APPRECIATING HISTORY I
Letter to the Editor,
Our Enclosure Project is well under way! We want to extend thanks to the many donors that are making this project a reality: The Miner-Anderson Foundation, Anderson Valley Brewing, Larry Mailliard, Ron Verdier, Steve Woods, Michael & Susan Addison, The Pratt Family Trust, Bob Mathias, Gloria La Fleur, Donna Reilly, Jack Mannix, Lila Lee, Margaret Davis, Marvin & Beverly Dutra, Bob & Sandra Nimmons, Justin & Christy Reilly, Saw Works, Carolyn Short, Christine Clark, Anderson Valley Lions Club, Joann Prather Borges, Wilma Brink, Marvin & Colleen Schenck, Frank Green, Vicky Center, Charles Hiatt, Life Works School, Ray Pinoli, John & Linda Hulbert, Barbara Peterson, Mark Apfel, Clyde Price, Kyllikki Clark, Averyl Willis, Freda Fox, Liz Dusenberry, James & Robin Lindsey, Captain Rainbow, Clare Wheeler, McCarter & Holliday, Peter & Pat Boudoures, Keith & Deborah Squires, Katherine Clow.
Phase I of this project is complete. The artifacts are back inside, ending their days of exposure to the weather. We look forward to Phase II, which will finish the interior. We invite you to stop by and take a look and welcome further donations of labor or money, which will be used for Phase II.
AV Historical Society Board
Boonville
NO DOUGH, NO MOVEMENT
Editor,
All our local, county and state governments are in hock up to their ears. For years they have given themselves benefits after benefits, such as retiring at 50 and 55 years of age. Then for all practical purposes government employees can’t be fired no matter how poorly they perform. Result? Inefficiencies galore. These benefits could never have been sustained. Now we have reached a point where there is no dough.
It’s time that government faces reality. Again the reality is to cut all personnel 15% or whatever it takes to keep operating. Tenure is against all our principles. We can’t use nickel and dime savings such as delaying maintenance which only makes things worse.
Rossi Hardware was bought by us in 1945 and it was some 15 years old. Having gone through the depression where money was non-existent, there was maintenance from 15 years of neglect. No serious problems.
Today some 64 years later, these buildings are in much better shape than when we bought them, as are many old buildings in Boonville and Philo because of maintenance. In Europe during the war, I saw buildings that were built in the 16th and 17th century and the only reason they were falling apart is that we blew them up.
In the Community Services District’s financial statement I see that there is $288k of liabilities. That’s money we owe people and places. As best as I can see we seem to have some rather large sources of income. It’s past time we paid off all debts. It’s hard to distinguish the interest we pay but nobody loans money for little interest, especially now when cash is king.
When we talk of a $300k fire engine it reminds me of the story of the man how had four in his family and had a new Cadillac, a new five-bedroom house, three bathrooms and a swimming pool and worked like a dog. Someone asked him why he worked so hard. He said: I want a Ferrari, a new six bedroom house, four bathrooms, a swimming pool and a tennis court.
It’s time to pay off the debt, get rid of the benefit assessment and give the taxpayers a break.
Ah yes. The Bay Bridge. It’s now 20 years since the Loma Prieta Earthquake. The latest estimate on the completion of the approach to the Bay Bridge is 2013 (maybe). Fifteen to 20 years to build the new approach when the whole bridge only took four years in the 1930s with a slide rule.
About furloughs by the state. Now everyone is on a slow down mode and since they were already on slow down mode, it’s now become the don’t move mode.
Emil Rossi
Boonville
NO SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT
Editor,
I strongly disagree that “the federal government has properly handed control of the medical marijuana issue back to the states” (as a recent Chronicle editorial stated).
The administration has taken the cowardly way out; it chooses to ignore a law it dislikes rather than work to actually change it. Law enforcement professionals not only need to know the law but also need a supplemental list of which ones to enforce.
Please find the courage to legalize marijuana once and for all (or not), but please don't undermine the rule of law. Selective enforcement is frightening.
Andrew Segal
San Francisco
GOOD, BAD & UGLY BOXES
To The Editor:
I have a theory that I would like to present to readers: There are two types of Big Box stores to be found in Mendocino County in general and the Ukiah area in particular.
