Letters for December 26, 2019

Fiction fan touched

Re “Beyond the detours” (Cover story, by Zu Vincent, Dec. 19):

Thank you for such an incredibly beautiful story! I was right there with Mac through it all. This was such an artfully written and moving piece. It left me with yet another deep understanding of the challenges of loss and “moving on.” I am hoping this allows more light into the lives of those who have lost so much.

Barbara Paquin

Chico

Letter retorts

Re “Fed up in Chico” (Letters, by Loretta Ann Torres, Dec. 19):

If only! If only the minimum wage was enough to actually live on. More people have to work two jobs to get by, hence low unemployment. If only (as a single parent) I had more money to spend (I don’t). If only the president followed the Constitution and listened to subpoenas and allowed witnesses to testify. If only the leader of the Senate agreed to be fair and impartial. If only more than 10 percent of Americans watched the public hearings with many of the same witnesses. If only we had a president who didn’t call people nasty names, lie continuously, obstruct, and suck up to Russia. If only people would give equal time to all news, not just one side (I try). If only the far left and far right would agree most Americans are in the moderate range. If “ifs” and “buts” were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas!

William Strom

Chico

Loretta Ann Torres opines: “If only our Constitution didn’t say a suspect is innocent until proven guilty by a jury (in the president’s case, the Senate).”

Just one problem there: In a criminal jury trial, attorneys for both sides question potential jurors to see if they have any biases for either the prosecution or the defense, and if such bias(es) is/are detected, that person is excused from serving on that jury.

Now, nearly every senator has already expressed an opinion on the guilt or innocence of the Felon-In-Chief, so how will it be possible for the Senate to hold a fair trial for Trump? It would seem to be impossible, yet the Constitution provides no alternative for a Senate trial of an impeached president.

Perhaps the better way would be for the various U.S. attorneys who are already collecting evidence of Trump’s various crimes (tax code violations, running a bogus charity, etc.) to simply try Trump on those charges in federal court—with an impartial jury. If convicted, not only would he be put in prison where he belongs, but he’d be out of his president’s job as well.

Mark Kernes

Oroville

Preach!

At the risk of being called a mudslinger, as I was in a recent letter for quoting Trump, I was delighted to see an evangelical Republican come to his senses. Christianity Today magazine Editor Mark Galli gave me an early Christmas present with his recent editorial calling Trump “profoundly immoral,” “morally lost and confused,” ethically incompetent and one whose “moral deficiencies” have been illuminated during impeachment hearings. I couldn’t have said it better.

I’m sure there will be another unscrupulous and spurious right-wing letter writer champing at the bit to retort against this letter in their pernicious and Trumpian ways. Just quoting the Christianity Today editorial this time, not Trump. I refer those detractors to John 8:32 in the King James version of the Holy Bible.

Ray Estes

Redding

Follow the leader

The circus showed up at the impeachment debate. During the final vote in the House impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) declared that “Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus.” Pilate then had him nailed to a cross.

Rep. Mike Kelly (G-PA) compared Trump’s impeachment to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Republican Party has abandoned its core principles of fiscal responsibility, national security and family values, and adopted a cult-like political philosophy that obeys the ideologies of the Trump presidency. Its members don’t dispute what he did; they simply don’t see him ever doing anything wrong.

A cult is the nurturing of a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing. A prime example of this phenomena is the Reverend Jim Jones, overseer of Jonestown in Guyana, a small country in South America. In 1978, more than 900 people, many of them children, died in a mass murder-suicide by drinking cyanide-laced punch at his order.

Trump has found an agreeable audience to meet his need for self-admiration; the Republican Party and its willingness to follow a “political cult,” standing in line for their glass of Kool-Aid.

Roger S. Beadle

Chico

Why the negativity?

Re “Making things right” (Second and Flume, by Melissa Daugherty, Dec. 19):

I have a question that I think many people in Butte County District 4 would also like the answer to. Why is county supervisor candidate Tod Kimmelshue promoting comments wrongly attributed to candidate Sue Hilderbrand? There are important policy issues that affect our needs in Butte County—such as control and protection of water supplies and the impacts of our high level of poverty—that he and Ms. Hilderbrand differ on. I call on Mr. Kimmelshue to campaign like an honorable man.

Paul O’Rourke-Babb

Chico

Views of homelessness

Re “Homeless hostility” (Letters, by Addison Winslow, Dec. 12):

I find it telling how the moral-authority dictators like to demand how the city spends the taxpayer dollars. “We need legal camping sites immediately.” Chico has a number of nonprofit organizations for horse riding, baseball, football, dance, golf, swimming, bicycling, the spaying and neutering of animals, remodeling the skate park, etc. I also find it telling how the passionate homeless advocates do not band together and start nonprofits for maintenance of the downtown bathrooms, construction and maintenance of Portland Loos, a legal homeless camping site or any of their other concerns.

Gordon Reimer

Chico

It was a cold, rainy, late afternoon last Wednesday. I was walking in the downtown Chico parking structure when the lights of emergency vehicles caught my attention. I turned around and walked to the southeast corner of West Third and Salem streets, where I saw a fully gray haired woman lying, eyes closed, on the hard, cold, rainy sidewalk. I got to talking to a gentleman in a chartreuse vest who informed me that she had been there for two hours! I leaned over to the first responder attending to her and asked, “Has she passed?” “No” came the reply.

Here was an elderly woman, apparently homeless, in black pajama bottoms and a typical shirt, light sweater and light open jacket, in the rain, lying out on the sidewalk in Chico, California. It reminded me of other similar sights I’ve seen lately. And I became sad that they have come to pass in our community. I pray that our decision-makers and our community will find the courage and wisdom to facilitate shelter for those of us less fortunate.

Charles Withuhn

Chico

Remember the troops

Think of our troops around the world this Christmas. As Americans enjoy some time with families, there are 1.3 million troops stationed in America and in more than 60 countries. Some will be at the DMZ in Korea, some in aircraft carriers and some in a dangerous foxhole.

This month, I am thinking of Christmas 1967. I was in Vietnam in the 101st Airborne. The vast majority of us were 18-21 years old and not married. Many of today’s troops are married and older, since the United States has a new policy—keep sending the same troops to war zones, including National Guard and Reserve units. Many Vietnam veterans in their late-50s in Guard units were sent to Afghanistan in the early part of that war.

I’m also thinking of my late dad, who 75 years ago this month was serving in General Patton’s Army, in the Battle of the Bulge, [during] the coldest and snowiest winter in a century. And my outfit, the 101st Airborne was also there. On both sides, a total of a million troops, the biggest battle of World War II. Fortunately for all, we prevailed.

Bob Mulholland

Chico