MCT: Monday, March 30, 2020

• Rain
• Fourth Case
• Pipe Vine
• Mail Lady
• Lockdown Duration
• Blossoms
• Mendocino Headlands
• City View
• Homeless Response
• Bluff Bucks
• AV History
• Logging Camp
• Arkansas Traveler
• I'm Sick
• Benefit Websites
• Two Toned
• Quarantine Abuse
• Yesterday's Catch
• NY Spring
• Thoughtcrime
• Covid Reparations
• Gothic Update
• Under Pressure
• Housing Homeless
• Fauci Frosting
• Legal Buzz
• Abnormally Dry
• Dream Weekend
• Pothole King
• Hart Documentary
• Heroes & Patriots
• Inordinate Wealth
• My $1200
• Found Object

RAIN is spreading across the area from north to south this morning and will start to taper off this afternoon. Tonight into Tuesday morning another round of showers is expected. Dry and chilly weather is expected Wednesday and Thursday mornings with another chance for rain Friday. (NWS)

HEALTH OFFICER CONFIRMS FOURTH CASE OF COVID-19

Post Date: 03/29/2020 5:53 PM

The Mendocino County Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan has confirmed a fourth case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Mendocino County. Like the other three cases in Mendocino County, this case is thought to be travel related and does not appear to indicate community spread. The individual is from Inland Mendocino County, is in stable condition, in isolation at home with active public health monitoring, did not require hospitalization, and poses no risk to the public at this time.

Regarding the new COVID-19 case, Dr. Doohan stated, “Public Health was notified this afternoon of a fourth COVID-19 case. This person is on home isolation, doing well and does not pose a risk to the public. The individual is being actively monitored by public health along with their primary healthcare provider. The healthcare facility where this case was identified used proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and handled this case in an exemplary manner that protected their healthcare workers, staff and patients from exposure.”

Like the third case, this individual was identified through the Public Health Lab system in coordination with our healthcare providers. Across the nation, the current situation for COVID-19 testing is highly problematic due to shortages of the test sampling materials and limited testing capacity. In response to this challenge, Mendocino County Public Health has developed a process for facilitating COVID-19 testing for our healthcare partners. Currently, the Mendocino County Public Health department can facilitate testing through our affiliated Public Health lab, located in Santa Rosa. Given the current restricted access to COVID-19 testing supplies and resources, the testing that Public Health facilitates is upon request by healthcare partners such as clinics and hospitals for symptomatic patients from the following categories: healthcare workers, public safety personnel, people of high public health risk (nursing home residents, incarcerated people, homeless), high risk exposure (due to travel or contact) and emergency room and hospitalized patients in whom the test result will change management of the patient.

Anyone who is tested for COVID-19 MUST remain in isolation until further directed by their clinician who ordered the test. People who are sick and being evaluated for COVID-19 can spread the disease unless they stay in isolation away from other people.

The Public Health facilitation of COVID-19 testing is a top priority so that our healthcare partners can increase testing efficiency and ensure that individuals most at risk can be tested promptly.

Below are the COVID-19 testing numbers as of March 29, 2020 at 3:00 p.m.

Public Health Lab:

• Negatives: 42
• Positives: 2
• Pending: 14
• Total: 58

Commercial Lab (Quest):

• Negatives: 101
• Positives: 2
• Pending: 28
• Total: 131

Of the four positive cases, one has recovered fully and three are in active public health monitoring and following Center for Disease Control home isolation guidance.

For more on COVID-19: www.mendocinocounty.org

Call Center: (707) 234-6052 or email callcenter@mendocinocounty.org

The call center is open Monday – Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

THE PIPE VINE I PLANTED is still very small but it's actually making flowers this year.

(photo by Angela Dewitt)

JAN THE MAIL LADY’S LAST DELIVERY

Just because superlatives are exhausted from over use they still apply to some people, Jan Walker, The Mail Lady, being one of the deserving few. Does awesome apply to a person who has driven a million miles over 33 years and 3 months without so much as a fender bender? Driven those miles in all kinds of weather every day but Sunday for more than three decades? Driven those miles over labyrinthian country roads from Cloverdale to Point Arena and back again, and finally home to Yorkville where she started from before sunrise? Yes, awesome definitely applies here. Tuesday is Jan’s last day. She laughs off descriptions of herself as “irreplaceable,” but she’s been so dependable, so much of a fixture in our communities for so long… Well, her replacement — “a very nice young man named Aiman, a Navy veteran — will be catching up for many years. Asked to stop by her old stops, Jan laughs, “My husband doesn’t want me to go anywhere near a post office ever again.” We do, though.

---

(AVA, September 19, 2007) —

ON THE ROAD with Jan Walker, more commonly known from Anderson Valley to Point Arena, as Jan The Mail Lady. Jan sets out from her home in Yorkville before sunrise six days a week, and doesn’t return to her home in Yorkville until the sun is dipping into the sea, whose shores Jan visits every day but Sunday, 51,148 miles a year in her long white mail van, delivering and retrieving mail for customers in the vast areas lying between Cloverdale, the Anderson Valley, Greenwood Road and Elk, Manchester and Point Arena.

When she reaches Point Arena, Jan The Mail Lady reverses herself and makes her way all the way back to Cloverdale and finally home to Yorkville, the whole loop being nearly two hundred miles of winding road replete with hazards ranging from drunk drivers to barely accessible mail boxes erected by persons who seem to think their mail flies into their boxes on its own.

Six days a week for nearly 33 years, Jan has successfully negotiated what most drivers might rightly regard as a sort of highway obstacle course, and she does it with an amiable nonchalance belying the difficulty of her daily regimen.

This lady is on task, even with me peppering her with questions from the passenger seat. When someone isn’t taking up the passenger seat, which someone isn’t most days, Jan The Mail Lady, a great reader who scours the county's library system for books-on-tape, has accumulated the equivalent of several PhD’s in English and American literature.

All those difficult miles over all those twenty years beginning in 1987 Jan has had one accident when “a guy kinda ran into me and scraped up the side of my van.”

That’s it, that and no missed days regardless of the weather, and Mendocino County gets some real weather in the winter when the Garcia near the Stornetta Ranch just north of Point Arena, which Jan passes over or through, depending on rainfall, which can be torrential in the winter months, twice a day every day but Sunday.

And trees fall across the road, and animals run out in front of her van and odd people pop out of the bushes beside the road, “Which is fine with me so long as they stay out of the road,” Jan laughs.