The first type of Big Box store would be the good type which, I presume, causes no problems for downtown merchants, does not steal their customers, etc. I assume an example of the good type of Big Box would be Raley’s. I say this because I do almost all my grocery shopping at Raley’s and many times I have run into hard line progressive, anti-Big Box types also doing their grocery shopping there. Some of these people who I see there are, among others, Phil Baldwin, Dotty Coplen, and both of the elder Cooperriders. Some other examples of good Big Box stores would have to be any Big Box the City of Ukiah would sell property to at the Airport Park complex since the city wouldn’t possibly sell property to a bad Big Box, would they?
The second type of Big Box would be the bad type of Big Box whose appearance in our area would cause instant and total demise of all the local downtown merchants. Some examples of the bad type would be Costco, Target, Petco or any store that might consider building at the former Masonite site.
Now both these types of stores send their profits out of this area, and, I’m sure, have some of the same customers as the downtown merchants have, so I would like some all-knowing person from the local progressive community to explain to me why some Big Box stores are acceptable here and others are not.
Thank you,
David Anderson
Ukiah
NEW AGE BUM
Dear AVA,
Here's a bleeding, fleeting lark
That landed on my shoulder
Near the pot patch inside Hendy Woods Park
-
Karen Ely is a bonah
For suggesting anything Sedona
Though she's right about the NFL
Her long-time marriage can go to hell
-
But if Mz. Me First! flashed some bush
Or a glimpse of foggy tush
Then even that snobby Jean-Paul Sartre
Would have to call it art
-
As for this poor lad Dino
Can he serve his time in Mendocino?
After serving nobly in Iraq
Perhaps Karen Ely can commission a plaque
-
That honors our braveheart kid
Who kept the Arabs from overrunning the Yids
Do you agree, Ms. Ely, or are you too fickle
From sitting on Herr Brandt's pickle?
-
Such a crunchy, munchy image
Brings a smile to my greasy visage
As I drive up the coast to Noyo
To have lunch with the usual Yo-Yos
-
The Deepender
Under the Drunk (now Crank) Tree,
Navarro
TRUST
Dear Editor:
The Mendocino Art Center is in crisis and at the heart of this crisis is the loss of trust. The erosion of trust has been steadily increasing since July with each new decision, including the cancellation of the Thanksgiving Fair and the 2010 Summer Fair, the firing of all of the coordinators, the dismantling of the computer lab, the remodel of a fine arts studio into an office, the discontinuing of the local schools’ instructional field trips to MAC, the closing of the Gift Shop, the questionable hiring practices, the intent to sell Mendocino Arts Magazine, the less than courteous treatment given to visitors, students, artists, instructors, Artists-in Residence, and so forth.
The community’s loss of trust in the Art Center Administration cannot be regained under the current conditions. Reversing or amending these ill-advised decisions would only be a beginning. It will take a long time to regain the good will of the community. For starters, many, many people are due an apology. I would be happy to provide names and reasons to the board of the Mendocino Art Center if there is an interest in righting wrongs.
We must all come together and put forth our best efforts to make the Mendocino Art Center the vital and inspiring place it once was. Hundreds of community members signed a petition requesting a complete review of the decisions of the Mendocino Art Center’s Board of Directors. The petition and signatures were presented to the board at the October 21st meeting. Upon learning of our concerns, let’s pray that the board responds appropriately.
Margaret Paul
Former Youth Program Coordinator
Mendocino Art Center
Mendocino
ART DE-CENTERED
Editor,
The Mendocino Shamanic Sweat Lodge (formerly the Mendocino Art Center)
Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, baby boomer
Here is the rumor:
A grifter, drifter from Sedona hustle, muscle, bustle, burn-turn fake-a-phona
Queen glean has no inkling she's a con artist turned pro con
Dat Art Center's roof is leaking and she ain't tweaking.
She got 100 grand that she's keeping in her blufftop estate.
Bluff yo bluff puff yo puffed up ego up yo credo.
Demoralize and decentralize underclass overthrow the upper class into the undertow.
Let's just all bare our breasts for Art!
