DEAR DA DAVE
Editor,
The “factual” part of DA Eyster’s Bassler Report left out a lot of facts regarding Mendocino County’s negligent role in these tragedies. Supervisor Hamburg’s letter pointed out some of the missing facts including Aaron’s severe mental illness and the multiple attempts his family made to get help for him six months before the tragedies.
Mendocino County citizens paid for and had a right to a thorough and honest account of what happened; and not just Eyster’s selection of his favorite facts. It’s hard to read Eyster’s overwhelming approval of himself and his report in the October 3rd letter.
Eyster wants suggestions and fixes. Here’s a start:
1. Restore the needed 20 hours/week of live psychiatric care for inmates that the supervisors cut to a dangerous 8 hours/week.
2. Provide 24/7 crisis care that helps a person prior to their dangerousness.
3. Form a Review Team composed of a Judge, County Counsel, Mental Health Director and Case Manager, to receive letters regarding people who are dangerous. Letters can come from family members, cohabitants, treatment providers, peace or probation officers, and Director’s of public or private agencies. The Review Team reads the letters, gathers information, and determines the appropriate response from a range of options that include: Court-ordered psychiatric evaluation and treatment, Mental Health crisis intervention, support, hospitalization, conservatorship, Assertive Community Treatment for whatever it takes to help the person begin recovery. The cost of not doing this is: more preventable deaths, $3 million dollar and class action law suits, and continued threats to public safety.
It’s important to remember State law requires that inmates receive medical treatment within 24 hours for physical and mental illnesses. This entails more than a paper dress in a padded cell. State law mandates that counties provide 24/7 crisis care. The U.S. Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, such as routinely discontinuing medications prescribed by an inmate’s personal physician.
Sonya Nesch, Author of
‘Advocating for Someone with a Mental Illness’
Comptche
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WELL, IF YOUR LEG WAS…
To The Editor,
I have a past broken leg just above my ankle. I now have a prosthesis for this leg and I want a disabled placard for my car and now my doctor says he will only give me a permanent placard if I have my leg cut off. Why? I see all the time people in high 4x4s with extra high sides and they have disability placards. But my doctor tells me to cut off my leg and then he will give me a disabled placard. Not right.
Jill Chadwick
Willits
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ANOTHER BASSLER REPORT
Editor,
Yes we need another Bassler report.
One which has nothing to do with the legality of the police shooting or Aaron’s guilt, I don’t think anyone questions that. I don’t think there is any legal question that needs to be investigated or reported on as much as people need to know how we might prevent future tragedies like this one. To do that we need a thorough and impartial investigation into what happened before any shots were fired, what lessons might be learned and how can we best provide a safer future for the County. We lost far too much to not take a hard look at the system that is in place to protect us all.
David Eyster is not the one to look into this. He met his legal obligation to investigate the three different shootings but his investigation into lessons learned is lacking because as a lawyer he is trained to argue one side of any issue. He instinctively takes the side of government and argues to protect the system and all his friends therein. That’s why we don’t see the full story; in court he expects the other side to present that. The problem is no one is suing and no one is going after any of his friends. What we are looking for is a safer future by changing policies. The DA may do well, what lawyers do, but I think it misguided to put the safety of the system ahead of the safety of Mendocino County citizens.
Jim Bassler
Fort Bragg
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BOMBS BAD
Dear Editor,
One of the greatest tragedies of our era is that solid uranium, sometimes called depleted uranium, is considered the most effective metal for making bombs, bullets, artillery rounds and rockets. Hundreds or thousands of tons of uranium munitions have been used in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas by the United States military.
It is well-known that uranium munitions burn when used, generating breathable uranium oxides. These tiny particles, if breathed, lodge in the body, emitting alpha radiation which destroys dna in adjoining cells. Breathed uranium oxides cause cancer and many other diseases, killing and disabling the troops that use them, as well as opposing soldiers and innocent civilians wherever they drift.
Soon the United Nations will be voting on a resolution to ban uranium munitions. Presently, all nations in the world are ready to ban the scourge of uranium munitions except the United States, France, Israel, and the United Kingdom.
Mendocino Veterans for Peace Chapter 116 is sending three thousand signatures on petitions calling for banning uranium munitions to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. For the sake of the present and future health and survival of the human race, please consider signing the petition supporting a United Nations resolution banning uranium munitions.
