Letters for September 12, 2019

Remember this recall?

Re “Seeking offers” (Newslines, by Andre Byik, Sept. 5):

In 2000, Cal Fire tried to take over the Oroville Fire Department. The effort led to a recall election in which Mayor Dennis Diver and two council members were recalled from office.

A main issue in the campaign was state control over a significant portion of the Oroville city budget.

Do Oroville residents care anymore?

Don Blake

Oroville

‘Missed the mark’

Re “2nd Amendment blues” (Letters, by Mona Uruburu, Sept. 5):

Ms. Uruburu’s letter missed the mark on every point.

The AR/AK-platform rifle is ineffective against government? Yet, it’s the capable personal-arms choice for freedom fighters all over the globe. Governments don’t have a death-ray, Ms. Uruburu.

Reporters … keep us free? The press supports freedom only if it’s neutral. A one-party press, in a two-party government, is statist propaganda antithetical to freedom. If the press were 95 percent conservative and only supported Republican ideals, would you believe they protected your freedom then?

The Dayton shooter was a “loony conservative”? Wrong. He was a liberal, anti-gun socialist, who stated he’d vote for Elizabeth Warren.

The Constitution ignored slavery? Stone tools are 2.5 million years old, and prehistoric man surely used one to bash the skull of another, take his mate, and enslave his offspring. The history of humankind is war and slavery. The framers of the Constitution knew that the idea of being born in freedom and slavery were incompatible, one would will out, and they had faith in their document. Guided by that Constitution, America abolished the eons-old practice of slavery in a scant 90 years.

Conservatives should listen to liberals? Well, Ms. Uruburu, we did read your letter.

Peter Bridge

Glenn

Survival gear snatched

Across from Chico High School on Magnolia Street is a T-bird parked the wrong way in a two-hour spot that has been there for more than a month. The registration is 20 months overdue but there are no tickets. There is a notice from the police to move within a week.

A Suburban with no tags is parked on Cedar Street near the old Gold’s Gym that’s been sitting all summer. It has a 30-day notice taped to the windshield.

My van parked near downtown was seven months overdue. It was towed the Thursday before Labor Day weekend without any warning. The police department offices are closed on Fridays.

The officer noted that, because of clothing and bedding material within, it appeared the vehicle was being lived out of. Thanks, Chico PD. All my possessions—in fact, everything that I needed to survive—simply vanished.

The tow charge was $230. Storage was $60 per day. The “convenience fee” from the police department to allow the tow company to release my vehicle was $180.

My friend Dave paid these criminally high fees to get my car back the next day.

Isn’t the law supposed to be fair and even?

Tedra Thomsen

Chico

Trump and Taliban

Donald Trump had to cancel his secret meeting at Camp David with the leaders of the Taliban terrorist group after learning that they were responsible for the car bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed an American soldier.

The anniversary of 9/11 exacerbated the foolishness in timing of yet another meeting with vicious rulers that our illustrious so-called president has an affinity for. Kim Jong Un and Putin are others that come to mind.

Trump pirated Ronald Reagan’s MAGA slogan for his 2016 presidential campaign and has many times tried comparing himself to Reagan. In reality, the failed reality-TV host is the antithesis of Reagan, and he proved it with the secret planned rendezvous with the Taliban. Reagan made it very clear that he would not “negotiate with barbarians.” Donald Trump, you’re no Ronald Reagan.

Ray Estes

Redding

Bad news, good news

The bad news is that there are humans on this planet who do not have enough food or access to clean water. The really bad news is that many of those with a full belly do not care.

The good news is that soon we will have packages delivered by drones. The really good news is that soon the wealthy will be able to vacation on flights into space.

Wolfgang Straub

Chico

Likin’ the lovin’

Re “More makeouts, please” (Letters, by Bill Mash, Sept. 5):

Please, I agree! Chico isn’t what it used to be and everyone could use a little lovin’—along with their root beer floats. The summertime is slowly fading and there are plenty of places in Chico to warm up to someone special. Except Tom Tomorrow—that man is a colossal farce to everything sacred in what’s left of physical journalism.

To see him throw out opinions over drawings with no foresight on how to deliver adequate, relevant political jokes is nothing but a crude rouse, and he is undeserving of love or hair.

Rest easy, Chico. Hot cocoa is around the corner.

Timothy Sandaele

Paradise

Address the issues

Why does Trump’s base continue to believe someone who: has lied over 12,000 times since taking office; scorns reading; gets his news from TV while disregarding his intelligence agencies; reveals classified information with harmful results; falsified the Hurricane Dorian weather map with a Sharpie pen and insisted NOAA lie to back him up; attacks women (23 have spoken up publicly); had unprotected sex while cheating on his third wife with a porn star; denies and accelerates climate change; blames brown and black people; separates babies from parents; makes fun of disabled people; says he loves dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un and is rude to our allies; hurts farmers and others with his trade/tariff wars; costs taxpayers millions of dollars golfing 215 days at his golf clubs; is inarticulate and a narcissist sociopath?

James Zogby explains some Republicans see his character but are willing to make a deal with him to advance their social agenda. His mostly white, less-educated base of around 30 percent [of the population] turns to Trump because they feel left out, angry, alienated and disappointed, and he makes them feel empowered. Zolby concludes their real issues need to be addressed, rather than disparaging this base.

Gayle Kimball

Chico

Unifying the people

French film crew Navajo France recently filmed on location in Paradise. Filmmakers Lorenza Garcia and Vienne Bruno are making a documentary for public television in France that will focus on healing our Mother Earth during this time of world climate crisis.

Garcia saw Paradise as an ideal location to show how deadly and destructive wildfires have become across the globe. Like California, France is experiencing wildfires due to extreme heat. This August, fire destroyed over 2,000 acres of pine forest in southern France. Garcia’s documentary examines traditional ecological management and the ways indigenous people heal the land through song, drum and ceremony.

Oscar C. Pérez, Ph.D, who is Apache/Mexican, was interviewed for the film on private land once owned by this author. Pérez is a motivational speaker, writer and martial artist. Pérez has worked across the globe sharing cross-cultural healing traditions and wilderness immersions in an effort to transform our ideas about how we live with the land. Pérez offered a healing ceremony that included traditional songs he sang with Garcia.

The French filmmakers were moved by what they saw in Paradise. It is their hope that their film will help unify all people to stop the exploitation of resources and find ways to restore the land.

Kandi Maxwell

Brownsville