By the time I board Jan’s van in Boonville, she’s already been on the job for a couple of hours. She’s driven from Yorkville to the Cloverdale Post Office where she’s picked up the mail for several thousand people strewn over some 500 square miles of western Mendocino County. (No Netflix without Jan The Mail Lady.) She’s dropped off Boonville’s mail at the Boonville Post Office and is now headed for Philo where Joe and Sheila will quickly have it in their customer’s boxes by noon, usually way before noon. Then it’s up and over the Greenwood Road to Elk where Melissa and, occasionally, the late, legendary Mr. Waldman, direct the day’s post to its seaside destinations. Down the road at Manchester Kathy with a 'y' is filling in for Kathe with an 'e,' and in Point Arena, previously home post office for Boonville’s much missed postmaster, Al Zischke, Kathy and Shawn are hurrying around Point Arena’s hillside post office.

As the day grows longer, it occurs to me that I am meeting one highly capable woman after another, confirming old suspicions that Mendocino County is held together by women, capable men having always seemed in short supply.

As we pull into Point Arena, Eddie Scaramella drives up in his perfectly maintained early 1950s Chevrolet, a museum piece with probably not more than 10,000 miles on it since his dad, the late Joe Scaramella, drove it out of the show room in Santa Rosa. Scaramella drives it from his service station a block away to the post office, and then he drives it back to his service station and puts the pristine vehicle back in its box. Scaramella has turned down numerous offers from car collectors for his rare Chevy. “I’ll sell it when they move the post office next to my gas station,” he says.

The Point Arena Post Office’s front door features a sort of town greeter whose high decibel conversations are apparently independent of second parties. The greeter is talking loudly to himself as we arrive. “Local color,” Jan says.

We drive the six steep miles up the hill to the long abandoned Point Arena Air Force Radar Station where we find….. well, imagine a tiny suburb, complete with a two-lane bowling alley, a community swimming pool, a gym, a mess hall, and thirty neat little homes whose residents have disappeared, a self-contained village with no people. “Every election someone running for supervisor says they want to do something with this place,” Jan comments, “but nothing ever happens.”

Jan The Mail Lady most certainly knows more about her vast service area than any politician does. She’s knows all the people and, as we make the rounds, notes changes in the landscape I would have missed completely if she hadn’t pointed them out. “That’s a new road there, and that house on the bluff just appeared one day, it seemed, it went up so fast.”

After a truly excellent lunch at The Point Arena Record Building, we reverse direction and head back to Boonville, the sun now at our backs. When Jan drops me off at Uncle Ed’s Ice Cream and Assorted Edibles, Edward F. Donovan the Fourth, proprietor, Jan The Mail Lady still has to drive to Cloverdale and then back to her home in Yorkville.

Whatever the Post Office pays her it isn’t enough.

SUPERVISOR TED WILLIAMS:

The current Health Officer’s shelter in place order has no end date. (4/7 was in the original order.) Nobody knows for certain, but from all I’ve heard, economic disruption through June is plausible. I’d prefer not cause panic with worst case scenarios, but recognizing businesses will make better sustainability decisions through awareness, I would recommend preparing for at least another eight weeks.

NAME THAT FLOWER

FROM SUPERVISOR GJERDE:

It's pretty clear the public health officer's order to close the parks was done for one reason: to tell visitors "Mendocino County is closed to visitors during this crisis."

As long as locals maintain a safe distance when walking or biking on the trails in Jackson Demonstration State Forest or the State parks, I would be shocked if we hear more than a caution from any law enforcement officer. The public health officer's order, it seems to me, is largely an attempt to convince folks to stay in their own County.

We may not agree with the language in the order, but reasonable enforcement of it should allow us to go outside and get fresh air, as long as we practice good judgement.

This is what I know about the Mendocino Headlands State Park: (I was living in Mendocino when it was created)

The oceanside strip of the Mendocino headlands between the Pacific ocean and Ford Street was converted into a county park with the caveat that the traditional use of the Headlands by locals (strolling, fishing from the rocks, playing bagpipes, engaging in contemplative activity, family picnics, even racing, though long past) would not be abridged by the transfer.

That was the covenant insisted upon by Angie Heeser, whose family long held title to the land when Augie gifted the land to Mendocino County for use as a county park.

The Board of Supervisors passed the Mendocino Headlands county park onto State Parks when the the bayside headlands was bought by the State from Boise Cascade (which originally had plans for condominiums) and the two pieces were combined to create the Headlands State Park.

And then the STATE just grabbed the beach . . . (I'm not sure how because there is a mean-tide federal law that accords beaches to the public, not the State.)

Anyway, the original covenant recognizing and honoring the continual and uninterrupted free use of the headlands by locals was attached to the landscape. The townspeople lived up to their half of the agreement with State Parks. They accepted the architectural limitations imposed through a Historical Review pact.

MENDO FUMBLES THE BALL ON HOMELESS VIRUS RESPONSE

by Mark Scaramella

Ukiah City Manager Sage Sangiacomo was quoted by Ukiah Daily Journal reporter on Sunday saying that he was trying to get the county to develop “a sheltering plan and risk mitigation strategies to limit COVID-19 spread among the homeless population in Mendocino County. The county is experiencing a noticeably higher number of individuals within encampments throughout all jurisdictions, (which) is likely due in part to the county’s modifications to intake and releases at the jail, along with modified services delivered through the Health and Human Services Agency and partnering service providers. While I understand the need for the modifications at the jail, it appears the unintended result was not identified or mitigated. Please inform us (the cities) what services are being/will be made to ensure that individuals are not being discharged from the jail without shelter.”

Sangiacomo went on to complain about an apparent lack of coordination between the County’s homeless services agencies — apparently unaware that that has been their mode of operation since the Marbut study pointed it out two years ago and, in spite of claims to the contrary, has not been acted on other than the formation of a still-uncoordinated and disconnected “continuum of care” that is little more than a rearrangement of what the County was doing before the Marbut report, but which allowed them to continue to draw down the state’s nice new homeless money.

“Furthermore,” Sangiacomo contined, “a number of HHSA partners appear to be acting independently without unified coordination to manage the increased needs of the unsheltered population. These well-intentioned efforts will likely (exacerbate) the issue and lead to more problems, including increased pressure on already-strained public safety resources.”

Translation: The police again will have to be the homeless service agency in lieu of the unccordinated agencies that are supposedly responsible.

“Without the proper plan and measures to address this issue, there is undoubtedly an increased risk to the homeless population of COVID-19 spread and, as such, our first responders (police and Fire/EMS) and heathcare resources are at significant risk. These issues require immediate attention and a coordinated county-wide effort.”

Sangiacomo said the Ukiah Fairgrounds might be a good location for a Ukiah Valley homeless camp of some kind, adding, “Hopefully this provides the county with a viable alternative to consider as you develop your sheltering plans and risk mitigation strategies to limit COVID-19 spread among our most vulnerable population in Mendocino County. Our team at the city is available to assist with other site identification needs if necessary.”

