Letters for February 7, 2019

About that wall

To better reflect the spirit of our time, I submit the following rewrite of the first stanza of “America the Beautiful”:

O pitiful, rapacious eyes, for amber waves of hairFor purple mountains full of coal, let’s mine them ’til they’re bare.America, America, a place that’s just for me,To keep others out, let’s build a wall, from sea to shining sea.

Dan Johnson

Chico

President Trump is not going to get his wall because the majority of the people don’t want it. He can, however, still make good on his big promise to make America great again by following Richard Nixon’s example and resigning before he is indicted.

Kelly Youngs

Chico

City slackers

Re “Ask the developers” (Letters, by Scott Huber, Jan. 31):

Councilman Scott Huber makes this case: “Our developers appear to be better positioned than the city to assist with suitable land for emergency [FEMA] housing.” I respectfully disagree. It may be that there are FEMA units requiring the equivalent infrastructure of a mobile home park. And it may be that private property slated for development is the easiest, go-to sort of location. And, it may be that developers are balking at participating in a FEMA program. But, any suggestion that resistance on the part of private property owners can cover our three-month, city of Chico failure to act, is just too convenient. What incentives has the city offered private landowners, possibly with financial assistance from the North Valley Community Foundation? None. Is it true that FEMA would refuse to install mobile homes on park land or airport land or any of Chico’s surplus properties? No. All that aside, there are FEMA “camp” trailers now in other cities, sited in parking lots, requiring no sewer hookups. Any in Chico? Zero. Bottom line: By the three-month anniversary of the Camp Fire, displacing 30,000 people, there will not be one person sheltered through a city of Chico initiative of any kind.

Patrick Newman

Chico

Sewer on the Ridge

Everyone in Chico has been affected by the Camp Fire tragedy. Before the fire, Paradise was full of crap. Literally. There was talk of running a pipe down to Chico and hooking into the sewage treatment plant.

The news just had a story about how the influx of people is putting a strain on the system. The people of Chico have opened our hearts, homes, wallets and toilets to the people of Paradise. What more can we do? Now is the perfect time for the town of Paradise to find a location on the Ridge and build their own sewage treatment plant if they want to properly rebuild the town.

William Strom

Chico

More Camp Fire talk

I was watching KRCR news. One of the stories featured a man (didn’t catch is name) in some emergency authoritative position talking about the Camp Fire. The segment featured some 911 call replays wherein people were reporting they could see fire. The dispatcher told them, “No, you’re not.” The man concluded the interview saying something to the effect that everything was handled brilliantly and couldn’t imagine how it might have been better.

And therein lies at least one problem. When those in authority respond to you as if you had marbles instead of brain cells in your head, you’re not likely to get the response you need. I have experienced this myself. Others have related to me similar results. In the news, from time-to-time, one can see similar situations. I know not all in authority think everyone else is stupid and can’t know what they’re talking about. But it seems enough do. Until those in response positions can be identified and retrained, we will continue to have tragedies worse than they might have been. So, emergency personnel, if I ever call you to report a, well, emergency, please do not condescendingly treat me like I’m a babbling idiot. Thank you.

Sandra Jarosz

Red Bluff

Debris questions

The two [sorting] sites in Oroville were announced recently. Amazingly, the following day, they were all ready to accept the waste/debris from Paradise. One near Walmart and the other near Feather River.

I feel this was done solely to slip into Oroville under everyone’s noses, so no one will have a say on where it is going. Not like Chico; they heard about it and said no. Obviously, someone somewhere told all concerned to not notify anyone. Was this done to avoid protests? I feel this debris will be loaded with toxic chemicals. The concrete had toxic material flowing through to the soil below. Loading it on trucks, they intend to “wash” the load free of surface dust/cinders. These loads will be wrapped “… to decrease the chance of toxic ash during transport” (Sacramento Bee, Jan. 10). Officials say loads will be toxin-free? I feel inside the concrete will contain a toxic “bomb” waiting to go off. When the trucks arrive for processing, [the contents] will be crushed. Where does this dust go? The metal during washing, will all toxic material be removed? Will any processing cause dust? Will toxins be present? Maybe yes, maybe no. Take your pick.

Zane Libert

Palermo

Dangerous POTUS

Security lapses in the current Trump administration are not rare. For instance, for more than a year, senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner had been allowed access to highly classified information while having only a downgraded interim security clearance.

Besides repeatedly changing his answers to security application questions, his contacts with foreign government officials had raised concerns with White House security experts. Kushner was twice denied clearance; however, Carl Kline, Trump’s appointed director of the personnel security office of the president, overruled the denials. Thirty other White House officials were accorded the same preferential treatment. Kushner has a $1.2 billion debt on a New York City office building due in 2019. After a failed loan agreement with a Chinese holding company in 2017, he turned to Qatar with his hand out. After meetings in the White House with senior officials from Apollo Management Group and Citigroup, Kushner received over $500 million in loans.How many of the 30 “cleared” White House officials are susceptible to influence by foreign agents? It depends on who has the propensity to be as stupid as Trump, who shared a foreign ally’s highly classified intelligence with two senior-level Russian officials during a visit to the Oval Office.

Roger S. Beadle

Chico

Note the vote

Understand the Democratic House has put forth its first legislation concerning “the right to vote.” The bill would also include voting day, the first Tuesday in November, as a federal/national holiday. What a great step forward in the Democratic recovery this nation needs.

Republicans hate the idea of “more people” voting! We can’t have this! Why not? An open, Democratic society in which “the vote” has finally come to the top of this country’s civil rights/constitutional framework [is something] we must look to and follow more than ever. Watch as the Republican Senate “votes” on this!

Brian Johnson

Orland

No more denial

The Holocaust happened, it is the American Revolution that is in question.

Sterling Ogden

Chico

Thanks, Enloe

Family sends thanks to all who tended Ray David Favor in his closing days. Enloe Medical Center’s south-wing comfort-care team provides a warmly compassionate environment for patients and loved ones. Marcia, Roger, Ron, Lauren, Mary, Esther, Tina, Vicki and a host of others steadied us through the whole process. Thanks to their nonintrusive presence, I could stay close to Love throughout Ray’s journey. And it was made clear that Love is a sacred power which both lifts us up and releases us from the struggle.

Ray passed into the great immensity on Jan. 20 as moon, sun and Earth aligned into a rare lunar eclipse. The Blood Wolf Moon reminded me that no matter which phase each of us might be in, we are all whole in the Light.

Judith Favor

Claremont