Letters (January 20, 2021)

• Why The Slow Rollout?
• Geezers First!
• No More F-150s
• Butts Begone
• What's The Deal, Camille?
• Who's Responsible Here?
• Treason
• Better Vaccination Info
• Not BLM
• Tax The Money
• What’s The Point, TWK?

WHY THE SLOW ROLLOUT?

Editor,

I would like to respond to those who have expressed their unhappiness regarding the slow progress of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, and outrage that potential problems were not addressed ahead of time.

Which vaccine should they have prepared for? The one that has to be stored in dry ice, or the ones that don’t? The one that has to be administered twice to be fully effective, or the one for which you only need one injection? The one that has four doses in a vial, or the one that has one dose per vial?

The process of developing a vaccine is as complicated and unpredictable as this virus has been, and it is a miracle that we even have effective vaccines at this point.

But if you want to play the blame game, start with the totally inept federal bureaucracy whose strategy was to turn all logistic planning over to the states, and the president who declared war on the virus — and then surrendered.

Joel Wiener

San Carlos

GEEZERS FIRST!

Editor: 

We must simplify the COVID vaccine distribution plan. Endless lobbying by interest groups and confusion will reign otherwise. UCSF and other health experts are suggesting that we acknowledge who is dying in our hospitals, and vaccinate accordingly, following this current phase of vaccinating health care workers.

Since more than 80% of the deaths are seniors, counties should make plans to start vaccinating all residents over the age of 55, oldest first. While few people carry papers stating why their medical conditions or jobs should place them first, most every adult has identification indicating their age.

We simply don’t have the luxury of time to haggle over the importance of job categories.

This is wildfire management in the middle of the century’s worst conflagration. It’s imperative that we find a way to keep our hospitals available for all emergencies, lower the death rate and get our economy back.

For those arguing that younger essential workers receive the vaccine first, it isn’t yet proven that vaccines eliminate transmission; in other words, a vaccinated essential worker could still spread the disease asymptomatically. The emphasis therefore should be on preventing preventable deaths — and those are overwhelmingly occurring in our senior population.

Terry Leach

Healdsburg

NO MORE F-150s

Editor,

Do you think that Marques, the local director of the Friends of the Joe Biden administration has inexhaustible patience? This is not Carmelville. It's the big time. He wants to see some movement. District Of Columbia and Puerto Rico are packing their bags ready to join Hawley and Cruz. Hola a todos que paso, si, nosotros tenemos. Pero en estados unios es mucho mas grande. Legislation to get around Citizens United. Identify your enemy. It's the white trash. Send some money for Jerry Brown’s train. It's possible for national elections to be decided by popular vote. Let's get started on it. See to it that all Negro schoolchildren are ready for college which will solve several problems. Identify the major players in the bad boys of climate change and shut them down. No more coal in the Christmas stocking. No more F-150s. I guess the Republicans can take their kneepads off now. They were lucky they didn't have to drink the kool-aid. Maybe some money will be sent to develop Hale’s Grove. A great future if they can attract the county seat. Then in about five years the state capitol. Give the Biden boosters six months to act like they are alive or we’ll have to switch over to a monarchy for a while and I have just the right dude for King: Michael Bloomberg! Mike will get ’er done. We will need a Queen. Mike walked into a bar. He asked four women if they wanted to do the sexual intercourse thing with him. Three said no, but one said yes! We have a queen!

When I sent you a list of authors I forgot to list John Steinbeck and David McCullough. How in hell could I forget Steinbeck? How could I forget Susy getting off the bus, asking if she could leave her suitcase in a restaurant and then walk down the hill to the Bear Flag Whorehouse and ask if she could join the staff? Eventually Susy moved into an abandoned boiler left in a vacant lot (Sweet Thursday.). How could I forget the three bums who discovered an abandoned shack and moved in? Any money they could get their hands on was spent on a gallon jug of red wine. One bum got up early in the morning and cut kindling wood and sold it for a quarter. As he didn't seem to be spending any quarters, the other two bums figured he must be hiding it. They were determined to find it. (Tortilla flat.) A man was trying to buy is two little boys some candy at a roadside diner in Arizona but was one cent short. Two families in one boxcar was the limit. (Grapes of Wrath.) Anybody who hasn't read Steinbeck has missed an American writer without peer, just as Mozart's slow movement in the piano concerto is lovely music without fear.

If it weren't for David McCullough I would never have learned about the Johnstown flood. The building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the "Path Between the Seas," the Panama Canal. There must have been a reason I sent you a list of authors. I thought some AVA readers might see the list and send you their own lists of favorite authors. No, no. I have also pimped for book readers in the past and failed to find anyone interested. I have an idea that AVA readers must be a combination of aging hippies and old women. Now that statement might stir up some feathers.