Coincidentally, or perhaps because of, Sangiacomo’s action, the Supervisors have an item on next Tuesday’s special board meeting agenda entitled “Discussion and Possible Action Including an Update Associated with the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), Including Possible Direction Regarding Essential Services in Mendocino County, Including Operational Preparation and Response, and an Update on County Continuity of Operations and Services. Recommended Action: Receive update regarding COVID-19, discuss and/or provide direction regarding essential services in Mendocino County, operational preparation and response, including the issues associated with protecting the health and safety of the public.”

While the agenda item does not specifically address a homeless plan, we gather from reading Supervisor Ted Williams nearly daily updates on facebook that homelessness is supposed to be included in the discussion.

There’s an “Incident Action Plan” drafted by Environmental Health Director Trey Strickland attached to Tuesday’a agenda which appears to be the County’s first attempt to set up teams for various aspects of the virus response. Our first reading of the Action Plan confirms Mr. Sangiacomo’s observations about being uncoordinated.

One of the teams is called “Access and Functional Needs/Care and Shelter-Homeless,” headed by Jesse VanVoorhis (a “program specialist” from the workforce development board in HHSA) and Brian Klovski (another low-level “program specialist” responsible for homelessness and housing), neither of whom we’ve heard of before. The seemingly overbroad list of assignments for this as-yet incomplete team include “Youth and Domestic Violence,” Seniors, Mental Health, Care & Shelter (Isolation), and Shelter Monitoring. But nobody’s assigned to some of those tasks as yet. Other assignments include keeping a list of encampments, development of a “plan” for opening shelters staffed by HHSA. a plan for an alternative housing facility, outreach to “high risk homeless individuals,” keeping track of skilled nursing facilities, support the County’s call center, educating “partnering” agencies, and compiling results.

At least the subject is listed and a few people are assigned to some of these tasks, but, as Mr. Sangiacomo indicates, this is far from where Mendo needs to be for the medium and long-term, much less the “immediate attention” that Sangiacomo calls for. Messrs Strickland, VanVoorhis and Klovski seem like they have been given a task beyond their abilities. They do not have the necessary seniority and management authority to pull together what Mr. Sangiacomo is calling for. Mendo has to staff this plan with a competent high-level manager and prioritize this “team” and its “assignments.” Otherwise, already overburdened cops and first responders will be stretched way beyond their limited capacity.

(photo by Larry Wagner)

ANDERSON VALLEY, a Brief History

by Elinor Clow

Anderson Valley was rather unique in northern California, for while it was bordered on the east by three Mexican land grants and on the west by two land grants, it had been overlooked. It only had to be discovered to be homesteaded and settled and it was the Walter Anderson family that discovered it.

In the Babcock Cemetery on the Mountain View Road there is a monument that reads in part, “Rhonda Couch, born in Kentucky, 1805; married Isaac Beeson, 1826; married Walter Anderson, 1840; Died, 1857. She is my Woman in History today, for she typifies the pioneer women who helped settle the west. She is Anderson Valley’s Pioneer Woman.

In the 1830s Isaac Beeson moved his family to Missouri. He died there, leaving Rhoda with three children. In 1840 she married a widower, Walter Anderson, at Boonville, Missouri. He had kids, she had kids and they had kids and they joined a wagon train bound for California in 1845. Her daughter, Martha, and his older children stayed behind, but Henry Beeson, 17, and Isaac, 16, and three of Walter’s children, made the journey with the two youngest ones. They reached Sacramento and were camping near Sutter’s Fort when their little daughter Rhoda was born; the first white child born in that area. Can you imagine traveling pregnant on that long journey!

They moved on to Sonoma, and then to Dry Creek near Healdsburg when young Henry was caught up in the excitement of the movement for California independence. He was the youngest member of the Bear Flag Party and a monument in the Babcock Cemetery recognizes him as the oldest and last survivor.

The family moved on to the Lower Lake area and it is recorded that Rhoda Anderson was the first woman settler in Lake County. In the fall of 1850 the young men were on a hunting trip into Sonoma County when they followed a wounded elk over the hills and came out at Burger Rock above the Forestry Station and saw this beautiful valley spread before them; perhaps the first white men to see it.

They went back with such glowing reports that in the spring of 1851 Walter Anderson brought his family to the valley which would be open to homesteading. They camped just west of the present airport and Ornbaun Road and were beginning to make logs for a cabin when the Indians came and made signs for them to get out. They hurried to get out and Rhoda was so frightened that she simply gathered her small children and left her spinning wheel behind.

They went back to Dry Creek and in 1852 returned to the valley. This time other families, names unknown, came with them. Walter and Rhoda led the way down into the valley, each riding horseback with a small child behind the saddle. Again they camped on the west side and built a cabin that stood for over 100 years on property much later owned by the Canerass’s. Mr. Anderson began raising cattle and pigs that had to be driven over the hills and down to Petaluma to market.

In 1852 J.D. Ball came from Wisconsin and settled near Con Creek. He is credited with planting the first apple orchard in the valley. Other settlers were coming in and sheep were introduced.

In 1854 the Prather-Burgess party was the first to settle in the mid-valley. When a settlement grew, Cornelius Prather was authorized to open a post office and he named it Philo for a cousin.

Several families came from Switzerland in 1855 and took up land near a great stand of redwoods at the lower and of the valley. John Gschwend built a mill and the house he built is still occupied by his great granddaughter, Esther Clark and her husband, Earl. His daughter, Christine, born in 1857, was the first white child born in the valley. When a post office was authorized for the little hamlet, it was named Christine. The Conrads were one of the families. Leila Rose Rohmer told me that her great-grandmother Conrad insisted on moving farther up the valley, for she was afraid the bears would eat her baby. They moved up to what would become the Schoenahl place near Anderson Creek Bridge.

Also in 1857 the Ingrams came and settled near the Prathers. And in 1857 Rhoda Anderson died. The valley was getting a little too crowded for Mr. Anderson. He sold out to Joseph Rawles and may have taken his family back to Dry Creek. But Henry Beeson stayed. He had acquired his own property and his mother, Rhoda was buried on his land. Our member Ruby Hulbert and her family are descendants of Rhoda Anderson.

A settlement called “The Corners” was growing up around the place where the byways to Ukiah, Cloverdale and Point Arena intersected. There was a general store and a blacksmith shop and in the 1860’s a Mr. Levi and Mr. Straus made the first Levis there. A Mr. Kendall built a hotel about a mile north and their store was moved there. After Mr. W.W. Boone took over Kendall City became Boonville. There was some objection to a saloon being built there, but the proprietor said he was going to build it anyhow and that is what it was, the “Anyhow Saloon.”

