Letters for October 23, 2003

Thank you, Chico
Chico is an amazing place! Recently we suffered a tragedy with the death of Marie Dow and the major injuries to her 11-year-old twins. The response of this town by way of cards, calls, flowers, donations, benefits and prayers has been overwhelming to all of us in Jeff and Marie’s families. There is no way and there are no words that allow us to express our gratitude personally to everyone involved in helping us during this difficult time.

The twins, their dad and both families will get through this ordeal because of your unending show of love and concern. The words “thank you” are not enough, but nevertheless, all we can say is, “Thank you, Chico!”

Jo Anne and Pete Dow
Shirley and Dick Albers

Clean team
Volunteers teemed through Chico’s creeks and park on Sept. 20, at the Bidwell Park and Creeks of Chico Cleanup 2003. We removed 9,950 pounds of trash and recyclables, including roof shingles, couches, car batteries, cigarettes and lots of glass bottles from our beautiful park and waterways.

The event was hosted by Butte Environmental Council and Team Chapman and sponsored by Butte County’s Fish and Game Commission, Butte County Public Works Department, California Coastal Commission, Chico Community Shelter Partnership, Chico News & Review, the city of Chico, Ed’s Printing, Foster’s Old Fashioned Freeze, Mountain Sports, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Upper Crust Bakery and Woodstock’s Pizza.

Deepest thanks to the dedicated volunteers and sponsors who help make our wild lands healthier places for the community to enjoy and our animal friends to depend on. We encourage all residents to strive to keep Bidwell Park and all our waterways clean throughout the year.

Barbara Vlamis
Executive Director
Butte Environmental Council

Painful reality
Kudos to CN&R for publishing excerpts from Garth Talbott’s letter [“Unrest in Iraq,” Newslines, Sept. 28]. Thanks for shedding light on the fraud the criminals in Washington, D.C., are committing in our name with our country’s blood and treasure.

The Bush regime is bankrupting our country with its insane foreign policy. Of course, the Democrats aren’t much better. They overwhelmingly voted to give Bush the green light to attack Iraq and this week overwhelmingly voted to pour another $87 billion down the Iraqi rat hole. How can a country with a national debt in excess of $6.8 trillion afford this?

And I guarantee that by the time the U.S. leaves Iraq hundreds of billions more will be squandered, not including the tens of billions our government spends in attempts to bribe Poland, Turkey and other countries to commit troops to Iraq and go along with American policy at the UN. And who knows how many more Americans and Iraqis will be killed and wounded?

Meanwhile our economy continues to founder as the national debt skyrockets and future generations are saddled with an obscene level of government debt. Can anyone say with a straight face that the politicians in D.C. are acting in the best interest of the American people?

It’s beyond comprehension why the American sheeple keep electing politicians with such perverted priorities. We need to abolish the two most corrupt and morally bankrupt institutions this country has ever produced: the Republican and Democratic parties.

David Howell
Chico

Buy locally, leaders
Dear Chico City Council,

We believe the anti-Halloween ad campaign is a terrific idea. Certainly our community has a unique problem when it comes to all of the violence, drunkenness and litter associated with Halloween. We are, however, very disappointed that no one from the vast Chico advertising community was involved in the solution.

When asked why, city official Chet Wood said, “The campaign task force made an assumption. We didn’t think there was the experience locally.”

An assumption! No experience! Our community is loaded with creative professionals with years of experience and personal understanding of the problem because we live here. We would have been eager to lend our talents (and in many cases for no charge).

Some of us who are assumed to have “no experience” in advertising have worked successfully on your local political campaigns and produced advertising for Chico State, Butte College, Enloe Medical Center, the city of Chico and countless other businesses. Some of us have even won national awards for our work.

We are pleased that last year’s campaign resulted in the drop of violence and chaos. Could the campaign have originated locally? Could money have been saved? We believe so. Don’t just assume. Do a little research, and if you find no local resources, then go out of town.

Why do we care? Because this is our community, too.

Bob King, Scott Whiting, Bob Condos, Dino Corbin, Brian Curtis, Jim Moravec
Chico

Better safe than sorry
As I write this letter one of the most amazing trees I have ever seen is being sawed down. How old was it? Who knows? All I know is that it would probably take at least four or five pretty large people, with arms outstretched, to encircle the trunk. The sin this tree committed was dropping two large branches this year, branches that should have been trimmed earlier to avoid this terrible fate. Since any tree can lose branches, according to the best tree expert I know, the fate of the rest of Chico’s trees may in question.

What interests me most is the grading process that determines which trees need to be destroyed. Is it appropriate for the people who make money cutting these trees down to be the ones who grade the trees and determine which ones need to go?

I think our city forester has the best interests of Chico in mind. However, I wonder about his statement that the average life of a tree is 30 years. Does that mean all trees any older should be cut down? What about the trees that can live for hundreds of years? Is there any way to spare some of these? Sometimes I wonder what the Chico of the future is going to look like. All trees no more than 30 years old, with trunks the size of a man’s arm or leg? And I think about all the beautiful furniture and paneling and gunstocks, etc., made in Chico (I mean grown here).

If we cut down every tree that could possibly drop a limb at some time, how many would be left? How many people are killed in Chico each year by tree limbs? Since a limb could fall from almost any tree at some time, maybe we should cut them all down. Battles with developers wouldn’t be an issue then, and all of us who complain about leaves to rake might be very satisfied.

We fantasize that if we cut down and kill everything and pave over what’s left, Chico would have no problems at all.

Jeanne Thatcher
Chico