- This & That
- Bloomsday
- Ukiah Needs Urgent Care
- The Fed's Mood
- How To Solve The Debt Prob
- Tell The Real Story About The Climate Crisis
- Big Money Prevails
- Frankie & Me
THIS & THAT
To the Editor,
I was a fan of T.R. Factor’s writings in the AVA for many years. That was a beautiful obituary that someone wrote in her honor, but no byline was given. I will honor her final request and find an underprivileged person here on the Mendo Coast and treat them to a nice lunch, and then some…
I enjoyed Ms. Cooney’s articles about early TV shows, most of which I watched, and in particular “The Twilight Zone” which I had to watch against my mother’s insistence that it would warp my mind.
I was disturbed by an inmate’s account of the filth at the County Jail. If even a portion of that is true, what is the Sheriff doing about it?
I know Bruce and Mark aren’t spring chickens any more, but they still have astute mental abilities. Who will take their place when the inevitable happens and they have to cease their publishing? That will be a sad day for American journalism.
Louise Mariana
Mendocino
BLOOMSDAY
Editor,
For all you James Joyce devotees, and I know there has to be one or two here besides me, June marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of "Dubliners", and today, the 16th, is the date he chose for the setting of his masterwork "Ulysses", known in literary circles as "Bloomsday" in reference to one of the the novel's protagonists Leopold Bloom. My senior English and art teacher at AVHS, AKA Boonville Tech, Ed Wolf, introduced me to the great writer via "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" in 1967, which I re-read periodically along with "Dubliners". As for "Finnegans Wake", I'm waiting for a Tasmanian translation, something a person could actually decipher, but my brother-in-law, Phi Beta Kappa in English Literature from UC Berkeley, says he's still waiting for an English translation. So hope lingers but does not tease.
Norm Clow
Spring, Texas
UKIAH NEEDS URGENT CARE
To the Editor:
Adventist is failing Ukiah without Urgent Care
How many of us have “urgent” health issues that do not remotely suggest the need for an E.R. visit, but end up there because of no urgent care.
In the last 30 days — I’ve had two such issues.
1. Kidney Stone — perhaps. Wanted to simply confirm and perhaps get pain meds.
2. Tic bite with a reaction which requires an antibiotic within 72 hours.
The first issues landed me in E.R. Perhaps $1,000 later (out of pocket, despite insurance) — and it could end up being a lot more.
The second issue… I tried getting a “squeeze me in appointment” with my Adventist doctor in Ukiah. They could not/would not squeeze me in. They offered to call all possible doctors in Ukiah — which they did…and could not get me an appointment within 30 hours. I then tried “Teladoc” and they were great, but the matter did not qualify for a zoom review.
I am in Fort Bragg three days a week and Ukiah four days, every week. I happened to be in Fort Bragg — and assumed that there was no Urgent Care here, because it is Adventist and the town is smaller than Ukiah. To my surprise, there is a “same day” appointment clinic. The process was amazing, the nurse practitioners were fabulous. I walked out feeling cared for and safe in my health decisions. I also felt the value exchange was completely appropriate.
So — how is it that Adventist in Fort Bragg has same day appointments (not E.R.) while Ukiah does not? This is a service failure to our community, plain and simple. I’m sure there is complexity to the backstory. Bottom line is that leadership at Adventist is failing to address community needs. It claims that Covid caused all of this; perhaps so? But Covid is long over.
This is not a blanket complaint about Adventist Ukiah. There is good service to the community in so many ways. Perhaps because that is the norm, I am more bothered by this failure.
David Leppert
Redwood Valley
THE FED'S MOOD
Editor,
Ever wonder what it might be like to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board?
Analyzing reams of economic data might not lend itself to producing a whole lot of grins around lunch or dinner tables. Imagine the chairman as, he or she, sits down to a steak dinner with all the trimmings to decide whether or not to goose the FED rate another quarter, or even half a point,-or perhaps just to keep the existing rate as it is now. Maybe there’s a new hook in the Phillips Curve? What can improve the T-bill yield?
Could there be some bump up in the price of soybeans or pork bellies? Oil prices? Commodities? Something might happen to the demand for houses in Des Moines, San Francisco, Reno, Newarkor Chicago. Perhaps prices of chicken eggs could skyrocket again like it did earlier this year when all the poor chickens got sick.
Is there any wonder that members of the FED don’t smile or emerge from their meetings in all smiles too often? I only hope they have some better luck if they ever venture forth to Vegas or toChurchill Downs. If it’s still open, that is.
Frank Baumgardner, III
Santa Rosa
HOW TO SOLVE THE DEBT PROB
Editor,
I’ve been amused lately by the hypocritical outrage by Senate Republicans over raising the National Debt ceiling.
Their boy, Trump, raised it three times during his administration and then went on to add more money to the National Debt than any other president in history except for Abraham Lincoln who had to pay for the Civil War and George Bush Jr., who wanted to help the rich get richer at the expense of the middle class.
The debt problem could easily be solved by removing the Bush and Trump tax laws which have proved not to work and putting a 1% tax on stock and bond transactions with retirement accounts exempted These taxes wouldn’t affect anyone who couldn’t well afford them.
But alas, as founding father John Jay once said, “We (the rich) own this country. Why should we rule it?”
Sincerely,
Don Phillips
Manchester
TELL THE REAL STORY ABOUT THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Dear Editor,
As someone who follows local and national news reports, I must tell you I am worried about the recent extreme heat and wildfires raging across the country. I feel for people who lose their lives and livelihoods to extreme weather, and it’s only a matter of time until it directly hits me and my community.
Seeing headlines in news outlets covering these climate disasters made me realize that most news stories show no connection between them and the main cause: fossil fuels. This is dangerous, because many people will continue to refuse to see that longer, hotter, and deadlier summers are caused and perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry.