The Valley grew like so many rural areas, with one room district schools, churches and farms. The Methodists held meetings in homes until the present Boonville church was built in 1878. About that time the Boonville Hotel was built and one of its early guests was Frank James, who was hiding out there after he and his brother, Jesse, had failed in the Northfield Bank robbery.

In 1904 a shingle mill was built at the deep end of the valley and it became a lumber mill where the bustling mill town Wendling was laid out. When the mill became the Navarro Lumber Company, the town’s name officially became Navarro.

In 1906 Jack London and his wife, Charmian, made a horseback trip through the Valley, gathering background material for a book.

In 1923 there was an important change in Anderson Valley. A fine new Union High School replaced the cluster of cabins that had served since the high school was started in 1913. It immediately became a community center. The high school principal’s wife, Jeanette Hendricks organized the Unity Club. It was the first organization that brought women from out at Yorkville and through the Valley to Navarro together in one activity. This year the Unity Club is celebrating 70 years in Federation.

---

Elinor Clow’s son Norm Clow notes:

I think a dedication to my dad is in perfect order, as my mom evidently had in mind. As many of you might know, my mother was almost entirely blind for most of her adult life, and my dad willingly acted as her eyes for over 50 years, the result being that he gave up a lot of his own life to that end. For this project, as for many others, he was also her loyal narrater, proof-reader, collater, chauffeur, recording secretary, and finder of all mis-placed items. Not bad for a man often more comfortable on a horse, training a young sheep dog, making applesauce, playing with his grandkids, or listening to a Giants baseball game on the radio.

My mom was an amazing historian who combined her education in history at the University of California at Berkeley with her natural talent for research, writing and teaching to make a valuable contribution to local history preservation, and who never let little things like lack of eyesight stop her from living her life to the fullest extent possible.

My sister Janice Miller joins me in thanking Mary Darling and all the others who helped bring this book to fruition, and agrees that if Mother were to write a dedication, it would probably go something like this: ‘To my husband Bub, who gave up so much of his life so that I might live mine.’ ”

ARKANSAS TRAVELER

On Thursday, March 26, at approximately 12:56 pm, Ukiah Police officers were dispatched to the 1000 block of South State Street for a report of two transient male adults that were currently involved a verbal argument in that vicinity.

While en route, UPD Dispatch informed officers that the argument had turned physical and one of the subjects was now walking southbound on the 1000 block of South State Street and bleeding from his face.

UPD officers arrived on scene and made contact with a 30-year-old male adult transient who had multiple stab wounds to his face. UPD officers immediately began providing first aid to the victim and requested an ambulance respond to the location.

The victim was transported to Adventist Health Ukiah Valley (AHUV) for medical treatment. The stab wounds were not life-threatening.

Additional UPD officers arrived on scene and were directed to a male adult who was walking in the 100 block of Observatory Avenue. UPD officers were informed by bystanders that the male adult was responsible for the stabbing.

UPD officers detained a male adult who was identified as 28-year-old Brett Marshall Barnes, a transient from Arkansas.

Barnes was interviewed and admitted to stabbing the victim in the face during a physical altercation. The knife used in the incident was recovered near Barnes’ belongings.

Barnes was subsequently placed under arrest for Assault with a deadly weapon, and transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he was booked and lodged. Barnes remains in custody with a bail of $30,000.

As always our mission at the Ukiah Police Department is to make Ukiah as safe as possible.

Additionally, the Ukiah Police Department would like to thank the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department for their assistance with this incident."

(Ukiah Police Presser)

APPLYING FOR BENEFITS UNDER SHELTER IN PLACE CONDITIONS/CLOSED OFFICES

While walk-in eligibility and employment services have been suspended for now, residents can still apply for benefits through C4Yourself.com, GetCalFresh.org, and CoveredCA.com. All of these application websites allow for the uploading of documents as well. CalWORKs and CalFresh applications are screened for immediate need or expedited service and all necessary interviews can be conducted via telephone. Customers who have opted in to the Interactive Voice Response system can access program specific information by calling the 1-877-410-8819 phone number.

To request an EBT Card replacement, or to report a card as lost or stolen, call your worker directly or call the toll free number at 1-877-328-9677. Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and Medi-Cal Beneficiary Identification Cards (BICs) will all be sent through the mail.

For questions regarding benefits, or to request a paper application to be mailed to you, call our Fort Bragg office at 1-877-327-1677 or the Ukiah office at 1-877-327-1711.

(HHSA Presser)

‘TWO-TONED’

(photo by Harvey Reading)

STAY AT HOME ORDERS AFFECT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS

While the stay at home orders are affecting all Americans in a variety of ways including devastating unemployment and business closures, it is especially troublesome for people living with domestic violence. Many spouses and children get their only relief from abuse at school or at work. Now these victims find themselves stuck at home with their abuser.

Our local domestic violence experts at Project Sanctuary are well aware of this problem and have issued the following information for people living with domestic abuse:

How abusers can use COVID-19 against survivors

• Abusers will likely exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to their own advantage. It’s another opportunity for an abusive partner to control their partner.

• Survivors should be aware that abusers may….

• Manipulate survivors into believing there are no resources available for them or that police or paramedics won’t respond to their calls.

• Try to tell survivors that the abuser is infected, that they’ve infected the survivor, and if the survivor leaves them, they’ll put others at risk (a way to trap them at home).

• Forbid the survivor from seeing friends or family because of the risk.

• Downplay the risk and force the survivor to leave the house, or threaten to kick them out and expose them to the virus.

Plowshares also has advice for safety planning for a quarantine. They recommend:

• Coming up with a plan of what you can do will take away some of the anxiety about the unknown. If you’re afraid of being trapped in a home with an abusive partner, walk through the possible scenarios and decide ahead of time what your response will be.

• Call the Project Sanctuary crisis line to talk to a counselor about developing a safety plan. 463-4357 or 964-4357. There is also info on their webpage at… https://www.projectsanctuary.org/s…/my-personal-safety-plan/

Right now due to the public health emergency related to Covid 19, Project Sanctuary is suspending in-person services as much as possible and asking people to call the crisis line instead of coming to counseling centers. If you’re on the coast call 964-HELP (4357), and for the inland area call 463-HELP (4357).

(K.C. Meadows, Editor, Ukiah Daily Journal. Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal.)

CATCH OF THE DAY, March 28, 2020

HARLEY COLVARD, Chico/Ukiah. Battery, petty theft, getting credit with someone else’s ID, felon-addict with firearm, evasion.

