Letters for November 27, 2003

Crime and punishment
Well, it appears that the verdicts are in on the now-infamous kegger party attended by a number of Pleasant Valley High School students last October [“Message sent,” Newslines, Nov. 20].

Unfortunately, there has been no word on what punitive action—if any—will be placed upon the following also-involved parties: the parents of all of the juveniles, some as young as 16, who attended this late-night kegger and who had absolutely no idea where their children were during that night; the “absentee” parents who owned the home where this kegger went down, who apparently made no effort whatsoever to see that their teenage “party host” had some form of adult supervision on that night; the neighbors in this “nice” neighborhood, who apparently all neglected to call the police to report that fact that a major teenage party was underway at a residence where the adults were supposedly away; the proprietors of the liquor store—or liquor stores—who willingly provided vast quantities of alcohol to a party of underage drinkers; and finally, the rest of the juveniles who attended this “kegger,” who failed to recognize that there was something horribly wrong with this whole picture.

Had any one of these also-involved parties taken a more responsible role on that particular night, this tragic event, which has ruined two young lives and scarred several others, would have never, ever have taken place.

Mark Gailey
Chico

Reporter cried wolf
I was misquoted in Chris Baldwin’s article on Michael Moore [“Michael Moore slouches toward Chico,” Newslines, Oct. 30]. Mr. Baldwin said I asked Mr. Moore about the “non-human wolf bloodline of the Bush administration.” What I really asked Mr. Moore to comment on was the Illuminati and the non-human bloodline associated with this group and the Bushes. Nothing about wolves. For more info click on to www.davidicke.com.

Of course, reading Mr. Icke’s material takes an open mind, so some should not even bother. I assumed Mr. Moore was familiar with Mr. Icke’s work, but I guess he was not. At any rate I am not stating that the Bushes are or are not of human descent. Anything is possible. That doesn’t really matter.

What does matter, though, is that the people of this world are infested with fear injected by an elite group of individuals with multiple branches stemming out, such as the media. We have been told elaborate lies and believe them; never contemplating that perhaps our president just might be lying!

I don’t know about you but I’m sick of the lies. I’m sick of the wars. Wars on other countries, the war on drugs, war on the people, war on the earth. People need to take back the power. Together we stand, divided we fall.

J. Wagers
Received via e-mail

Include the inclusionary
The City Council’s recent vote to remove the inclusionary zoning provision from the Housing Element is a mistake. Many of us of a conservative bent would like to see our children be able to live here but are concerned that housing prices are too high. We need some sort of zoning requirements to get more entry-level housing available.

In a complementary view, many of us of environmentalist leanings are concerned as Chico’s suburbs continue to sprawl up to Magalia, down to Gridley and over to Orland. We need to provide housing for our people here in Chico, not have us be an exclusive urban center with far-flung bedroom communities for our working-class citizens.

Michael Jones
Chico

Socialists unite
City Councilman Larry Wahl, sitting on the Finance Committee and having just been defeated in his effort to block passage of a new city tree ordinance by a vote of 2 to 1, declared that the whole thing “smacks of socialism,” thereby defining the other two members of the committee, Dan Nguyen-Tan and Scott Gruendl, as apparent socialists. It was a startling exclamation, one that invites inquiry.

Is Chico, as Wahl fears, on the verge of a socialist revolution? We don’t really know whether Nguyen-Tan and Gruendl are socialists, but to assume so on the basis of their support for a tree ordinance is reactive to an extreme. Red Bluff, for example, has passed a much stricter ordinance than the one proposed for Chico; so are we to suppose that Red Bluff, of all places, is dominated by a city council comprised of a majority of socialists?

It’s not entirely clear what it was that motivated this outburst from Councilman Wahl, but it would appear that he feels it necessary to defend the free-enterprise of Chico from this threatening ordinance. But the threat to capitalism is much more pervasive than he realizes, because Folsom, Shasta, Monterey, Palo Alto, Pacific Grove, Davis, Sacramento and hundreds of other American cities and towns have already subverted capitalism by their adoption of even stricter tree ordinances. What is a dedicated conservative to do in the face of such a wicked assault on personal-property rights?

Lin Jensen
Karen Laslo
Chico

A mother’s child
When a parent expresses to you to “please pray for the safety of my son or daughter now serving in the Armed Forces,” we are not saying that we don’t care for all children who are suffering or who are in harm’s way. We may just be asking that you focus some love and give thought in your prayers for my son or my daughter.

I believe most parents, mothers in particular, have a very big heart for understanding the pain and suffering in the world, the pain and suffering often caused by the American intervention throughout the world. Sometimes our prayers are all encompassing, and sometimes they are small and specific.

For some of us, there may be confusion about how we feel while supporting and feeling proud of our child who chose the Armed Forces and how we feel about the military complex and war. We may experience emotional turmoil. Our pain and our fear and our pride mingle in our heart, and it may be the best that we can do at the time to ask, “Please pray for my son to keep him safe.”

Our request is not about whether our son or daughter may have been coerced by recruiters, whether he or she was a gentle or aggressive child, or whether it is a good choice to serve in the Armed Forces—it is not about supporting war. At this time we may simply have a need to feel supported with clear focus of our fear and our prayers that our child will be safe.

Luisa Garza
Chico