Letters for January 9, 2020

To watch, indeed

Re “Whom to watch” (Cover story, by CN&R staff, Jan. 2):

Kasey Reynolds is not forging connections between cause and effect. If she had, maybe she’d be self-aware about how her use of fear-mongering and race-baiting in her campaign literature, which I’ve used several times as a prop in the City Council chambers, illustrates her culpability in crafting that narrative.

“Ice cream fascist” is a term describing those people who harbor a morality that denies the existence of injustice, hides its inhumane agenda behind innocent appeals to tradition, and asserts subjective experience as objective fact. Albeit more individualistic than Italian fascism, it brands itself as protector of civic order. It seeks to remove barriers to capitalist exploitation of land and labor and impose strict law and order.

This paper’s write-up on Reynolds exposed some of these themes in her own words. When supporting police means refusing to discuss even minor reforms like de-escalation and implicit-bias training, Reynolds reifies this monopoly on violence. When arguing that CEQA is the barrier to affordable housing, she elevates the falsehood that enriching speculators and developers through market-rate housing will solve our housing catastrophe. If she can’t connect the dots on these no-brainer issues, can we trust her proposal for a substance abuse treatment center?

Steve Breedlove

Chico

Reasons to hesitate

Re “Looming deadline” (Newslines, by Andre Byik, Jan. 2):

Why are right-of-entry (ROE) contracts for removing “hazard” trees on private properties unpopular? Perhaps it is the defining of trees to be removed as hazards. There is a fear that living green trees that survived will be included for removals. Why else are we told there will be no debate?

Other concerns arise within the ROE contract. First, we are mandated to comply or face liens against our properties, and by signing agree to: 1. Allow all government (fed, state, county and town) and associated subcontractors to enter our properties. 2. Accept removal of all trees deemed a hazard to public thoroughfares by officials from above entities, using criteria we do not have a right to question. 3. Accept the costs of cleanup of all tree waste, as well as damages to land, driveways, etc., caused by heavy equipment. 4. Allow up to three years for the work to occur. 5. Accept that damages, even due to negligence, to any improved property (i.e., houses, fencing) may or may not be addressed at the sole discretion of the state Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. 6. Release and agree to hold harmless all entities involved in the program from all liability for any damage or loss whatsoever.

Perhaps this shines a little light on property owners’ hesitance.

Vicki Redridge-Kunst

Paradise

Gasoline-thrower POTUS

I am writing in fear, frustration and anger. The White House occupant, in an effort to distract from his pending impeachment, is throwing gasoline at the raging fire already burning in the Middle East.

After an unlawful assassination in Baghdad, he continues to taunt and threaten Iran into an unspeakable war that will destroy us all, and affect the whole world. Instead of counseling directly with Congress, as is legally necessary, he tweets his intentions of going to war with Iran to Congress while he continues to tweet his threats out to the world.

He’s totally unhinged and mentally ill, and has to be stopped! Now! There has to be a way to remove an unfit commander who lawlessly is committed to destroying us. Call/write to your representatives and demand they step up to their responsibilities to lead and protect America. Please.

Mary Chaffee

Corning

‘Protect our water’

This election is all about protecting our water.

Both Tod Kimmelshue and Doug Teeter have aligned themselves with special interests that want to control our water. I have conservative and progressive friends who advocate for protecting our Butte County water and none of them will vote for either Tod or Doug.

Do you really want the richest 25 farmers in Butte County and Cal Water Co. controlling our water? In Tulare County, the wealthy farmers have dropped the groundwater so low that over 5,000 residential homeowners on residential wells have gone dry. They have to shower with a 2-liter bottle of water and reuse that water to flush their toilets. Our residential homeowners living on wells can’t afford to put in new wells going down hundreds of feet.

Do you really think Tod will protect your water?

Doug failed Paradise and supports plans that will result in Paradise losing their precious water rights.

I’m voting for Sue Hilderbrand and Henry Schleiger, because they will protect our water.

John Scott

Butte Valley

The alternative is …

Low-barrier shelters would be an improvement when sadly considering the no-barrier shelter that the city of Chico has become.

John Henry Lyons

Chico

Deep thoughts, 2020

Just a few thoughts to begin the new decade.

The commander in chief does not want to be president, but the White House is the primary deterrent to prison.

Robert Mueller is light-years ahead by knowing if Donald Trump was ostensibly excused from obstruction his arrogance would trap him into more prosecutable transgressions.

Employment figures are impressive because so many millions are working multiple jobs for bare subsistence.

The distractive timing of the recent assassination in Iraq and the impeachment proceedings should be obvious.

Anyone who openly declares a loving relationship with North Korea’s leader might have provided an invitation for an incoming nuclear warhead.

The result of the 2016 election was due as much to memories of the infamous “blue dress” as Russian interference.

If Jeb Bush would have backhanded Trump when he refused to apologize to his wife, he might have won the election.

Homelessness is on the rise in Oregon and California tantamount to the level of poor excuses provided.

In any sport where the score is 70-0 or more all coaches should be immediately terminated.

Finally, if everyone would mellow out to Jackson Browne/David Lindley’s “For a Dancer,” our brief lives on Earth might make a little more sense.

Until next year …

Kenneth B. Keith

Tehama

Evangelicalism’s ugly root

For eight lovely years, America was at relative peace, except for the racist rage and hate of others underlying the Republican and evangelical movements.

As Dartmouth professor and author Randall Balmer noted in a Politico piece, it’s a myth that conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists became a coalition to stop Roe v. Wade. In fact, it wasn’t until six years after that landmark case, in 1979, that Jerry Falwell and other false prophets turned the Christian movement all on its head. They focused on abortion because that “crusade was more palatable than the religious right’s real motive: protecting segregated schools.”

The church unfortunately fell in line and has now sold its soul to the Devil Trump, in ungodly worship and submission. The Devil Trump offered evangelicals what they coveted deeply, a bite at Trump’s poisonous apple of deception and control over others.

A continued focus on abortion is interesting considering Trump’s Cult of Christians don’t care about living children being separated from their parents, living in deplorable conditions on the border, complete with unchecked abuses and death. When women choose life and rely on welfare, this cult degrades them.

Pat Johnston

Red Bluff

Thanks, congressman

I just wanted to thank our congressional representative here in California District 1, Doug “He’s One of Us” LaMalfa, for all of the town halls he held while taking a break from the rigors of voting no in 2019.

He did vote yes on the farm bill. What’s that? He had how many town halls? Oh, who’s he representing?

Ed Pitman

Chico

A song and Sanders

God bless America, land that I love

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with the light from above (and within)

From the mountains to the prairies

To the oceans white with foam

God bless America, my home sweet home

P.S. Bernie 2020

Renee Renaud

Chico