Fawn Nielsen
Mendocino
REMEMBERING BETTY
Editor,
Thank your for carrying the picture and invitation about the celebration of life of Betty Kroeber. This helped a great deal because many people were aware of the event and some 73 people came. I deeply appreciate your action.
Clifton Kroeber
Sometimes at the house on Vista Ranch Road
Philo
WHAT FREE MARKET?
Dear Editor,
On Thursday evening, October 22, on the evening news on ABC, anchorman Charlie Gibson said that tens of thousands of people in that city are out of work because of the economy. I ask you, Bruce, who are they shitting?
Those people are out of work because a very few people on Wall Street and in high corporate bank positions were so greedy and so out of integrity and so uncaring that they triggered the present depression. To say that the cause is some neutral, unaccountable thing called “the economy” is part of the magical thinking the media foster on the mass public. An economy doesn’t cause anything; it is the result of the actions of people, not the cause.
Furthermore, if some nebulous entity called the economy caused it, then all those millions of homebuyers who bought homes they knew they could not afford, are no part of the cause. That is absurd.
It is no more absurd, however, than the concept of the “free market” being able to control the results. There is no such thing as the “free market”; it is a myth, perpetrated to keep the magic in the magical thinking.
With billions doled out as subsidies to farmers and agribusiness; with billions doled as in the form of tax breaks to giant global corporations, with no-bid contracts that run into the tens of billions given out by the government, with protective tariffs still in existence directly or indirectly, the idea that the market is ‘free’ is as absurd as the idea that the stork brings the babies.
When you put those two non — real concepts together, ‘the economy’ and the ‘free market’ as the cause, the driving force, you have created a society based on the idea of non-responsibility. There is nobody to blame, and so we go forward into the abyss with no feet on the ground and our heads up our ass.
Lee Simon
Far ‘n Away Farm, Virginia
DUMB AS ROCKS
To the Editor:
Regarding Mr. Boaz suing Superintendents Barrett and Techinin for defamation of character —
Apparently, the problem was caused because these two administrators accused Boaz of racism when he used the word “niggardly” in a letter to them. Actually, he should be suing them for educational and linguistic incompetence!
In his legal action, he should also include the other nine administrators who signed the letter. Each of these signatories needed at least five years of successful teaching experience before receiving an administrative credential. Each of these administrators is the lead educator in a district. Each is paid over $100,000 a year. Yet, collectively, they don't know that the racial slur ends in -erly (in the rare instance it is used as an adverb) and the synonym for miserly, which ends in -ardly. These sounds aren't even close! Do we need look further for the wretched state of public education in California when our eduational leaders seem to be illiterate?
Charles Moton
Lucerne
NO INJURED ANIMAL CONTROL?
To the Editor:
On Friday, October 9, I was driving on Highway 253 towards Ukiah when I spotted an injured deer on the side of the road. I stopped to see if there was anything I could do for it. The only logical thing I could think of was to call 911 and see if they could send someone out to help.
After contacting 911, talking with the dispatcher, duly giving my name, location of the deer and what other information I could give her, the dispatcher told me that she would contact an animal control officer and the sheriff's department to check it out. The dispatcher assured me that the deer would be cared for or put down. Feeling like I did the “right thing” by calling and possibly saving or putting a early end to a suffering animal's life, I left, thinking professional help was on the way.
On the following Tuesday, October 13, I drove past the same spot, expecting to see the deer gone and hopefully being treated or at least put out of it's misery. Instead, I found the dead body of the deer on the side of the road.
For the life of me, I can't imagine what could be so important that an Animal Control Officer, Sheriff, Wildlife and Game or Department of Transportation staffer could not render assistance sometime during the four days that the deer lay injured on the side of the road or at the very least, put it out of it's misery.
I called the Mendocino Animal Control and Sheriff's Department asking why this deer needlessly suffered; why it was left to die on the side of the road, and why, if they couldn't save it, was it disregarded like nothing more than trash on the side of the road and in plain sight?
The response I received from the Animal Control person (actually a sheriff’s deputy) was that the Mendocino Animal Control only takes care of dogs and cats in the county, and that they were not responsible for injured wildlife, and while a deputy may shoot the animal, it was the responsibility of the Department of Transportation to remove the deer.