John Lewallen
Philo
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OH DEBATES
Editor,
My nephew wrote this the other night. Followed by a quote from Ben Franklin. I asked him to revise it so I could submit it on his behalf to the AVA, but it actually suffered from the reworking. So this is completely unrevised. Hope it stirs something up for you, as it did for me.
Ted Dace
Manhattan, Kansas
Attached: “oh debates”
in me wind fosters desire to soar
wander to yonder mountaintop of yore.
snow flutters seamlessly into waves
upon concrete they melt to mulch.
seek craggy depths of fractal brilliance
under which contemplate awe,
meditate further tearing from centre.
imposed responsibility renders dream entrails to view
that the mass, laid bare, may keep eagles lofty
fair, keep saintly, keep pure,
keep shielded from storm,
keep holy anointed in lustful, material harmony.
stay composed upon bone throne, that you may keep
stronghold keep barring sight from sea and harvest cotton.
deprived of spirit by actions depraved
a crazed atlas shrugs:
raped, not invaded, excavated... and blamed.
* * *
“He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.”
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NO MORE “WAR”
Editor,
After watching the corporate fall-out surrounding the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, I thought of a way to end our eternal use of war to achieve our aims.
I propose that we ban the use of the term “war.” Instead we use “killing event” for all military interventions anywhere in the world. Then the news reports would say: The latest from the killing event in Afghanistan sponsored by (insert here the names of five top weapons makers. Allcorporate sponsors then would share the medical costs for all those physically wounded or psychologically damaged, as well as a $1,000,000 payment to the loved ones of those killed as a result of their killing event.
By remaining not lialble, the war profiteers are able to hide behind the Stars and Strpes as patriots, when in teruth the myth about war would be exposed for what it is: Economic self-interest.
Ashley Jones
Alameda/Boonville
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DIPSY DOUBLE
Dear Editor,
We are now witnessing, unfortunately, a double-dip phenomenon. Not only do we have the tyranny of the minority , but also, at the same time, the tyranny of the majority.
The Tea Party loonies, a small minority, have taken over the Republican Party, imposed their ignorance on the party platform, refused to participate in any form of rational compromise, argued for policies that run totally contrary to their own economic interests, and been given by the mass media a green light to misinform the people who can still read above a sixth grade level.
The great unwashed majority, not to be tyrannically undone by the minority, have been silent, which in itself is tyrannical if you love facts, science, truth, and honesty. Where has there been any semblance of response, or debate, or anger, or anything other than compliant silence when it comes to unending war, the tyranny of the 1% over the 99%, the national debt and deficit, the religious intolerance of gay people, and so on.
Sometimes the dumbed down populace hear but do not process what they hear; sometimes they turn a deaf ear and don’t even hear. Sometimes the mass media exhibit a degree of co-opted compliance that is itself a form of tyrannical avoidance of truthful reporting. So we find ourselves surrounded by the ignorant, the silent, and the co-opted.
As your recent issue reported, the Presidential debates are rigged to the max. A famous man once said that the first casualty of war is truth. Not so. That is the second casualty. The first casualty of war is your kid.
Lee Simon
Far ‘n Away Farm in Virginia
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SMELLS LIKE…
AVA,
There are few things here in prison that put a smile on my face. That said, one of them is my weekly delivery of the AVA. I love the AVA. I believe that if it's not America's last newspaper it is certainly one of the very few left. As good as the AVA is, there are times when you outdo even yourselves.
The October 10 in addition is a prime example. All four front page stories were excellent. The piece by Susan Robinson should get us all to vote for Proposition 37 and make them tell us what they are feeding us. The one by Katy Tahja shows how important being ready for fire at any time is. But for me, Will Parrish's Greenwashers was so very important. If we don't make ourselves knowledgeable of what is happening to our natural resources soon we won't have any left. Greed seems to win every time.
As to what they feed us, anytime our elected officials get involved it not only tastes like, but smells like… Well, I know you get the point.
But my favorite was by my dear friend Fred Gardner who once again shows that marijuana is made out to be the most evil of all drugs. However, Judge Young, the DEA's own judge, said in his report that it was the safest, most therapeutic plant known to man. Also, cannabis was used by the Catholic Church until 1188 when it was outlawed by Pope Pius because he claimed that witches (women) were using it to take men from the church. And we all know that according to many churches women and marijuana are the root of all evil. Personally, I don't believe it at all. That's why half of all ministers in our church were women. I can only hope and pray that some day both women and marijuana get the full respect they deserve.