Ralph Bostrom

Willits

BUTTS BEGONE

Editor: 

Need a meaningful New Year’s resolution and way to beat the COVID-blues with exercise? Help protect marine critters by patrolling Fort Bragg’s sidewalks, gutters and drains for cigarette butts and other junk.

Begone Butts is a newly-formed volunteer group that walks our curbs and sidewalks to remove butts and other harmful litter like plastic straws, floss pics, colored plastic caps, facemasks, etc. With the rainy season, these float down the gutter and into our street drains, directly to the ocean. All the City has done is place silly metal medallions at each gutter drain telling people not to dump there because the stormwater goes straight to the ocean. It ignored a citizens’ effort three years ago to establish butt containers around town for smokers’ use.

Cigarette butts are not biodegradable. They carry harmful chemicals like nicotine, arsenic, lead, cadmium, copper, chromium, ethylphenol and aromatic hydrocarbons out to sea. These can have serious effects on our prized marine wildlife. At times, the butts are even eaten after being mistaken for a food item. They then become lodged in the throat or intestinal tract.

COVID has taught us we must better care not just for ourselves but our whole ecosystem. Step up and help. Two hours a month. Easy. Healthy. Good for you. Good for our community. You can join us on the ground floor of building this effort. Volunteer by calling 707-937-0549.

Rod Jones

Mendocino

WHAT'S THE DEAL, CAMILLE?

To the Editor:

Boy was I surprised to discover the black lives matter flag flying high over the Redwood Children’s Services building that they partially operate from with their clients. I did not realize that they take a political stance in their operations with this flag on the East Gobbi Street offices.

To be fair, I checked on the demographics of Ukiah with the census of July 2019 and found out that Ukiah has about a one percent black population (174 people) with the whites having about 74 percent and Latiino’s four percent. Ukiah itself has 15,888 persons.

This flag makes me wonder if the owner of that property realizes that this flag is flying on his property and makes a political statement and not too good for any business, and also do the people of Ukiah realize that this flag comes with a political agenda.

I am calling for the removal of this flag and the reinsertion of the American flag. It is our country and businesses should be proud of what it represents for all Americans.

Pat Boesel

Ukiah

WHO'S RESPONSIBLE HERE?

Editor: 

I’m concerned that state and local officials aren’t doing enough to preclude coordination ambiguity in the execution of their respective COVID-19 vaccination plans.

There is absolutely no acceptable excuse as to why the vaccination doses the state and counties have received to date haven’t resulted in an inoculation for someone on the high-risk/priority list.

The state regulates hospitals, clinics, labs and other medical facilities. And the state, via the public health community, is responsible for coordinating and establishing vaccination protocols. This effort should be a 24/7 operation with dates, locations and individuals identified to receive vaccinations should be notified and renotified. Satellite vaccination sites should be established and this entire plan with all the contingencies should have been rehearsed.

Most important, all of this should be known to everyone and widely publicized. In my opinion, state and local officials project a cavalier attitude when it comes to COVID-19. Their pay isn’t interrupted by the numerous and arbitrary shutdowns. Rules don’t seem to apply to key officials, and they have a not-my-fault attitude when asked to explain why the vaccine isn’t being exhausted as fast as it arrives.

If I had the authority, I’d fire several individuals who were responsible for this half-effort.

Rose Moeller

Santa Rosa

TREASON

Editor,

Treason? You bet! As seen on TV world news on Wednesday, January 6, the far far right wing retards and retardette wobblers have stepped over the line. Hundreds and hundreds of retards stormed the United States Capitol with dozens and dozens of them breaking windows and doors and entering capitol chambers. Four of them died during the unspeakable acts. Sad, sad day due to the fact that only four died.

As shown on television the Capitol police allowed hundreds of protesters to pass through the barricades assaulting the Capitol building. What? These barricades were in place to stop this kind of activity, not allow it! Shame! Shame!

After entering and trashing, most of them got away but not before more than 60 perps were quickly rounded up. They found one assault rifle, dozens of handguns, and pipe bombs, along with dozens of fire bombs. So much for those highly touted peaceful protests All you bleeding heart liberal city mayors take note!

This was an attempt to take the land and buildings of our US Capitol by force. This abominable act of aggression must be charged with attempting to overthrow the U.S. Constitution and laws resulting in treason!

In the good old days France would have cut off their heads. England would have hung or shot them. In the good old USA under its old law these citizens would be hung or militarily executed by firing squad. Do not be surprised now if some get off with probation even when a police officer is being killed. The law? What law?

A large group of true Americans (like-minded) would give the harshest, morose, ill tempered sentences possible for treason.

