Letters for January 3, 2019

About that jury

Re “What were they thinking?” (Cover story, by CN&R staff, Dec. 27):

Only children and fools believe in Santa Claus and that juries are selected at random.

Joseph Robinson

Chico

Nice acknowledgments

Re “David and Steve” (Second & Flume, by Melissa Daugherty) and “Stepping down” (Newslines, by Ashiah Scharaga, Dec. 20):

It was nice to see the CN&R take off the gloves for once. Your editorial on David Little was a well-deserved acknowledgment of the contributions he has made, both to the community in which we all live as well as the industry in which he was employed.

The longer article was obviously researched and told a nice story as well. Certainly David is a talented and respected editor. On top of that, he is a consummate gentleman. Thank you for being kind enough to point that out. We all wish David the best as he heads toward his next chapter.

Terry Moore

Chico

Small step forward

Re “Give them shelter” (Newslines, by Ashiah Scharaga, Dec. 20):

After five years of heroic effort on the part of Charles Withuhn, Simplicity Village found support from our new Chico City Council. Given our need for affordable housing, which recently increased exponentially, this is a welcome if minuscule step forward. (I say minuscule because Butte County needed 2,000 affordable housing units before the Camp Fire. We now need more than 10,000, with Simplicity Village meeting 0.5 percent of that need.)

In any case, where our last council faltered and obstructed, we are seeing forward motion. I hope this extends to include the human rights of those many (and many more) who survive on our streets, night after night. In particular, the right to 24-hour restroom access, which is now denied.

It’s time to move forward with installing portable toilets and hand-washing stations, along with opening existing public restrooms 24/7. There is no perfect way to do this; we are managing chaos in the ongoing absence of thousands of affordable housing units. We have a choice: We can manage this chaos more or less honorably. The honorable path is to end deprivation wherever possible.

Patrick Newman

Chico

Lies and fear

A caravan of 1,000 families travels 2,000 miles in harsh conditions to the U.S.—their “promised land.” A president who told 7,546 lies in his first 700 days in office says that they are the worst of criminals and are bringing diseases.

ICE sends them scurrying for safety, children in hand, by launching tear gas to cause fear about going to a point of entry. Our leader sets up roadblocks to slow down those being processed as asylum seekers to a trickle. He warps due process by telling immigration judges that they are no longer to count certain things as grounds for asylum. We separate children from their parents as yet another message to those who might follow. Children wait without parents in chain-linked cages—hatcheries for PTSD. To show we mean business, we illegally send thousands of soldiers to keep even one of these evil invaders from getting through. Two small children no longer pose threats to our national security.

Now think on these things but instead imagine each one of those invaders, including the children, as blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Do you think it is entirely possible that lying behind all of Trump’s lies about these desperados is the fear of our white majority about the browning of America?

Ralph Slater

Chico

Part with illusions

It is difficult to fathom, but acerbic little old Judge Judy, whose “earnings” add up to an incredible $47 million per year, actually works only 52 days and is recompensed to the tune of $900,000 for each one of her half-hour episodes. This represents but one egregious example of many thousands within the realm of our faux democracy but capitalist system, which we have no choice but to accept and tolerate, because it has been allowed to develop beyond the control of the highly touted notion of “We the People.”

Instead, in this bi-polar two-party system of ours, we obediently follow instructions to hate our neighbors unless they agree with us, which renders the so-called commonwealth severely divided and ripe to be conquered and plundered by the elite and their minions. Irrefutable evidence exists all around us, but it does require opening eyes and parting with illusions.

Greetings and a happy new year to all!

Joe Bahlke

Red Bluff

U.S. in peril

President Ronald Reagan’s speech writer, Peggy Noonan, embraced the importance of character when occupying the Oval Office: “In a president, character is everything. A president doesn’t have to be brilliant or clever, you can hire clever, and you can buy policy wonks, but you can’t buy courage and decency, you can’t rent a strong moral sense.”

The government is run by dignity and efficiency. Right now efficiency is collapsing: The last of the “babysitters,” Gen. James Mattis, is leaving; ill-advised and poorly contrived tariffs have pushed the stock market into a free-fall; the announced withdrawal of American troops from Syria has prompted Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to begin amassing troops on the Syrian border in preparation for an all-out assault on the Kurds, critical allies in America’s war on terrorism; the government is in a shutdown due to the president’s temper tantrum over a vanity project.

As presidential historian and renowned author Jon Meacham recently said, “Trump’s character is not commensurate with the challenges of the office.” We have always expected our presidents to conduct themselves with dignity. Trump has chosen instead ignominy as his character. American values are being compromised and the destiny of our country is in peril.

Roger S. Beadle

Chico