In closing I would like to thank the many crazies who make reading the AVA so entertaining while I sit here for trying to help sick and dying people. I'm sorry I'm taking up the space that so many of you are trying so hard to get. But don't worry, if the judge won't let you out to screw up again, they will find a place for you.
Please write if you wish:
Charles 'Eddy' Lepp #90157011
FCI Latuna
PO Box 3000
Anthony, TX/NM 88021
PS. Please don't stop sending the AVA.
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OH, THOSE RULES
Dear Editor,
“Quick Retaliation.”
Upon reading the article “Slave Labor” in the AVA, I knew that the jail would respond. And I was right. However, I did not know how far they would take it.
Let's just say they are not very happy with the information that all of you voters have, so they started “rule enforcement week.” The problem is that many of the “rules” they are enforcing are not in the “rulebook.” When staff was asked to show us where they are, they said that all rules are subject to change without notification!
I don't see why Sheriff Tom Allman has his people make sure you have your socks on when you are going to take a shower. Or why you have to have your t-shirt on under your jumpsuit? Or your jumpsuit up when you have your t-shirt on when you are in your unit? Does it really affect security of the jail? No it doesn't.
As for the “rules that don't exist” enforcement, we could have our t-shirts on outside with our jumpsuits down. With the temperatures as high as they were it was cruel and unusual punishment to keep both up. Staff says, “Well, you don't have to go out,” which is true. However, the half hour we get outside is the only fresh air we get away from other people's body or bodily functions and in a place that feeds you beans as a primary food source, trust me, that half-hour is very important to most of us.
And if you don't comply with the rules that you don't know exist then we are all kept on lockdown. Lockdown takes away our access to the shower and to the phones, so we can't call our families or lawyers or get the hygiene we need and deserve.
There are people like myself who just made a mistake. And then there are people who are addicted and whose addiction brings them to this place. And then there are those who have made this a career choice. But we are all people. Fathers and sons. Mothers and daughters. Friends and relatives. And we deserve to be treated as people.
The new “rules” have raised the stress level in an already stressful environment. We never know what the next new “rule” is going to be.
We keep the place clean and we follow the rules in the rulebook. Quit locking us down and telling us that you are shortstaffed or that we didn't have our socks on. Lower the stress level in this place. We are just trying to pay for our mistakes and get back to our families. We are still people.
Billy G.
Mendocino County Jail
Ukiah
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TOO EASY
Editor,
I usually read your paper cover to cover as soon as I get it which has certainly been on time as of late. Great reading.
I find this quote to be most appropriate:
“Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.” — Hermann Goering, speaking at the Nuremburg trials after World War II
Thank you for your work,
Avid Fan
Oakland
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CENOZOICS UNITE
Editor and Fellow AVAers,
“Civilization once feared Nature's whim, now Earth must suffer ours.”
Cenozoics, that's us. We been here 65 million years. We began with the disappearance of the dinosaurs. With my two neighbors, it's not a four-door car, it's a four-car door. De piernas cortas flako grande boca gringo; a short-legged, skinny, big-mouth American with a drunk Mexican woman who screams when she drinks. In 1280 southwest Colorado's Anasazi people disappeared, the mesa verde people gone. Was it war, famine or disease? Some days the neighbors keep their blinds drawn so no one can see what's going on behind the blinds. On Friday, October 5, 2012, NPR said gas prices in California were $4.54 to $6 a gallon. “Do people let you down? Don't carry them on your shoulders.”
As we're on the subject of explosions, a German World War II booby-trap: walk into a house, turn the light on and the room blows up. The German potato masher is a grenade. On the battlefield a dead body picked up “felt like a rubber bag half-full of water.” Life is cheap, short and brutal. “Villages with blood on each stone.” People froze stiff in the position they died. “Sometimes their bodies had to be broken to carry them on a stretcher by 2 x 4 boards.” War was I, dioxin is 70,000 times stronger than cyanide. “Mendocino Redwood Company has poisoned 70,659 acres” in the past 13 years. ZAP imazapyr, ZAP. Timber! Less trees, less air to breathe. That is something to battle. No axe to grind, a truck passed me going north on Route 1 with 18 cut redwood trees yesterday and a truck going north with 21 cut redwoods passed me today. The Allies flattened Berlin as the logging companies flatten Mendocino. Trees please, not limbs shorn of their leaves. Herbicide is homicide.