RICHARD HAMBLET, Ukiah. Protective order violation.

JAY HIRE, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

ISMAEL MARTINEZ, Fort Bragg. Community supervision violation.

JENNIFER MCLARTY, Willits. Domestic abuse.

JAMES PELLEGRINE, Crescent City/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, controlled substance.

NOTES FROM THE PLAGUE

by Gib Appell

March 28, 2020 — The NY Times, even in the best of times, presents a picture of New York barely recognizable to the majority of its residents. In a state of emergency their reporting resembles local reality even less. In response, I wanted to give AVA readers a street-level view of life at the COVID-19 epicenter so that they can compare, and perhaps prepare for, their own experience.

For starters, it was strange to see people wearing respirators on the Times front page every day, when on the street it was an extreme rarity. In the past two weeks, that has changed; face masks are now common, though still by no means de rigueur. But the photos of empty streets and boarded-up storefronts present a similarly slanted portrait, playing up public fears.

Sure, there is plenty to worry about. But even in a city ostensibly on lockdown, life goes on. A million New Yorkers may have fled—or so it seems from the number of darkened windows in the wealthier neighborhoods—and another million are following a strict home quarantine. That still leaves a lot of folks to fill the streets, especially with schools shuttered and a large number of people out of work.

“Unessential” businesses are supposed to close, yet what that includes is vague. Smoke-and-vape shops are bucking the edict, as are liquor stores. Bodegas and newsstands are making steady sales, and so are a sprinkling of juice joints and cafes. A nice surprise is that many bike shops and hardware stores have stayed open too.

The amount of business and bustle varies widely by neighborhood. Brighton Beach is thriving, with booksellers hawking Russian tomes on the sidewalk and nail salons crowded with customers. No social distancing in evidence. In comparison, Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side are like graveyards—though the graveyards themselves are full of people exercising and reflecting on their own mortality.

The sidewalks of Park Slope are lined with people, but they’re all members waiting to get into the Food Co-op, queuing up for as long as two hours in the rain. I witnessed a Beatles sing-along on a brownstone stoop. As for Prospect Park, I’ve never seen it more packed.

In Union Square the chess players are still set up at their rickety tables, ready to take your money. Until this week, the hot dog stands were also doing a brisk business. Each day, one fixture disappears from the landscape as the death toll climbs and the virus closes in. Today the fruit vendors on the corner were gone, though they’d been replaced by an impromptu boxing ring.

In fact, closing the gyms seems to have affected public life more profoundly than any other shut-down, since this is such a fitness-obsessed town. Even a plague won’t keep New Yorkers from their daily workout. Now, instead of spinning class, they’re riding real bikes. Instead of a treadmill, they’re running down the middle of the street.

Me too. On Broadway today I got passed by a longboarder with a massive afro wearing only boxer shorts and pink gloves. The smile on his face said, “My day has arrived.” A disaster brings out all types, and all shades of reaction, from apocalyptic paranoia to peace of mind. My control freak friends say they’ve never felt so relieved; everything is out of their constantly-washed hands.

Cabs are scarce, but the busses and subways are still running steadily—perhaps even more steadily than usual—and both are free. The bus drivers stopped collecting fares, and no one will chase you if you hop the turnstile for the train. Choosing where to board, however, has never carried so much weight. It’s crucial to find a seat where it’s not too crowded, yet a seemingly empty subway car is something to avoid at all costs. A decomposing human wreck is often hidden inside—the type of “walking wounded” the AVA editors would like to place in a state hospital. I wouldn’t mind the MTA designating special sleeping car sanitariums until they find a vaccine.

There’s always speculation about cockroaches surviving an apocalypse, but a surprising survivor here is the subway musician, if you’ll pardon the comparison. The plague is in full swing, yet the saxophonists and folksingers are still at the station platforms playing their plaintive tunes. The incense seller is still set up, too, in the tunnel between the 2 and L trains, though the place looks like the Black Hole of Calcutta, with bodies lining both sides. The passage is enough to make even the most devoted city dweller doubt the choices they’ve made.

And yet, it’s the way that life here refuses to be stopped that warms my heart and gives me hope.

ASSIGNMENT: UKIAH - LEADING US OVER A CLIFF

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

So that was March Madness, huh? Somehow I thought it would be more fun.

This whole Coronavirus thing seems like one big dismal top-down exercise in controlling the population even if we’ll all be broke, homeless and unemployed when it’s over. Like a rehearsal for Socialism.

Remember that old slogan about how we’re all just one missed paycheck away from being homeless? We’re about to put it to the test.

I have friends who own small shops in Ukiah and live just fine and happy, even if it’s paycheck-to-paycheck. Now politicians who run things, and sure don’t live paycheck to paycheck, tell local businesses to turn off the lights, lock the doors and go bankrupt. Local restaurants too, except for Plowshares.

Raise your hand if you think Ukiah’s homeless population is the most likely group to spread COVID 19 through town. Because they’re all mingling and sneezing together at Plowshares, that’s why.

Yet the wizards in charge shut down The Broiler and El Azteca, because it just seems like a good idea. Our city and county bosses haven’t a thing to worry about when it comes to not going to work, not getting paid, and not worrying about not paying the rent. They’re public trough lifers, fat and secure, knowing the tax-funded champagne spigot will never run dry.

But relax. No worries. You and I will benefit from the “shelter-under-your-bed” program in other ways:

• We can now park our car weeks at a time, free, at the Ukiah Movie Theater.

• Sitting home all day means no one will burglarize our house.

• The Giants will go undefeated through April, maybe longer. If you’d visited your bookie six weeks ago and wagered $50 you’d have made enough money to offset the stock market losses you suffered in the last half hour.

• Your wife no longer complains because you spend afternoons at the Forest Club, another Ukiah business headed for oblivion.

• We all have enough toilet paper to last until October, cans of Spam to leave to our grandchildren.

• Old stupid people who can’t operate a computer machine will learn quickly once it’s the only way we can shop. Unintended consequence? If bookstores and clothing shops ever reopen, one more customer demographic will have vanished.

• The habit of hugging people for no reason will disappear.

Thinning the herd

Suppose the pandemic accelerates. Who says a few more deaths, assuming no fresh corpses are yours, mine or our loved ones, are a tragedy?

Diseases and disasters target certain demographics. Women get more breast cancer, and Sickle Cell Anemia disproportionately affects Blacks. AIDS harvests gays in unequal numbers. Heart attacks strike the overweight. Smokers suffer more lung cancer. The physically fit are more likely to get ALS than others. Old people are more likely to die of old age.

