Letters for September 1, 2005

Good labor
The Hamilton High School Athletic Boosters club, a volunteer organization that supports boys and girls athletics by supplying uniforms, sports banquets and scholarships, will be offering parking as a fund-raiser for next Monday’s Labor Day float trip down the Sacramento River.

Colors 92.7 will be doing a remote broadcast from our site. We support responsible tubing on the Sacramento River. In years past, there has been concern regarding traffic impacts on Hwy 32, trash and discarded floatation devices. The Hamilton Boosters club is offering parking near the river and Scotty’s Boat Landing for $5 per car. We will also be collecting flotation devices at the end of the day for recycling. We hope to rent them to tubers in future years.

Everyone please have fun and act responsibly. Enjoy and respect our river and community so that this fun event can go on for many years. For more information call 893-6711.

Scott Clapp
VP of the booster club

Cut the fat photo
Great job of perpetuating more negative attention to young girls regarding weight issues and self-esteem [”Big fat problem,” Newslines, Aug. 25]. Anyone who knows these girls will recognize the “negative image” that you felt entitled enough to put in the paper. Ironically, the photo does more damage than good to a vulnerable part of our population. You call yourself a progressive newspaper? Think again.

It’s wrong to publish photos of any gender in this context, but once again females are the target. I’d drop dead of shock if the media were to publish a photo of a male with rolling hills of fat and a plumber’s crack. Of course, that would be insensitive as well. Get a clue CN&R—there’s a big fat problem with your credibility.

Deanna Alexich
Chico

More fat problems
We have a “Big Fat Problem” of increasing obesity in our community. Significant amount of the responsibility lies in our local environmental leadership’s obsession with shutting people in their homes. Try to build the General Plan’s foot/bike trail along Lindo Greenway, John Merz will block it with claims of treasured riparian vegetation. Try to allow mountain biking on existing gravel roads in the CSUC Ecological Reserve, the university management will nix it. Try to maintain existing trails in Upper Park, the Native Plant Society will bemoan the possible increase of use and threaten legal action.

But if we have an obesity epidemic, don’t we want more people out exercising? And doesn’t providing more recreational opportunities spread out the use so it doesn’t feel too crowded?

Michael Jones
Chico

NAFTA sucks
The United States is currently involved in military operations overseas in the name of national security. National security, in this context, is keeping Americans safe from terrorist violence. That is a national interest. Another form of national interest is the economic well-being of our citizens. This national interest is a concern for all Americans. It is about our pocketbooks and our future, as well as our children’s. Unfortunately, our economic national security is being slowly eroded because our leaders have proclaimed that we now live in a “global economy.”

With the implementation of each new free trade agreement, American jobs are being shipped overseas. Third World operations can easily lower manufacturing and production costs because of cheap labor. Of course, our legislators have created this fiasco with their free trade agreements.

If I recall, in H. Ross Perot’s bid for the presidency a decade ago, he made the statement that if NAFTA were implemented that there would be a “great sucking sound” of American jobs overseas. I hate to admit it, but he was right.

National security is more than just keeping American citizens safe from physical harm, it also is about keeping Americans economically secure. Our legislators have created a climate of economic insecurity. Has this been done for national interest or corporate interest? Americans were sold out.

Jeff Straub
Chico

New digs
I am writing on behalf of the staff and faculty of Fair View High School and the Center for Alternative Learning to express our sincere appreciation for the tremendous work that the Chico Unified School District summer maintenance crews, district office staff, our own custodial and office staff and others have performed to ease the transition from our old home on West 11th Street to our new home on East Avenue.

All of the crews have been enthusiastically helpful and accommodating and have worked miracles to turn an elementary school into a place more appropriate for secondary students and staff. Leaving Fair View’s home of three decades has been made much easier because of the competence and consideration provided to us by all of the people involved in this monumental transition.

Leslie Mahon-Russo
Chico

Goofball course
Last week a Butte College pamphlet, “Community Education—Short Term and Online Classes,” was distributed. Among many of the courses offered, I found Introduction to the Human Energy Field and Energy Healing, Chakras—Our Body’s Energy Wheels, Healing with Energy, herb-related courses, aromatherapy, astrology courses, crystal-ball gazing and a number of other questionable courses.

I understand there are people who are interested in these topics. A proper venue for their teaching exists but not at a publicly funded institution. When these courses are taught at this level it legitimizes their standing. I object to having my tax dollars spent in this manner.

Chuck Samuels
Received via email

Mon Cher Henri:
Your most recent column in the CN&R prompts me to send this long delayed message. It occurred to me that L might stand for Lorelei and that she might lure you back to the Village. Please don’t go. Chico needs you. All of your pieces are enjoyable but the Bambi Inn review was particularly delightful and the Hemingway parody a masterpiece. Your charming literary style makes me think of Sempe, whose cartoons are often a highlight of the New Yorker. (I assume you have a complete collection of his books. If not, Amazon has a quite complete selection.)

You are one of Chico’s cultural assets and we hope you mean it when you say you are going to stay awhile. For the sake of Miss Marilyn and your legion of fans, though, please cut down on the red meat and get some exercise. Review fish, fowl and pasta for the rest of the year and take Miss M for at least one walk a day. We would be devastated if you were cut down in your prime by an apoplectic fit at the table.

A devoted admirer
Chico