Is it truly the sign of the times that an “Animal Control” officer is only capable of rendering aid or taking “control” of dogs and cats in the County? I pressed the issue asking, “Who should have responded to the aid of a suffering animal?” The Sheriff said that the Wildlife and Game agents could have been called, but, since there's only one officer in the whole District that he would probably not respond either.
I realize that these are the times of tightened budgets and service cutbacks in City, County and State budgets, but I feel that it's ridiculous after calling 911 for assistance, apparently NO ONE responded and that the deer was left to die a miserable death over a period of four days, because no one claimed responsibility.
If the Mendocino Animal Control is not the agency, who should I have called for a injured deer? Who do I call? Who would you call if you found an injured animal? Here's a hint, from my own personal experience. Don't bother to call 911, they're not responsible; don't bother to call Mendocino Animal Control (unless it's a cat or dog), and don't call the Sheriff's Department. They're not responsible either. I suppose it is it left up to the person who comes across an injured animal to render aid. That's what I'll do next time. I'd rather risk injury to myself than to let a injured animal die a slow death on the side of the road.
I love animals just as much as the next person, and I hate to see an animal suffer needlessly. What bothers me the most is that I thought I did the right thing by calling the proper authorities for help. Yet none was given and I only received excuses of why they were not responsible. If Animal Control (key word animal) is not responsible, who is?
Adam Yee
Ukiah
MY DATE WITH KEITH
Dear Editor,
I was at Ukiah Daily Journal the other day getting extra copies of the issue on Pinches' regulation proposal.
Keith Faulder's office is across the street. As I stood on the curb, he drove up in his car and told me to hop in, we'd go for a spin and get caught up. So we did.
No, he's not running for DA but he hopes Eyster will.
Yes, he wants to renew his AVA sub. He said, “I want to support the paper. We need it.”
Yes, he had a nice interview with UDJ reporters about medical marijuana and his libertarian point of view. He brought up the “new criminal class” that is being created by law enforcement going after small gardens for personal medical use (“low-hanging fruit”).
Yes, he's now in the process of getting Smitty's guns back, since the DA dismissed his criminal case and returned his and Mary's life savings of $54,000 (instead of splitting it 50-50, as they'd offered a month before caving in).
It seems pathetic that Meredith would deny a 92-year old WWII navy gunner who fought in the South Pacific the return of his family heirloom guns — a hunting rifle and pistol — and prosecute old man Smitty for 17 marijuana plants shared with his wife on their parcel of land. They are qualified patients who drink “bud tea” to ease their suffering. Smitty suffers pain, heart strain, shortness of breath and severe stress and insomnia from the year of criminal prosecution. Mary has frozen joints and inability to get around without help. They are not smokers. They are safely imbibing medicinal tea for relief. How are they a “public nuisance” or criminals? Law enforcement committed legal theft followed by prolonged prosecutorial torture of the elderly for over a year; it was not, as they claim, a “mistake.”
Keith dropped me off at UDJ where my van was still running as I'd left it, charging my low battery. Anyone could've taken it but they didn't and if they had, I'd sic the former prosecutor on them. I felt protected.
Triples Pebblet, aka Pebbles Trippet
Elk
NO NEED FOR A
Editor:
Measure A is unnecessary because Ukiah has over 100 acres of available land already zoned for large retail. Covering industrial land with retail shopping is wasteful, shortsighted and contributes to sprawl. Your no vote on Measure A tells developers to build large retail projects on land zoned for it. Please protect local planning and local control by voting no on Measure A.
Janna Ostoya
Ukiah
DOWN WITH EDU-ILLITERATES
Letter to Editor,
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed your demolition of Mendo's Stalinist Edu-crats in last week's issue. Be assured that my praise is not niggardly.
