interesting combination of issues in Ms. Daugherty’s column. First, she applauds the work of feminist Gloria Steinem (and rightly so). She then turns her attention to Pope Francis. “What’s not to like?” she asks as she applauds him for his smiles, humility and care for the downtrodden.

Trouble is, she fails to connect the dots. The new pope does smile a lot while he continues to deny about half of the world’s population (that would be women) any right to a leadership role in the Catholic church. (What would Gloria think/do?) He also probably smiled plenty as he turned over two of his priests in Argentina to be tortured by the junta’s sadists. Their crime? They worked and lived among the downtrodden but from an “inappropriate ideology” (liberation theology).

Obviously for the new pope, the appropriate way to work for the poor is to stand around hands in the air waiting for the “trickle down effect.” How’s that working for them, pope? Ms. Daugherty, how about putting up this sign?: A woman without a man is like a pope without a conscience. She/he doesn’t require one. That connects the dots.

Beau Grosscup
Cohasset

Thanks and goodbye

“An apology, but no resignation” (Newslines, by Robert Speer, March 27):

I think it’s time for Mayor Scott Gruendl and Mary Goloff to step aside and let someone else have a try. Thanks for the service, but G&G should not flatter themselves into thinking that we cannot find better people. We certainly will!

Sean H. Worthington
Chico

Save the PO

Re “Return to lender” (Newslines, by Michele Chen, March 20):

Michele Chen’s recent article on attempts to revitalize the U.S. Postal Service and benefit the average citizen deserves serious consideration by our Congress.

In addition to expanding the services offered by the USPS, Congress should also modify or remove the ridiculous requirement imposed several years ago requiring the USPS to pre-fund retirement/health care benefits for the next 75 years in 10 years! While there have been attempts to remove this absurd requirement, Congress (read the Republican House) has failed to act.

Our postal service is one of the few remaining manifestations of our “unity” and needs to be strengthened not weakened.

Alex Aichinger
Paradise

Two sides of the story

Re “Trauma in Gaza” (Newslines, by Howard Hardee, March 20):

The mainstream media consistently tells one side of the Israeli/Palestinian issue. There is another side. What Americans hear is, “Israel has a right to defend itself—period.” I ask, “And Palestinians don’t?”

Sure, I want Hamas to stop firing rockets and Palestinian youth to stop throwing rocks, but I also want an end to violations of Palestinian rights: the bulldozing of homes and olive orchards, the imprisonment of a people by an apartheid wall, long waits at checkpoints, total control of water and electricity and white phosphorus shelling the Palestinian population. These violations will not end while the Israel lobby controls the information we are fed.

Last fall I lived in the West Bank. In Wadi Fouquin, I met a 93-year-old man in a ramshackle cottage with a demolition order on his door. Nearby, Israeli colonists threw their trash, including urine and feces, down upon the villagers and their crops. I observed many more examples of human degradation, yet I met not one Palestinian who believed that violence is the answer.

Many are awakening to these deplorable circumstances but as long as we permit the rich and powerful to define our reality, we will continue in our malaise.

Jane Casa
Chico

Gaza continued

Re “Two views on Gaza” (Letters, by Nick Clark, March 27):

I am amazed by Nick Clark’s gullible acceptance of Israel’s propaganda. He claims that when Israel bombs buildings in Gaza, they warn the people ahead of time, so that they only bomb empty buildings. What nonsense!

I suggest reading I Shall Not Hate, by Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish. During Operation Cast Lead, his home was bombed by the Israeli military and three of his daughters, along with one of his nieces, were killed.

Several days before, he saw an Israeli tank pointing its gun at his home, so he called one of his Israeli friends, who was a newscaster for Israeli TV, and told him that he feared a tank was about to hit his home. Then the tank went away, so Israel knew that the building was his home, but several days later they bombed his home anyway without warning.

The website “Remember These Children”—www.rememberthesechildren.org—keeps track of all the children being killed in this terrible conflict. They currently list 129 Israeli children and 1,521 Palestinian children killed since September 2000, the beginning of the first intifada.

Sharon Fritsch
Chico

Why the drug war goes on

Our police/prison industry unions should be banned from lobbying and influencing our public policy. The police/prison lobby has grown to a point where they are imposing policy upon us with total disregard for what is good for our country.

I do not believe that individual officers are evil and unneeded. I believe their over-reaching unions are evil, as does the 100,000-member-strong Police Officers Against Prohibition.

Half of the police/prison industry funding comes from the drug war. We all know that it is a complete failure, except for growing a police industry that rivals all three branches of our military in size. We know that the black market in drugs funds nearly 100 percent of gang activity and the cartels. We know that branding our youth with felonies for drugs and affecting their life-long employment is counterproductive. But, we are helpless to end this drug war due to the massive influence of police/prison industry money in our political arena.

Had the police/prison lobby accepted America’s changed stance on pot and other drugs, we would have sanity in the growing of pot and not rampant gangs and cartels. Don’t you think we can make our own policy without police control?

Garry Cooper
Durham

The drug cartels are laughing at us as we keep drugs illegal to ensure their profits stay high to fuel our enemies in our own hemisphere toward the destruction of our own country.

Usually by our own police and greedy officials who are rapidly destroying our U.S. Constitution with compete impunity. They are confiscating our guns, too, in order to prepare us for planned slavery and death.

We should not stand for this and we should stop it now, just as our founding leaders who built this great country did. We must band together and fight tyranny and demand the enforcement of our Constitution and Bill of Rights and to preserve our heritage—now!

Ed Nemecheck
Landers