Keep in mind among these unadulterated acts of treason a Capitol police officer was killed. What should the punishment for those who destroyed, maimed and killed be?

Build a large 13 step scaffold to the only floor, install 60 trapdoors and release them all at the same time. This structure can be located at the entrance of the Capitol building. The convicted perps found guilty of treason would have appropriate harnesses positioned and then dropped through the trapdoors while having Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution read to them. "May God have mercy on their souls.” I choose not to!

Those who have paid the ultimate price in full shall rest there on the scaffolding for seven days without hoods for all to see. Those lucky enough to visit our great country, like people from Russia or China or North Korea will not laugh too loud on this closer examination of our judicial system. Anything less than above will be seen again as pussyfooting and milktoast Americans continuing the status quo. Reality is sometimes hard to swallow, even harder to accept. I see no relief as far down the road as anyone can imagine. Beyond sad!

Gran says, "No more peanut butter and cookies for those do-nothing pacifists and powerbrokers. Their parents should have done a better job a long long time ago. Perhaps they didn't get cookies as small youths and that's why they were naughty as youths.”

Take your meds gran. Say a short prayer for those in need and go to bed. I'll pull the cookies. Gramps has been in bed before the chickens. He has been hitting that special cough medicine pretty hard. It must be working, he lost that cough three months ago.

Love you Gran. God bless America, the “old” Donald, the special cough medicine and Jerry Philbrick.

Old and Out of Sorts,

Boonville

BETTER VACCINATION INFO

To the Editor:

Dear Board of Supervisors:

Our county deserves to know how many people have received vaccinations against the corona virus.

I would like to see the number of vaccinations administered each day posted on the Covid Dashboard along with the other virus statistics.

Seeing the vaccination numbers each day would give me and other citizens a map of the progress against the virus.

It is very frustrating to read occasional stories in the Ukiah Daily Journal about vaccinations without being able to measure the progress in vaccinating all the citizens.

Thank you very much.

Janie Sheppard

Ukiah

NOT BLM

Dear Editor,

I read with amusement Dave Oncale’s diatribe about the election and liberals (AVA January 6, 2021). The invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by Trump supporters put the lie to his statement that “If that does not happen (the Supreme Court handing the delection to Trump) at least you can rest assured that we won’t run downtown, shoot some cops, burn buildings or loot stores for the latest big screwen TVs.” 

No. Trump supporters will invade the Congress and try to kidnap, injure or kill Congressmen and Congresswomen, not to mention five deaths resulting from their violent actions. Every person arrested for invading the Capitol has been a diehard Trump supporter, not a member of Antifa or BLM.

Sincerely, 

James Mayo

Ukiah

TAX THE MONEY

Editor: 

Many blame Donald Trump for the riots in Washington. The president, supported for years by party leaders, promoted lawlessness. The crowd was mostly white and policed less aggressively than peaceful marchers for racial justice. Many in the shrinking middle class, lacking hope, have become Trump’s base.

As the middle class shrinks, with people falling to the bottom, the wealthy, who are largely white, have enjoyed economic gains and lower taxes. Do CEOs of major companies really need multimillion-dollar salaries and bonuses to live well? Those at the bottom have little to lose by embracing conspiracy theories and supporting Trump.

Why not tax the wealthiest more, then invest that money in infrastructure projects that provide national jobs in renewable energy, bridges and road repair, enabling access to the middle class? Why not invest in nationwide broadband and rebuild public schools so quality education also reaches underserved communities? We need social justice and a way to defang Trump’s mob.

Let’s acknowledge white lawlessness and violence. Let’s consider white greed for wealth and power. Let’s look in the mirror and commit to a makeover. Our reflection bears little resemblance to the values and policies that once made America a great place for all.

Mary Alden

Petaluma

WHAT’S THE POINT, TWK?

To the Editor:

I read the article by TWK about personal choices in food and medical care. I dislike Kale too. But I think everyone has a right to eat what they want.

I guess he thinks his opinion is best…of course. If you’re not just like him, in your food or healthcare choices…you’re wrong.

And no farmers, ranchers, loggers, park rangers or nature lovers, or sportsmen, fishermen, live in them… they’re hills. It’s all drug people?? Like any neighborhoods in cities, all the people are one type or group. I believe that’s called, stereotyping.

And it reminded me of a story in my younger years. A friend and I went to a certain bar on Friday nights to dance. We sat and said “all the same people are here, every Friday night.” Disappointed. Then we looked at each other and laughed. “And so are we.”

He is a Mendocino county resident. If he dislikes it, he dislikes himself. He lives here, so he must be the stereotype he describes. So someone tell me, what’s the point of his article?

Catherine Lair

Ukiah