B. Patterson
Boonville
BETTER FOOD=BETTER KIDS
Hey AVA guys and readers,
I am sure I mentioned this before, but folks who have children or friends with children on medication for ADHD, or with asthma, autism, bedwetting problems, ear aches, Tourette’s syndrome and a too long list of things might want to check out the Feingold association diet at www.ADHD.org. Their research person, Shula Edelkind, posted a new Blue Book that not only looks at the problem thoroughly, but also has great science literature including 20-30 years of studies that show that kids have a 70-80% impact from limiting their diet of artificial colors, preservatives and a natural substance called salycilates that are found in apples, and some of the orange family. They also point at the bad impacts of Aspartame (Nutrasweet), and MSG. Feingold association stems from the work of Allergist Dr. Ben Feingold, who 40 plus years ago discovered this association that the industry has been trying to cover up since. More recently the English Southampton study with thousands of double blind child subjects clearly identified the link. In Europe, the EU is saying no to toxics because they do not want the added expense for their socialized medicine, artificial food dyes, preservatives and other food additives. The facts and they are facts are clear, our food is making us sick and neurotic and the industry knows it, won't change until all of us Americans just say no and maybe well maybe become so litigious that they see that it is not cost effective to make artificial vanilla (AKA vanillin) from wood pulp and put it in most candy bars. So is it sugar driven wackiness that is making your kids crazy, probably not. Seventy to eighty percent of the kids go off because of a food dye, preservative or whatever. Feingold fills the void of very lousy and cheating labelling by asking the right questions and making regional based food list for their two classes of food allergies, so you can buy the same sorts of foods for your family and avoid the added cost of drugs to combat the downers of toxic food dyes and preservatives. Interested families join with a nominal charge and receive a notebook and updates. The cost is so cheap and the results so big. The problem is that not everyone has heard. Imagine having to bring your child home because he is disrupting his class because of Doritos with various dyes and food colors?
Several years back a Wisconsin reform school lucked out and receive a natural diet via a new caterer. They not only got good food, but an extreme wake up call. In just a few days violence, nasty students, unsocial behavior stopped. Just stopped! That's how Feingold's diet works and low and behold not only the kids benefit, their parents who may have suffered a variety of behavioral difficulties find life ain't so hard. They aren't as grumpy and are more productive. That's how Benjamin Feingold discovered the bad acting food additives. He had a patient who had psoriasis, and offered her a diet that cleared up not only her psoriasis but also her disorientating thinking, grumpy nature and more. Her friends noted she was much more friendly. The solution is in buying a different version of the same sort of food. That means no real big change except in choice. Seems like a cheap and easy fix. And you can stop buying ritalin for junior!
Take care
Greg Krouse
USURY WITH INTEREST
An Open letter to Citibank,
Once upon a time in America, companies could be respected to do the right thing. Sometime, perhaps it was in the 70’s or 80’s everything changed. The people running the companies began thinking that the more money they could get out of their customers the better, regardless of their methods. They began feeling smart and sharp by implementing small unnoticeable charges that people would not catch and as they began making more and more money at the expense of the middle and lower classes. The greed overtook these companies and the division between the rich and the poor overtook the country. By upping the interest rates every time they could, the credit card companies turned into moneylenders more heinous than the worst antagonist in a Dickens novel. So we look around and see the state of our country now and we do not have to look too far to see who is responsible, in fact, our tax dollars bailed out your company. However, rather than paying it forward you rewarded the wealthy executives and gouged the interest rates of the customers.
We noticed in June that we were charged a service charge. This seemed strange since we sent our payment on June 8th and it was due June 20th. However, trying to speak to someone is impossible, since we end up speaking to an outsourced employee who has a limited command of English and keeps reading canned apologies to you from a computer screen. Trying to get a sensible answer to a question that is not listed on their computer screen is impossible. Again, this last month we received a $39.00 late fee and an interest raise that is the unbelievable usury rate of 25 percent. Are we to really trust you and believe our payments sent two weeks earlier are late? Or is there a mail file that sits ignored in your offices to further gouge your customers? The out sourced worker claimed the payment was a day late and there is nothing they can do about it. I am sure there is nothing they can do about it; this seems to have happened to almost everyone with a Citibank account. These business practices are so deplorable I wonder how the executives can sleep at night, however, their homes and beds are probably so luxurious that they sleep just fine as they block out any responsibility for the millions of people they gouge every day Luckily we can pay this off by transferring a balance. What about the people who cannot? Please close our account we will not be dealing with you in the future.
MJ & Jim Scott
Ukiah
WORTH IT
AVA,
Sign us up for another year. The irate gaul alone was worth the dues. And we don't care if you print this.
Thanks,
Anne Tait, Bob Brown
Loch Lomond
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