Diana Wood Duck Vance
Deadtree, Mendocino
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KESTER NEEDS HELP
Dear Mr. Anderson,
I am writing seeking help once again and to confirm people's accusations of the fairness with which a person is tried in our county. I believe Ms. Anne Moorman to be a good judge. However, the counsel on both sides of the fence are in cahoots.
Let me explain. Ms. Linda Thompson has spent the past year pulling the wool over my family and my eyes, assuring me this case was in the bag. She jeopardized my entire case by not calling witnesses, not arguing a single factor for defense. She also had total lack of fight on my behalf. It was way past pathetic. She spent her efforts convincing my family and I that this was no sweat.
They found me guilty on second-degree homicide without a single shred of evidence. The district attorney, Scott McMenomey's tactics were as follows: he had nothing but theories. He called me the shot-caller of the Aryan Brotherhood and said that I had no black or Mexican friends.
These are lies.
He continuously lied straight-out to the jury and twisted the facts and laws to convince the jury that this guy with tattoos was a cold, calculated murderer — let me remind you, without a shred of evidence. I have a constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial. I also have a constitutional right to effective counsel, not a public defender who trades and deals “one for three” or howev toer they do this. I know by her words that if Scott McMenomey did not win this case he would be fired — in Linda's own words.
And I became a little worried when I was escorted into the courtroom and overheard Linda talking about football and the weekends they would spend together soon.
So, Mr. Anderson and everyone who reads this fine newspaper, I have a wife and kids. All I was trying to do was make it home that terrible night last year. If you or anyone you know is a lawyer who may take a victim's case, I beg of you to please help me. I have a lot of evidence. The DA has nothing. It should be illegal that a county official should be allowed to impeach himself and sling a racial jacket and lie straight out about laws and evidence.
Ladies and gentlemen I am innocent of murder. I am a father, a son, a brother, with strong family ties who was only trying to make it home that night.
Please help me!
James Kester
951 Low Gap Road
Ukiah, CA 95482
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WHY, BILLY?
To the Editor:
I write this to those who care, Billy, and, as Brittany Norbury’s father and those precious children’s grandfather, it saddens me deeply that I don’t believe you are one who cares at all.
Why, Billy? Now that you are of sober mind, can you answer me? One time I remember when I came to visit, the only time you showed you cared about anyone other than yourself was when I gave my granddaughter a little swat for being mouthy and disrespectful to her grandpa. You threatened violence against me then. But it’s all about Billy, isn’t it?
You have poisoned your own family to the point that, out sheer fear of you, they cater to you and enable you constantly. You’ve poisoned your brother, your sister-in-law (once one of my daughter’s best friends), your parents and on and on it goes. When you called to ask if you could marry my daughter, I should have jumped on a plane and spent some time with you. But, no, I relied on the fact that you were the older son from what I thought was one of the strong Christian families in the area. But now they have allowed themselves to be so affected by you they can’t even make eye contact with me! The whole family is sick from your poison. Why, Billy?
Not guilty by reason of insanity, no way! This is just lawyerspeak and it took them months to come up with it. If you drank once in a while and this was a rarity, we might say it was the alcohol but, no, you were in your “normal” mind. You are suspicious of every man that even so much as looks at your beautiful wife. I think it was poetic justice that the person who hurried to my daughter’s side when she collapsed in the courtroom was Jamal’s brother! May God bless him for that.
And may God bless that family — I can’t even imagine their grief. Okay, so those are the thoughts of a human father and grandfather, Billy. Though it may be humanly impossible, God wants me to forgive you and I will obey Him otherwise I too become a prisoner. I pray daily for your eternal soul. I have no reason to believe that you have given your heart to Christ but, even now, behind those bars I pray that you will say yes to Him. And, please Billy, please throw yourself on the mercy of the court. If you killed this man, admit it, and throw yourself on God’s mercy and the mercy of the court. Please.
Jim Korver
On a mission in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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DEBATE: 1¢; YEARSLEY: PRICELESS
Editor,
David Yearsley’s “Debate In Search Of A Soundtrack” (AVA, October 10, 2012) is priceless.
