Letters for September 5, 2019

Backin’ Bernie

Re “Top contenders” (Second & Flume, by Melissa Daugherty, Aug. 29):

The Aug. 29 CN&R seemed to prefer Elizabeth Warren to Bernie Sanders.

Certainly the establishment, while dreading either Warren or Sanders as a Democratic nominee, sees Warren as more acceptable, as her foreign policy is “the usual.”

Sanders and Warren have similarly wonderful economic and domestic policies, but they differ significantly on foreign policy, where presidents have the most power to act without Congress.

Obama became president, having minimal knowledge or interest in world history and foreign policy, and he inadvertently wrecked Libya and Syria and oversaw the rise of ISIS, oversaw the military metastasizing ISIS over the globe, and created avoidable conflict with Russia over Ukraine.

Warren, too, has minimal knowledge of world history and foreign affairs. Those advising her are from the Washington foreign policy establishment, boding little change.

While Sanders’ passion for 40 years has been improving the lives of all working people, he has always cared about foreign policy. Sanders’ gut instinct is a demilitarized, diplomacy-oriented foreign policy. Only Sanders has the vision and courage to stand up to the extraordinarily powerful, Washington foreign policy establishment and the military industrial complex.

The U.S. desperately needs a foreign policy that makes the world more stable and sustainable.

Lucy Cooke

Butte Valley

Trump’s death sentence

Our world is a better place because of Maria Isabel Bueso, who suffers from a debilitating disease that paralyzes the lower body: mucopolysaccharidosis type VI, known also as MPS 6, a rare disfiguring genetic disease.

Bueso is a 24-year-old Guatemalan woman, a college summa cum laude, who graduated with honors and a degree in sociology from California State University East Bay. In 2003, when she was 7, her family immigrated here, accepting an invitation to participate in a clinical trial being conducted by doctors at UC San Francisco’s Benioff Children’s Hospital; the facility’s research and trials have resulted in treatment for her and others.

Bueso has received written notification that she has 33 days to voluntarily depart U.S. soil or face deportation. The Trump administration is canceling the “medical deferred action” program, which allows for the treatment of rare or debilitating disease for immigrants, mostly children; this medical care is not available in their countries of origin.

Her parents pay for her medical treatment through private insurance. She is not a threat, other than to ignorance and bigotry. Sending Bueso back to Guatemala will be a death sentence. To deprive her of life-saving medical treatment is murder.

Roger S. Beadle

Chico

Editor’s note: For more on this subject, see Editorial.

Change the culture

Re “Council ring confrontation” (Newslines, by Andre Byik and Meredith J. Cooper, Aug. 1):

Police transparency? On July 5, 2019, an 11-year-old girl was the subject of an arrest/detainment by Chico police in Bidwell Park. During this process, the police used considerable force to detain a child in responding to a family request for a “welfare check.” I am concerned about the amount of force the police used in executing this welfare check. Does it make sense for two police officers to hold an 11-year-old girl face down in the dirt, swimsuit askew, knee in her back, for a welfare check?

Chico’s assistant city attorney has denied my California Public Records Act request for a copy of the police report/body cam video of this incident. For Chico to have a more compassionate police force, there are two central issues. First, the ongoing use of excessive force by the police, and second, the lack of transparency.

We have to start somewhere and that must be more complete police training in de-escalation techniques and the application of these techniques in the field. The police culture on the use of force in our community must change.

Video: tiny.cc/july5

George Gold

Magalia

More makeouts, please

Seconds after pondering the lack of “public displays of affection,” I watched as two smitten young lovers fell into a warm embrace on the sidewalk, appropriately enough, outside the Naked Lounge. I peeked back a half block later and they were smooching it up righteously.

Chico, we need more of this and less of every thing else!

Bill Mash

Chico

2nd Amendment blues

The writers of the Constitution did a fantastic job creating a document that has kept us free for 200-plus years, but they did not write it for all of us, or they would have abolished slavery.

In reference to a previous writer’s letter, I doubt you have ever sat down with a liberal and talked because if you had, you would’ve discovered that your comment about liberals wanting to take your guns is another ridiculous lie.

Have you been watching Fox News—Vladimir Putin’s opinion, again? I don’t want to take away guns, but when some loony conservative can kill nine people and injure 27 others within the 32 seconds it took the police to kill him, we have a problem.

I believe military-style weapons need to be banned. If you truly believe those kinds of weapons are going to do anything to protect you, knowing what kind of weapons our military has, then you are a fool. The people and knowledge are what protect us. Reporters keep the government honest and thus keep us free. Why do you think Trump’s best buddy Putin won’t allow a free press or free elections?

Mona Uruburu

Janesville