I can easily imagine a a disease knocking off more farmers than bankers, or vice-versa. Who would be astonished to learn a plague killed more tofu eaters than beer drinkers, or wiped out all the anti-vaxers yet spared radio disc jockeys?

Suppose the COVID-19 virus were to hunt down victims from population segments we can’t predict but that we might not strenuously object to see downsized?

You tell me: Should we spend trillions of dollars developing a vaccine to prolong the lives of at-risk motorcycle gang members? If the virus were to disproportionately strike therapists, Islamic terrorists, yoga practitioners, community activists, hedge fund managers, astrologers or Hollywood celebrities would any reasonable person object?

If, for mysterious reasons, the illness swept the halls of Congress who would weep, other than a few editorial writers?

Step up, county!

A month ago, in a spasm of misguided compassion and teary-eyed remorse, Mendocino County launched a reparations plan for drug dealers, drug users, drug transporters, etc., who were supposedly harmed by the national war on drugs.

Well now.

If the county has so much extra money it can sprinkle it over a mostly undeserving criminal class, how about another fat share of excess cash going to legitimate businesses adversely affected by the C-words?

Give money, and lots of it, to taco truck operators, book store employees and house painters. Make generous reparations to waitresses, short order cooks, small business owners and others who for decades have been paying taxes, funding welfare and unemployment services, and obeying the law. Mendocino County plans hefty payouts to criminals who’ve gotten rich in the drug trade while paying zero taxes and absorbing public benefits.

This only makes sense to people who believe allowing citizens to dine at Roundtable Pizza is a danger to the public, but keeping Plowshares open is an act of compassion.

(Tom Hine bets all you survivalists who’ve been storing bins of pemmican and hardtack since 1987 must be feeling pretty smug these days. TWK has two days’ worth of Chef Boyardee products hidden away in the garage.)

AMERICAN GOTHIC 2020

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Saturday night Commendations and Condemnations

Well, it's been an interesting few days here on the listserv. I've been sitting back watching some of the back and forth. Mostly with amusement. Sometimes amazement. And sometimes gratitude.

We'll start with the the negatives:

There seem to be several civic-minded folks out there who are convinced that some randomized group or groupings of urbanized zombies have escaped the various Bay-Area counties, and have made their way like scurrying rats off of doomed ship up here to our fair and pastoral county. And now are holed up at various inns and hotels hereabouts. The Beachcomber is a name I have read on this list.

I have a couple of points:

This old cowboy makes pretty regular trips down that way, and I can tell you from personal observation that there are no such cars in those lots, nor zombies wandering about.

I've heard a number of suggestions floated as on the list as to how to handle these nonexistent Urban Invaders.

Maybe y'all can form up a citizen's posse like they did back in Nebraska. You remember, back in 1918?

Or perhaps y'all can form up a citizens vigilante group and post up on the access roads and bridges into the county just like those "lawmen" did down in New Orleans during Katrina.

Perhaps we ought to just let the authorities handle these situations. As they seem to be doing.

That's what I learned from the old buzzards out on the ranch. You know. Back in the day.

In fact what we got here, and across the entire State of California - including the Bay area counties - are two things: there's a stay-in-place order in effect, and a shelter-in-place order. Both orders prohibit rental of hotel rooms or short-term rentals except under emergency conditions.

Now, for my commendations section of my little report:

First, to all essential service workers who are still on the job and on post making it possible for the rest of us to get our supplies.

Second, for people that put up useful information on this list, including Miss Notty for her excellent reference to the Atlantic article. That article is well-written, well-sourced, and well-researched. It is sobering. And I was already sober when I read it.

It's funny in a way that at least one person on this list found some sort of conspiratorial angle to try to attack the Atlantic piece. This person seems to be under the impression that the ghost of Steve Jobs owns the magazine now. If true, it's news to me.

If there's one thing I've learned in my years working on the ranch and as a cowhand, it's that certain men and women can be counted on in a pressure situation. And others can be counted on to fold set up their tents and panic under those very same conditions.

An even older cowhand than me used to say: "When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream & shout."

Some folks just can't handle much pressure at all. They lash out at animals and people around them. These people tend to be hacks and hatchet men.

Out in the field you learn not to rely on these kinds of folks. It's funny how much, and how quickly you learn about people when they're under pressure.

The good and the bad. And the ugly.

Have a happy Saturday night everybody.

— ‘Calpella Cowboy’

CALIFORNIA IS SCRAMBLING TO HOUSE THE HOMELESS. Here’s how it’s playing out.

With shelters reporting that some residents show symptoms of coronavirus infection, and with public health authorities worried about outbreaks in tent camps, state officials are confronting questions of how to speed up help as much as possible.

calmatters.org/health/coronavirus/2020/03/california-coronavirus-covid19-homeless-gavin-newsom/

FAUCI'S A JELLY GOOD FELLOW: New York donut shop honors coronavirus doctor

theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/28/coronavirus-new-york-dr-anthony-fauci

CANNABIS & COCKTAILS AMID CORONAVIRUS? STATE SAYS CARRY ON.

There may be a coronavirus pandemic, but California is making it easier than ever for housebound and anxious residents to get buzzed.

calmatters.org/health/2020/03/california-coronavirus-cannabis-alcohol-restaurants-essential/

ARE WE IN A DROUGHT?

by Jim Shields

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor this week, approximately 75% of California’s land mass is experiencing very dry conditions, ranging from abnormally dry (34.72%) to moderate drought (39.12%) to severe drought (1.2%). Mendocino County is designated as abnormally dry with rainfall totals under 50% of historic averages. With March nearly at end, there will be no “miracle” late season storms to fill rain guages.

Is California is looking at a return to the bone-dry conditions that occurred during the state’s historic drought from 2011 to 2017 when mandatory water cuts were implemented statewide?

Keep in mind that “moderate drought” is the mildest of the five categories that the U.S. Drought Monitor uses to classify drought conditions in their weekly report.

By comparison, exactly one year ago, only 6.58% of California was classified as “abnormally dry.” That was it, no area of the state was found to be in any kind of a drought.

Back in the middle of 2011-2017 drought, categorically 98% of the state was in at least a moderate drought, and 40% was in exceptional drought, the most severe of the Monitor’s five categories.

But that was then and this is now.

What we can say is that as we move into the state’s 6-month dry season, our mostly rainless rain season has reintroduced the prospect of drought into Calfifornia. Most experts agree that California had its worst drought in at least 1,200 years during the 2011-2017 drought.

As discussed here recently, the culprit to this year’s parched winter was a high-pressure system stalled over the Pacific that blocked storms before they could land inland, diverting them north and south and missing most of the state. This storm diverter was what helped cause the 2011-17 drought.