Way to go, David
Irv Silver
Cliffside Park, New Jersey
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CAST YOUR VOTE TO THE WIND
AVA readers,
Binders, birth certificates, blind trusts, Solyndra. Simple scandals for simple minds. Anything to distract attention from and avoid discussion of any of the real problems of economic injustice fueling our nation's failure to address the basic needs of the working family community. Go ahead and vote for Obama, if Romney scares you so much. Vote for Romney, if you think Obama is your worst nightmare. Either way, come election day, your side wins. Because you'll be joining the ninety seven per cent of voters who cast their ballots to perpetuate their own incrementally creeping bondage to a system dedicated to preserving the power and wealth of a club representing, realistically speaking, a much smaller group than one per cent of the population. A group whose methodology consists of the relentless promotion of a culture of reckless and unsustainable consumption, brought to you daily by your television and designed to mystify you into servicing their ultimate objective of depriving you and your family of access to such basic needs as affordable shelter, affordable food, affordable health care, clean air, clean water, and most importantly, the liberty to petition for the political means to repel and redress their assaults. The less you have, the more available to sate their swollen appetites, you see. Or you could cast a ballot against the system, just to let them now you're paying attention and are beginning to understand how the game works.
See you at the polls,
Michael DeLang
Golden Colorado
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STEALTH AGENDA 21
Editor,
VOTE ‘NO’ ON PROP 31.
Proposition 31 on the November ballot is truly “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” On the surface it appears to be about responsible budgeting — two year budgets, line item veto for the governor, etc. But if you read the actual ballot language in the Voter’s Information Guide you find that Prop 31 is not about responsible budgeting at all but an attempt to implement UN Agenda 21 throughout California.
Agenda 21 is a United Nations document, written in 1992 at the Rio Conference that spells out how the elites who run the UN want us all to live. High density housing is in. Mass transit is the future. Bike lanes are how we will get to work. Suburbs, rural areas, grass, open space, forests, elbow room are things of the past. Cars and trucks are out. Bikes and trains are in.
The giveaway is a recurring theme in the ballot language, “a prosperous economy, a quality environment, and community equity,” repeated five times. The “3E’s” — economy, environment and equity — are taken straight from UN Agenda 21.
Even the Prop 31 concept of “Community Specific Action Plans” administered by local boards to disburse state money is taken from UN Agenda 21. But the language of Prop 31 only requires that the boards report to the public once every four years and once set up, there are no provisions to disband the local CSAP boards.
The Mendocino County Republican Central Committee urges you to vote “NO” on Proposition 31.
Stan Anderson
Chair Mendocino County RCC
Fort Bragg.
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THE GATHERING HOSPITAL STORM
Editor,
We in Mendocino County witness a black cloud blowing over the medical care horizon in our own community. The Northern California Network of Adventist Health has come to Willits and Ukiah, headed by a marketing executive, giving much the same feeling as a snake oil salesman may have done in years past. “The Network” is Adventist Health's new effort to lump together and more actively manage local hospitals in light of coming changes in government funding. This concept represents an added layer of high-salaried, high-spending administrators, who direct us from far away in financially reorganizing our entire enterprise, hoping to making more money by allegedly reducing expenses and attracting more patients. They focus strictly on “the bottom line,” as do many other large corporations, with no regard for local relationships formed over many years. They rely heavily on advertising in newsletters, local newspapers, direct mail and billboards to convince local people of the wholesomeness of their intentions while destroying the fabric that has made us who we are. The “Network” concept involves pooling the resources at Howard Memorial Hospital, Ukiah Valley Medical Center, St. Helena Clearlake, St. Helena Napa, and St. Helena Hospital Center for Behavioral Health.
Howard Hospital has always taken care of its own, truly living their motto: “neighbors helping neighbors.” Local people make up the workforce, people who have worked here for many years, as have their families. They have been inspired and proud to work for a local successful enterprise, have been giving their best, even contributing to the new hospital from their paychecks, but now their lives are being thrown into chaos by a corporate entity far away. They wonder how can this be, and why? We have been solidly profitable. Why should they want to squeeze us for more money, or save money for Adventist Health on the backs of employees that may have worked for Howard Hospital for half their lives? This is a hospital that has been at the top of employee satisfaction scores, patient satisfaction scores, physician satisfaction scores, and “culture of teamwork and safety” scores, in addition to being the only hospital in The Network solidly in the black every year.
