Letters for August 28, 2008

Letter of the week
Re-enact the 1852 fire

I took a visitor to Old Sacramento the other day and was surprised at how few tourists were there. They seemed confused, wandering about aimlessly, uncertain which taffy shop to visit, mobbed by the variety.

I asked an official guide a logical question: “Where can I find an ashtray in the shape of a human skull?” He directed me to the dozens of stores that sell such basics. Old Sac has become too much of a good thing.

Tourist destinations with historic themes have increased business by staging re-enactments of Civil War battles and such. Old Sacramento would benefit greatly from a re-enactment of the great fire of 1852. All of those candies and T-shirts and papery souvenirs would make a wonderful blaze.

After the entire park is burned to the ground, a return to the original street grade would allow the river to flush everything out, and we could start all over with something from [a] Disney Imagineering genius.

Charles Johnson
Sacramento

SN&R … DNC: only one letter in common

Re “Dreams of Obama” by Tom Hayden (SN&R Feature, August 21):

“Dreams of Obama” was just lame fluff written by an ugly, old far-left radical from the 1960s. How much did the DNC pay the hacks at SN&R to publish this garbage?

T.J.
via e-mail

Inside family court

Re “Citizen vendetta” by R.V. Scheide (SN&R Race to the Bottom, August 21):

Thanks again to R.V. Scheide for so neatly skewering the cozy relationship between attorneys and judges. Citizens, beware!

Let us consider that comfy oxymoron “family court.” If you are a domestic violence victim and innocently enter family court hoping to protect yourself and your battered and/or sexually abused child, you will be quickly stripped of all resources by $400/hour attorney bills. You will then be chopped into small pieces and tossed into a blender of cronyism in which the person whose attorney has the chummiest relationship with the judge wins, winner take all. But it takes a long time, because there’s an element of fun for these sadistic pals in drawing out the game as long as possible, which equals more billable hours. They seem to especially enjoy placing little children in the custody of sex offenders. Family court is a pedophile’s heaven.

And if you want a real vendetta, just try reporting one of the gang to their oversight agency. Retribution is the name of that game. The “family” part of family court seems to be the dysfunctional, incestuous union of attorneys and judges, bound together by their love of power and money. Citizens, arise!

Anne Hart
Sacramento

Say no to crates

Re “Cool to be kind” (SN&R Editorial, August 21):

Do you live in a crate? I don’t think so. So why should [farm animals]? Every person with something to say, let their voice be heard.

Jason Bove
Sacramento

Missed a good God comic

Re “Gods and heroes” by Kel Munger (SN&R Sacreligious!, August 14):

You’ve missed out on one of the most popular and unique packages of the faith-based comic/graphic-novel genre, the Eye Witness series published by Head Press Publishing (www.headpress.info).

The series effectively combines a modern-day international action-thriller with a telling of the birth of the Christian faith (from the Passion Week through the Book of Acts). The series has garnered not only critical acclaim among the Christian community but also in the secular press and even won a few book awards! Originally published in 2004, with volume one (A Fictional Tale of Absolute Truth), the third volume (Rise of the Apostle) [was] just released nationally this week.

Sandy Luedke
Dallas

Vile and biased, maybe, but definitely not crap

Re “The 10 most awesomely bad moments of the Bush presidency” by Brad Reed (SN&R Feature, July 31):

Once again I gave your paper a chance and wasn’t surprised. It is still the same liberal piece of garbage that is has always been. I will never read your trash and I am telling anyone that I can to do the same.

It’s no wonder you give away the thing. Your lib readers are probably mostly on some kind of government assistance and could not afford to buy a paper anyway!

When [Sen. Barack] Obama or any other lib gets elected, I will bet that you won’t list his being elected as one the worst things of his presidency. In fact, I will bet that you at the SN&R are already almost orgasmic with the thought of writing stories on how great this person is and it will not matter what lib is elected.

I hope someday you will be fair. You should be already! I will send this e-mail to as many of your advertisers as I can to let them know that most Americans like to be fair!

Hope you become fairer or go away like most other newspapers—whoops, sorry, I called your rag a newspaper. That it isn’t. It’s vile biased crap!