So what are the odds of another drought following so closely on the heels of an epoch dry spell?

According to modeling done by the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis, there’s around an 80 percent chance the state will enter a full-blown drought this year.

If that happens, it could be the third-driest year in over a century, says a report by Capradio. But experts say it’s too early to panic — they say a second year of drought is where things get dicey.

“The first year of a drought is really mostly a wake-up call,” said Jay Lund, the U.C. Davis center’s director. “It will be prudent, if this turns out to be a dry year, for us to prepare for it to be a longer drought.”

But Lund says to not overlook that California’s climate is variable. Droughts are normal, but with climate change they’re intensifying — as the state saw during the previous drought from 2011 to 2017

But some climatologists, like UCLA’s Daniel Swain, says “models are unfortunately painting a continued drier-than-average picture for spring 2020.”

“We didn’t quite get the results we had hoped for and we will most likely end this year below average,” said Sean de Guzman, chief of snow surveys and water forecasting section of the California Department of Water Resources at the Feb 27 snow survey.

But State Climatologist Mike Anderson said there’s a glimmer of hope in that reservoir levels statewide are around 104 percent of average for this time of year.

He also says what’s looking to be a drier-than-average water year is in part attributable to a late start to the rain and snow season, around Thanksgiving; a below-average January; and the record dry February.

That means California is 70 percent abnormally dry, and about a quarter of the state is undergoing drought conditions, according to David Miskus, a NOAA meteorologist who wrote the latest U.S. Drought Monitor.

He says during the past two months “less than 25% of normal precipitation had fallen on much of California and western Nevada, creating deficits of snow exceeding a foot in parts of the Sierra Nevada, and 4-8 inches along the coast.”

According to Lund, the scarcity of rain and snow means that fires could ignite sooner in the fire season.

“There will be impacts to the forest, maybe some disease outbreaks, wildfires quite likely and more problems for fish and waterfowl because of this,” Lund said.

On CalFire’s “incident page”, it echos Lund’s concern about this weather pattern could result in a grass fire season in the foothills starting before the typical fire season, and offshore wind events could increase the possibility of fires in Southern California.

It should be an interesting summer as potentially we could be dealing with several unknowns: the COVID-19 virus, a nascent drought, and wildfires once again on the landscape.

Oh well, no one ever said life was trouble-free.

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, and is also the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org.)

A RUNNER’S DREAM WEEKEND IN… UKIAH?

by Jim Gibbons

The inaugural 1985 Penofin 10K was called “a runners dream weekend in Ukiah” by a local writer, mostly because locals could run in the same race as the world-class elites that came for the $45,000 prize money. Race founder John Mayginnes called it The Performance Coatings Running Festival.

Mayginnes, President and Founder of Performance Coatings Inc., put up an additional $25,000 for the Sub-4 Invitational Road Mile that took place Saturday at four in the afternoon, which just happened to be nearly 100-degrees at the start. The runners, led by British Olympian Steve Ovett (3:55.1), didn’t seem that bothered, as the first six finishers broke the 4-minute mile barrier, a first not just for Ukiah, but California as well.

The festival also included a Runner’s Expo, featuring wine tasting from 25 wineries in Mendocino County, coffee tasting, and other “product representation booths” at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds in Ukiah Then there was the Sponsors Banquet Saturday night, which included the Mile Awards Ceremony.

I took my boys to the banquet and got to sit near the front with John Mayginnis and his wife Barbara, Jerry Drew and his wife Rita, and a few of the elite runners. My boys got both Steve Ovett’s and Sebastion Coe’s autograph, although they didn’t really know who they were until I clued them in. Seb Coe, by the way, was only there as a Nike rep, and didn’t race, although he still held the world record in both the 1500 and the 800.

The real disappointment was that neither John Walker nor Steve Scott, the best in the USA, showed up. Walker at least called Mayginnis with an excuse, whereas Scott, of San Diego, didn’t even bother to call. Turned out that both Scott and Walker were competitive running buddies who were both approaching their 100th sub-4-minute mile, and apparently didn’t want to be distracted by other world class runners.

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but it happened and was a huge success, with the TAC (The Athletic Congress) designating it the National TAC Championship 10K the following year, although they dropped the elite Sub-4 Invitational mile in ’86, concentrating on the 10K. John had so many incentives (money) for fast times in every age-division that it was ranked 10th in the world by Runner Magazine for the size of the purse.

I met John and his wife Barbara at a local race sometime in the early 80s, and he did mentioned that he wanted to put on a race, but I didn’t ask him about it because I already was race director for both the Fourth of July Family Footrace and the Willits Classic, and didn’t want to get sucked into more charity work.

Anyhow, Drew was a house painter and worked out a deal where he could buy their Penofin products at a discount by going directly over to the factory on Lake Mendocino Drive, just east of State Street, north of Ukiah.

Penofin is a Performance Coatings Inc. product that according to Mayginnis, the Chief Executive Officer, is “The fastest growing natural wood finish company in the country. In just three years it has become a leader in innovating new technology in architectural coatings for wood.”

Prize Money

The early ‘80s were tumultuous times for the sport of Road Racing. In ’81 the Cascade Run Off 15K up in Portland, Oregon offered prize money openly, in defiance of outdated international eligibility rules.

As a result, a document called a TACTrust account was devised as a way that elite runners could deposit their winnings, only to use that money for approved training and living expenses, if they wanted to retain their international eligibility.

I won my first prize money by placing third in the Pacific Association Championship 8K. I didn’t have to register because I ran for the Tamalpa Runners out of Marin County, a TAC registered organization. I was suddenly one of the top master runners in Northern California, winning many local races, and usually placing third in the over 40 age group (masters) in the more competitive PAC races.

I was so excited I ended up running 22 races in the last half of 1984, including the Boonville Beer Run, a PR in both the Humboldt Redwood Half Marathon (1:12), and the Cal International Marathon (2:36)

In 1986 the inaugural Pacific Association TAC Championships were held, which included ten events, every distance from a road mile in Sacramento to the final race in December, the California International Marathon.

That year I ran in 8 of the 10 distances, but just as in my individual races, I found myself going into the last event, the aforementioned Cal International Marathon, fighting for third place. Three weeks before the December marathon, Sal Vasquez had broken the national age-group record in the Clarksburg 30-kilometer (18.6 miles) with an incredible 1:39, ten minutes faster than my time. That, by the way, is a few seconds under a 5:20 mile pace!

I knew I had to beat Sal in the Marathon to finish second, but that seemed impossible. Yet, if I just ran in the top five I would get the $250 third place. So I didn’t want to go out too fast, but just hold on to a comfortable 6-minute mile pace.