Morale at Howard Hospital has plummeted in the past year, since this new intention has been “rolled out.” One no longer senses the former optimistic resonance while walking the hallway. Employees are insecure because they fear that their futures are going to change radically and that jobs are going to disappear. The precise nature of what will happen is not clear. That has been part of the problem, not just that there will be change, but that it has been handled so ineptly, with no communication or transparency. At best, some employees will have to commute to Windsor, an hour each way, to do a job not exactly like their current one, at an unknown salary. At worst, they will have no job.
The first announcement of job changes (promised to be just the beginning of many such changes) involves the “revenue cycle” employees, which includes those performing patient financial services and health information management (billing, pre-registration, dictation, medical records). At Howard Hospital this involves about 22 employees. All will have to “reapply” for their jobs, be retrained, and finally go through a “certification” exam. They may then be able to stay at Howard or be eligible for a new position in Windsor. The Network says they may have a bus that will transport the employee to and fro, or may not, or maybe just temporarily. One employee was under the impression that she would be paid $4 an hour less for working in the new position, though that is also not clear. Administration says to stop all the gossiping, but when will there be solid information to take its place? Who can tell us what is really happening, whether local workers will be able to continue to support their families?
This “revenue cycle team” makes up a significant number of hospital workers. In our small-town environment everyone is related to one another somehow, if not by blood or marriage, then as friends, former grade school or high school classmates, or as members of the same bowling teams. It is unknown how many employees will eventually be affected, and the insecurity falls like a pall on the entire workplace, markedly amplifying stress in an already stressful environment. Many people are starting to seek new jobs in an area where jobs are not easy to find. Others begin to think about moving away. The “revenue cycle” shake-up is only the first of “Network” contemplated changes in staff, with other departments also said to be in line for such change.
We are told that this initial phase won't involve many people, but nobody knows who will be included and few people trust the new layer of administration. Many people, including nurses, feel that they also are at risk of being laid off in the future. Needless to say, “The Network” is not a very popular notion at Howard Hospital. From what I have observed, in terms of sloppy execution, poor planning and employee insecurity and resentment, I suspect the situation is very much the same at the other acute care hospitals that make up “The Network.”
It would have made more sense for the corporate executives to collaborate with Howard Memorial Hospital administration, staff, and physicians from the outset and discuss contemplated changes and reasons for change. The very work “network” implies a collaborative process. It might then have been more easily understood and accommodated, or compromises made. Local administration and staff look forward to the new hospital currently being built, and also recognize the need to support the additional resulting debt. “Betrayal” more closely approximates the current experience at Howard Hospital, after years of a trusting and high functioning environment. “Dictatorial” describes the administrative style, from an organization that seems to have very little appreciation of the culture it is destroying, with no regard or respect for local community needs.
Ace Barash, MD
Willits
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SEE C. DA
Dear Editor,
“SEE” David Eyster wants Dan Hamburg to state his facts. Mr. Eyster, please state your “facts” regarding your statement July 10, 2012: “Substance abuse is self imposed mental illness.” None are so blind as those who will not SEE.
Elizabeth Ryan
Fort Bragg
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YES ON F
Letter to the Editor
Massive corporations and their wealthy owners control nearly every facet of our lives. They’ve decided what will be in the food we drink, what transportation will be available, what few jobs remain in the US and how much they will pay.
They also decide what information you’ll receive. According to Ben Bagdikian’s book, The New Media Monopoly, six mega corporations control approximately 90 percent of American mainstream media outlets. This includes Television networks, radio, newspapers, magazines, books (including school textbooks) and the movie industry.
Thanks to the Supreme Court decision (Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission), corporations can buy our political system, anonymously, with unlimited financing of political campaigns. This followed decades of equally corrupt Supreme Court decisions including one that laid the basis for corporations’ status as “persons” under the US Constitution.
There is a national movement towards a Constitutional amendment that removes corporate personhood and overturns the Citizens United decision. You can join this movement to take back our country by voting yes on Measure F on election day. Measure F is an advisory that says the citizens of Mendocino County direct our elected officials in Washington to enact such a Constitutional amendment.
If we pass Measure F, Mendocino County will be the first county in California to do this. If you’re tired of living in a country controlled by the wealthy and their corporate tools and want to make our country the democracy we all want, I urge you to vote yes on Measure F on election day.
