Letters for February 8, 2001

Get serious, SN&R!

I read “The Adventures of Wally The Watt” by Steven T. Jones and Elizabeth McCarthy (SN&R, Jan. 25), and I must say that it was difficult to keep track of the severity of California’s energy crisis within the lightness of the article. Lack of electricity and natural gas is a serious matter for all of us whether you live and work within the Capitol’s grid or not. I was not so much offended by the creativity of your talented writers inasmuch as I was stricken that the SN&R would allow a not-so-serious report of this crisis.

People die in extreme conditions. Without valuable energy, people cannot heat up their homes much less cook their food or keep it from spoiling. Yet, Wally The Watt is portrayed as a comical character darting around like a firefly with his brothers and sisters amid grassy fields. As informative as the article is, let us not forget that this crisis is a crisis and we should not take lightly the uncertainty of California’s energy. Perishable foods spoil without refrigeration. Stoplights stop regulating traffic. Gas pumps do not function. Working cars run on fumes inviting local anarchy.

Forgive me if I sound a little unnerved, but when a blackout rolls over your home and work area, and you have no idea for how long, Wally The Watt is the last character I want to give me the 411 about why my heat isn’t working in these 30- to 50-degree days. No. Instead I want to read about The Gray One being backed up into a corner by 30 million of us Joes shouting for him to drop every other political agenda item, focus on his people and fix what his office broke.

Victor Saldana
Sacramento

The other wing

Re “The White House: Where the Sun Won’t Shine” by Walter F. Mueller (SN&R Letters, Jan. 25):

If Walter Mueller’s claim is correct, at least 1.5 million illegal aliens voted in California? Oh, I see! He’s only making an unsubstantiated charge. It comes, of course, from the same side that spent millions of dollars of our money on eight years of investigations and turned up nothing but the fact that President Clinton got his hat blocked in the oval office and then did what most American cheating husbands would do.

He lied!

Mr. Mueller, most of us have heard of the Second Amendment. Some of us have even read it in its entirety and have the intelligence and logic to realize what it means. Most of us also understand that the First Amendment allows for freedom of speech.

Unfortunately, in your case, it even allows for free speech given to idiocy!

It’s fitting then that you say, “We’re now in the White House.” Considering your skewed thought processes, it’s appropriate that you choose to align yourself with a towel-snapping, party-boy-cum-baseball-team-owner-cum-governor of a state where it’s legal to drink and drive and pack a pistol all at the same time!

Whichever “wing” you two are from, I’m from the other!

Ron Waggoner
Sacramento

History will tell

Re “The White House: Where the Sun Won’t Shine” (SN&R Letters, Jan. 25):

When I opened the Sacramento News and Review’s Letters to the Editor and read Walter F. Mueller’s ridiculous letter, I was expecting a punch line. When I had finished it, and saw no punch line, I came to the realization that there were millions of other people like him expounding the same ignorant propaganda. Propaganda that manifests itself in the person and cabinet of George W. Bush.

Abraham Lincoln once said that you can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. The people who voted for Gore or Nader aren’t fooled. Al Gore won. He won the popular vote, and now it’s said that out of the votes of the Florida counties, that were thrown out by the Bush-friendly justices in the Supreme Court, three to one of those voters in Florida (mostly minorities) supported Al Gore.

Mr. Mueller also does the usual conservative scapegoating with immigrants. “Illegal citizens” were somehow responsible for the victory in California for Al Gore. Conservatives wear the largest crown of hypocrisy by claiming “compassionate conservatism.” What is that? Does that exist? On one side they blame “illegal aliens” for the downfall of everything moral and righteous in the United States, but at the same time they allow these immigrants to wash their gold toilet bowls and mow their neighbors’ lawns for some pocket cash.

While I recognize the responsibility some gun owners have with their weapons (some of my good friends are hunters), it is also clear that there is no need for the weapons that children are now using on other children in schools.

Mr. Mueller also talks about “Left Wing” felons. History will prove to be the greatest revelation. The Iran-Contra scandal sits by itself as one the greatest atrocities of the 20th century.

This election was won unfairly, by tactics that normally around the world would incite riots. Wake up, Mr. Mueller, and look at our problems. Norton and Ashcroft’s racist ultra-conservatism is a step back for our democracy, and so is your attitude.

James Burmester
Davis

Unpopular quiz

Re “A Lesson for the Mall Rats” by Mark Lawrence (SN&R Letters, Jan. 25):

In response to Mr. Lawrence, the Nazi movement was called National Socialism, but they were not socialists, they were fascists.

If you look up the two words in the dictionary you’ll find they are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. They in fact loathed, despised, oppressed and killed socialists, Communists, Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, labor unionists, the mentally retarded, the handicapped, Slavic peoples and anyone who didn’t get in line with the “program.”

As for Pinochet, he was a general and a dictator who, along with the rest of the Chilean military and with active U.S. support in 1973, performed what is known as a coup and killed the freely elected president of the country, Salvador Allende. During the time he ran the country he killed thousands of people who opposed his regime. That is why he was extradited to Chile so he could stand trial for his crimes.

Here is a fun little test for you. I mentioned groups of people loathed and despised by the Nazis. I see on the list four groups that are despised and loathed by right wing conservatives in this country. Can you guess the groups?

Scott Yeager
Georgetown

Brimming with enthusiasm

Re “Cell Deep: Kiss of the Spider Woman” by Matthew Burlingame-Couk (SN&R Theater, Jan. 25):

Whoa, whoa, Matthew. Let’s not get too carried away with your writing. Yes, you saw a very good play, with fine actors in a very unique setting, the Thistle Dew Dessert Theatre. But your delusion of actors’ greatness is clouded by the fact that your writing is tinged with the ramblings from a sugar-caffeine rush. Obviously the complimentary desserts and coffee offered were sampled by the reviewer. Have you viewed William Hurt portraying Molina in the 1985 film version of Kiss of the Spider Woman?

Patrick Powers
Sacramento

Hey Bill, have a heart

Re “Curb the Homeless, Not the Cars” by Bill Gottschalk (SN&R Letters, Feb.1):

I strongly believe that it is because of snooty, pompous well-to-do people like yourself that we [in Sacramento] have such problems as the homeless, babblers and the unwashed like those on K Street.

What right do you have judging those people or anyone for that matter? Perhaps you have done well for yourself in life; good for you. However, I manage a shop on the K Street strip and I see and hear these people everyday. Although some have created their own world, they are still human beings with feelings and emotions who may have gotten a “bad hand” in life. In speaking with some of these homeless and “unwashed” people on a daily basis, I’ve heard agonizing stories and painful memories that self-righteous people like yourself pray they never encounter.

Sacramento as a whole must come together and help these people find their lives and themselves again. We cannot just push them under the carpet and complain about it.

Maybe you should try talking to them instead of disregarding them, you might find someone with a heart.

P.S. Sounds like you could use a heart of your own.

Erin Bright
Sacramento

Pal Joey

I am writing to share with you why I read the SN&R. I used to just surf the ads looking for coupons for dining out and then toss the paper away. Until one day when I happened on a column called “Ask Joey.” I have never missed a publication since and I have friends at work who pick up the paper for me on Thursday if I am not able to get out of the office to get a copy for myself.

I find that Joey Garcia has one of the most spiritual and intelligent columns regarding relationships. I now pick up copies of the SN&R for my friends and family and mail copies of Joey’s columns to folks who do not have access to the paper. I also use her writings and weekly meditations as food for thought for counseling sessions with my own clients.

Thank you for providing such an honest and meaningful resource to the community.

Mary Bane
via e-mail