Allan Johnson
via e-mail

More on new evangelicals

Re “The new evangelical” by Nancy Brands Ward (SN&R Feature, July 24):

Thank you for printing this enlightening exposure of the “emerging church.” Pastor Rick [Cole] is one of the best, down-to-earth, level-headed and Christlike pastors I have ever known.

So many people erroneously think that sharing God’s message involves Bible-thumping and yelling, which drives people away from God and church. Instead, he delivers a message of God’s love through a different vehicle: one that is approachable, with an open door that beckons to the passerby: “Climb on in for the great adventure of having a personal relationship with Jesus!”

Being a true Christian is a life-giving endeavor and should not be stifled by legalism, judgmentalism and religiosity. Being a true Christian is a dynamic way of life, which has both hands open to the community.

Jeralynn Kozak
St. Cloud, Fla.

Bravo for Ward

Re “The new evangelical” by Nancy Brands Ward (SN&R Feature, July 24):

This kind of insightful writing and editing is what is missing from many cover stories and articles in the media. Congratulations on publishing a thoughtful and thought-provoking story that is so beautifully written that it is a delight to read all the way through!

Jamie Lee Moore
San Rafael

Rev. Rick’s transformative

Re “The new evangelical” by Nancy Brands Ward (SN&R Feature, July 24):

First off, I have been a member of Capital Christian Center for about two years. Second, there has been a radical transformation there. I would not have made it my church home just 10 years ago. Oh, I visited there many times over the last 21 years, and I listened to Pastor Glen [Cole] and Pastor Rick many times over that period.

Please understand, I do appreciate the heart of Glen Cole and his devotion to God, but his style just didn’t resonate with my desire to become more compassionate and humble and less judgmental.

And I did find inspiration in the things that Pastor Rick said in the earlier days. It’s just that I didn’t see CCC as the place for me back then. Now I do. Maybe it is because I’ve changed a bit—I really think it is because they have changed a lot.

Pastor Rick and the entire team at CCC have helped me seek out what God wants for me and how becoming that person will make life a whole lot more pleasing to God and much better for those around me. And they are teaching me to remain joyful in the journey.

It’s a long process to make a personal transformation, and none of us can do it alone. Pastor Rick has, with a whole lot of godly inspiration and a great staff, transformed a whole church’s way of thinking.

David Bry
Sacramento

Great dam story

Re “Worth a dam?” by Dan Bacher (SN&R Frontlines, July 24):

Great story. Affects us all. You won’t see this in the Bee.

Jason Franks
Sacramento

Aerial spraying isn’t a done deal

Re “Bush toasts to world hunger” (SN&R An Inconvenient Ruth, July 24):

Thank you for your coverage of the [aerial spraying] issue. I need to point out that the spraying has not been completely terminated.

The CDFA [California Department of Food and Agriculture] has decided to only spray in rural areas and has been unwilling to tell us what that means. So we are in no way resting easy in the Bay Area.

The CDFA is appealing the court’s decisions in Monterey and Santa Cruz that said this is not an emergency situation and they need to do an [environmental impact] report first. They have recently expanded their [spraying] map to include most of California except for desert and high mountain areas. They are planning to use truck fogging and painting of every pole and tree in sight with permethrin and other dangerous pesticides. They are planning to dump 2 million irradiated moths on our heads for years to come.

If only it were over, I could feel I could continue to live here and get on with my life. This whole thing is a dangerous farce. Many are still ill here from the spraying last fall.

It is not over, or, as you put it, it has not been terminated.

Donna Kuhn
Aptos, Calif.

How ’bout art in the ‘burbs?

Re “Is it art yet?” by Jackson Griffith (SN&R Arts&Culture, July 17):

How about covering the art scene in Fair Oaks and Carmichael? We have some great galleries, including the Sacramento Fine Arts Center and Chroma Gallery, that are all showing high-quality art.

The downtown art scene has had so much coverage that it is swamped, while the outlying art venues are struggling to survive despite having amazingly good art. You’re missing an important Sacramento resource.

Jackie Carroll
Fair Oaks