Ed Oberweiser
Fort Bragg
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THIS IS BALANCED?
Dear Governor Brown:
Thank you for trying to balance the California budget, but please tell me if I’ve got this straight. A few years after you replaced the roof on the CalFire building in Point Arena, you tear it down and build a new $1 million firehouse. You do the same in Boonville. Then you impose a new fire tax on home owners to pay for this boondoggle while exempting the huge timber holdings where CalFire spends most of its dollars. California wastes billions of dollars yearly. This is your way of balancing the budget? This is why I’m not voting for your sales tax increase. If you can’t find this waste which is hiding in plain view, call me.
Sincerely disgusted,
Don Phillips
Manchester
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MEDICAL METH?
Dear Editor,
I came to a draconian conclusion yesterday without doing an updated search on the internet, that there could be a phenomena of “medical methamphetamine” for terminal addicts. Defining terminal vis a vis terminally ill is tricky and the stuff of heady grant funded proposals, if not already delineated by researchers and academics.
This could be a controlled measured program in conjunction with nutritional support including B vitamins and specifically vitamin B3 for mental health, and a structured agricultural garden farm seasonal cultivation program to maintain an element of earth plane focus.
Currently, the mostly hidden habitual meth users functioning under the radar screen, may manifest with collaterally related illnesses and be dysfunctional but not diagnosed in that manner, and are financially supporting the black market to entice the initiation of others.
The overall result is for the cycle to repeat itself, for new victims to suffer the ill effects of the drug, to overload and gradually and permanently, roast the human brain's dopamine sex pleasure receptors.
These gritty details are usually not shared with underage teens, viewing worst case images of rapidly aging faces of addicts such as with the Mendocino Sheriff's video software program which has provided developer royalty payments to the County of Mendocino, from sales across the USA.
The degraded facial images result where human nutrition is not maintained, or the toxic meth is diluted with other caustic or injurious chemicals, but the adverse face aging may not occur otherwise at the same rate of use.
Thus this flaw in drug abuse education, may be an excuse for non users to be convinced by an older part time chronic user, to believe the adverse effects are not all that true, a little bit of use will cause no harm, and thus addiction cycle begins.
The unregulated black market is currently supplied by the so called “Mexican mafia” importing methamphetamine from clandestine half million dollar chemical factories in China through Mexico as the distribution pathway, according to the last update I've received.
Eric Sunswheat
Potter Valley
PS. GMO food looks more and more like genocide, of the soil environment and plant health, of the economics of farmers planting and harvesting, and of the hordes of animals and humans consuming it, as the oceans rise and acidify, and as the climate disrupts crop production.
It's surprising how many processed foods with seemingly earth friendly packaging themes, are riddled with the hidden GMO's lurking at natural food co-opted markets.
It used to be said that more people were living off of cancer than were dying from it. Now perhaps in the future as the statistics are charted, it will be said that GMO foods appear to weaken people, so they have greater difficulty adapting to the escalating rate of ecological community disruption.
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MOVE TO AMEND
Dear Editor;
Here's a crucial issue NOT being discussed by candidates: political corruption and the destruction of our democracy. The billion$ now being poured into candidates' coffers decimates the notion of one person, one vote, and that we all have an equal voice in our democracy.
There’s no natural law that says we must allow billionaires, giant corporations and Wall Street bankers to run roughshod over our economy and government. To restore the economy, get a fairer tax structure, get action on climate change, and reduce the massive military-industrial complex, we’ll need elected officials who put the interests of people first, not corporate funders of their campaigns.
Now, those with the money get the government and policies they want; the poor and middle class get locked out. We can’t rely on candidates for public office, who are dependent on big money interests, to end this corruption of our democracy. It's up to us to change this.
It will take popular movements, like the MoveToAmend movement sweeping the nation, to get Congress to do the right thing. Already over seven states and 200 municipalities have joined the groundswell and voted in favor of an amendment to the US Constitution that clarifies that corporations are not people, money is not "free speech," and that campaign spending and lobbying can be regulated.
We Mendocino County voters have a chance to vote for such an amendment, too, and to be the first county in America's largest state to join the movement and say NO to corporate corruption of our democracy. Please vote YES on Measure F.
Tom Wodetzki
Albion
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