As I approached the 25-mile mark I saw someone walking up ahead. Sure enough, it was Sal. He went out too fast and hit the wall. As I strode by him I said, “Tough luck, Sal,” and suddenly got a second wind to the finish line for third place and $500.

By the way, the 2nd annual Penofin 10K was not included in the ten races that year, but was designated as a National TAC 10k Championship race, and was chosen by The Runner and Runner’s World as One of the Top Road Races in the World!

---

1985 Official Mile Results Top Ten

Place Name and Country Time Prize Money

1st Steve Ovett, Great Britain 3:55.13 $10,000

2nd Frank O’Meara, Ireland 3:55.60 $7,000

3rd Ross Donoghu, USA 3:55.94 $5,000

4th Ray Flynn, Ireland 3:57.42 $2,000

5th Peter Elliott. Great Britain 3:58.00 $1,000

6th Kevin Ryan, USA 3:59.81

7th Mike Boit, Kenya 4:00.07

8th Juma Aden, Somalia 4:04.81

9th Tom Smith, USA 4:05:32

10th Mike Wyatt, USA 4:05:83

1985 Official Men’s 10K Results Top Ten

Place Name and Country Time Prize Money

1st Gadamis Shahanga, Tanzania 28:30 $7,000

2nd Steve McCormack, USA 28:31 $3,000

3rd Ed Eyestone, USA 28:32 $1,500

4th John Sinclair, USA 28:35 $1,250

5th Mark Curp, USA 28:36 $1,000

6th Ibrahim Hussein, Kenya 28:39 $7,500

7th Donald Janicki, USA 28:49 $5,00

8th George Malley, USA 28:55 $300

9th Jim Hill, USA 29:12 $200

10th David Lewis, Great Britain 29:15 $100

1985 Official Women’s 10K Results Top Ten

1st Lynn Williams, Canada 32:21 $7,000

2nd Rosa Mota, Portugal 32:43 $3,000

3rd Lorraine Moller, New Zealand 33:22 $1,500

4th Diane Rodger, New Zealand 33:26 $1,250

5th Betty Springs, USA 33:28 $1,000

6th Ann Audain, New Zealand 33:30 $750

7th Brenda Webb, USA 34:22 $500

8th Regina Joyce, Ireland 34:23 $300

9th Robyn Root, USA 34:26 $200

10th Glenys Quick, New Zealand 34:27 $150

---

POSTSCRIPT: Sorry, but I don’t have the 1985 10K race results, except for the elite prize money winners, but if anyone out there has them, especially local finishers, I’d love to include them in my next book.

CONGRATS, JERRY

Letter to the Editor

Congrats to Jerry Philbrick for digesting his general dyspepsia down to his shortest, least repetitive, least waste of space letter ever. Good for you, bud, keep on editing! Also noted is his request to a Mr. Deshield to get to work on the road.

Assuming this gentleman is a county guy, you’re asking him to use socialist tax dollars extorted by the Ukiah liberals to drop what they are doing and repair this low traffic byway pronto. Whatever happened to the spirit of independence that built this country? Where is the gumption, the drive, the get up and go that made America globally admired? Where is the determined, rock ribbed republican ethic of self reliance? Why, Jer old boy, are you waiting for communists to fix the road? Stand up proudly!

Assert your self respect! Fix the road yourself! You can do it, I say with all authority, because I have done it! Yes, it’s true, Philbrick, you can actually Take Responsibility Without Asking Anyone For Permission!

Here’s the thing, pal. See those monster pot holes? Well, get off your whiny complaining ass, stop expecting government to do everything, and Get To Work! Got a loader in your barn? Doesn’t look like it’s been used much lately, right? Crank it up and drive it down the road until you find a minor rock slide, scoop up the rock and dump it in the hole! Isn’t that better than painting circles?

Then, see all that encroaching brush? Get your rusty tractor out, bolt a cutter to the PTO, and whack it yourself! Doesn’t that make you feel great? Attaboy, you took care of business without any need of the goddam government! Isn’t that what you want?

But here’s the best part, old timer. You remember the old times! People will drive by and say to you, Jerry, what the hell are you doing? Isn’t the county supposed to do that? And, your chest swelling with pride, you reply, Goddam county commies can’t do a damn thing right so I’m doing it myself!

And they will say, Philbrick! You’re right! You’re what neighborliness is all about! Thanks, Jerry! Thanks a million! I wish there were more like you!

But wait, there’s more! Next thing you’ll find is that others will be inspired by you! They will also take it upon themselves to fill potholes and cut brush and fix up other stuff they find annoying. And when all is said and done and all your neighbors are leaning on their tractors and loaders and drinking well earned afternoon beers, they will unanimously praise you, they will all say Good for you Jerry Philbrick, you’re a real man and a Great American! You’ll pop the buttons off your shirt with well earned All American Pride!

So with all respect I suggest to you that you quit sniveling and get to work. If I did it, you sure as hell can too.

Jay Williamson

Santa Rosa

HART FAMILY MURDER-SUICIDE REVISITED IN NEW DOCUMENTARY

New documentary examines family's murder-suicide on the Mendocino Coast

eonline.com/news/1135029/the-hart-family-murder-suicide-is-explored-in-chilling-documentary-trailer

STILL THE MATTER OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Heroes and Patriots returns to the airwaves, Thursday, April 2, 2020, KMUD Community Radio: kmud.org

Two prominent guests join host, Mary Massey to speak on the proliferation of nuclear weapons and what we, as concerned individuals can offer in the fight.

Alice Slater is the New York Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War.

Ira Helfand, MD is co-chair of PSR’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee and also serves as co-president of PSR’s global federation, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)

The program streams live on KMUD on April 2, beginning at 9 a.m. PST. Archives of this and all programs can be found at KMUD Community Radio and the program website.

Please join us!

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.HEROESPATRIOTS.ORG

Heroes and Patriots is a program about national security, intelligence and foreign policy. The show is streamed live the first Thursday of each month, 9-10 a.m. at KMUD.ORG

DON'T NEED IT

Editor:

I would like Donald Trump to know that I do not want him wasting time or resources to give me $1,200. I am comfortably retired and want the money spent on virus testing kits, protective wear for our medical workers and first responders, ventilators, emergency medical stations for coronavirus testing and treatment.

If this inane idea moves forward, I promise to give my $1,200 to a single parent who needs the cash because she couldn’t work.

What a disastrous time to have such poor leadership for our country. May we as citizens do what we can to keep each other safe as we listen to reasonable state and county leaders. Be kind and be careful.

Bobbie Johanson

Sebastopol

FOUND OBJECT