The science is clear — the longer we allow fossil fuel companies to dig and burn, the worse the impacts of the climate crisis will be. But the fossil fuel industry continues to ignore these alerts and undermine our chances for a safer future. We all know this is causing the climate crisis, and yet they keep burning and profiting, with zero accountability.
Climate impacts - like the recent wildfires - disproportionately affect people and communities who are already marginalized. People who did the least to cause the climate crisis suffer the worst from its impacts — they lose livelihoods, hope, and worse: their lives — while oil companies continue to hit record profits. This is wrong on so many levels. Media have an important role to play - and a moral obligation to tell the whole truth. It’s time to make one thing about extreme weather very clear: it's not a "crisis" that just happens to us - it's a crime, and the fossil fuel industry is to blame. Media has an important job to do to turn the tide of public opinion, and help the world avoid the worst of the climate impacts. Please tell the REAL story about the climate crisis.
Sincerely,
El Pe
Ukiah
BIG MONEY PREVAILS
Editor:
A’s fans can protest in Oakland and rural Nevadans can hate public funding, but that will make no difference to the big money boys. They will do whatever they want, including buying state legislators and building a new baseball stadium.
It is quite a sight to see how the professional sports industry can shake its magic wand and send a wobbling state legislature into special session. There, duly elected representatives are called to consider a nine-digit proposal for a new stadium, because Las Vegans, you see, need more fun things to do. This new stadium will house a large portion of the host city and many visitors from out-of-state cities for 81 games a year, taking them away from the serious business of life for the remaining decades of their lives.
The good news is the proposed billion-dollar stadium, if built, will likely stand forever as a monument to Nevada’s once-sturdy existence, like the Coliseum in Rome, even long after American civilization implodes from within from too much emphasis on sport and too little emphasis on the health, education and welfare of its citizens.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
FRANKIE & ME
Editor,
This morning started out cold and foggy as most mornings have since Frankie's Lady hit the road nearly 10 days ago. Only in the past few days has the sun broken through the thick marine layer to warm up the ground, and a few struggling starts we planted for our summer garden.
I can sense changes, and how different the world is, not only from what I see in the news but in how the sun and ground feel. I sense a shift. I try to focus on nature, not in the Romantic sense but by using all my senses, by really listening and watching, and tuning in, without commenting or labeling. In this practice, I find great solace and virtue, wisdom and amusement. I learn stuff. I enjoy being alone, though good company in nature will always be welcome. Lately, my company has included Frankie, a host of birds and rabbits, some of them helping themselves to our berries and the seedlings we planted more than a week ago.
Not many people listen and watch any more, not to observe nature without superimposing their beliefs and fantasies, not without cell phones and cameras, and recording devices. I know, I do it. I go everywhere with my phone and camera. I have lots of fantasies, beliefs, and wishes, and I’ve wanted the world to be a different place than it actually is. But, occasionally, I let it all go, and just watch and listen.
Who really pays attention any more? Who's really absorbing the moment as it unfolds? This quiet observation doesn't feel romantic to me in the sense of abandoning reason, which I also love, and hope to develop. It feels more like tuning in...a far cry better than tuning out through the distraction of text messages or scrolling through the phone, looking for validation or whatever.
Nature, however, doesn’t offer an easy fix.
The sun emerges from behind the clouds with something beyond heat, it's penetrating and unsettling, with a cutting edge that disturbs more than warms. I once listened as a Ventura rancher, a fourth generation grower, lamented how his grandfather could count on 40 years or more of production out of his citrus trees but now he wasn’t sure if he could get five years out of them. The weather patterns, he said, had changed that much. It's a whole different dance now -- for everyone, farmers, ranchers, suburban dwellers, consumers.
One thing I’ve learned: Rarely, if ever, will you see a plant or animal, rushing, red-faced, tongue lolling out of their mouths, pulling at their hair and trousers, to get to a meeting on time. There’s no sense of hurry or rush in nature, unless for actual danger.
I once watched six turkey toms march a bobcat away from the vicinity of their broody hens (and my chickens, who were nearby), not with a rush and panic but deliberately, and with purpose. Three toms on the uphill side and three toms on the downhill side, like Roman sentries, trotted the predator with purpose far out of the area with strategic wonder. The bobcat had no other choice but to leave. There was no rush, no panic. Just simple teamwork.
I've known for decades that a cloud cover, the marine layer, will magnify the sun's most harmful rays, which seem more hostile today than ever. Now, dermatologists say, it's best to avoid the sun during its peak, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and stay covered as much as possible. The critters know. You won't see them working out in the fields in the heat of the day. Cows and their calves lay themselves in the shade of an oak, chickens find shelter anywhere they can.
At 11:30 a.m., when the sun finally comes out, it warms up fast. Soon, it's too hot to work in direct sunlight. After three melanomas, I try to use caution outside, wear protective clothing, a sun hat, because the sun, as I remember it, was never so scorching as it is now.
I stopped surfing years ago. I ran into the local kahuna once during a walk on the beach: “Where’ve you been?” he asked, “I haven’t seen you out in the water, lately, surfing.”
“Oh,” I said, “I had a melanoma removed. I’m being careful.”
“Don’t stop enjoying life. Don’t stop doing what you love,” he responded before turning to finish his beach walk.
Today, while working in the garden, I had to come inside to cool off, drink water, surrounded by Mendocino mosquitoes. Eventually, Frankie waltzed in to cool off with me.
On any given hot day, in my experience, livestock like cattle and chickens will seek the cool shade of a tree or, under the chicken coops, purposely raised off the ground to deter predators like badgers, skunks, raccoons, and worst of all, believe it or not, dogs, which apparently kill more home-based chickens than any other predator. It's possible, however, to train dogs to protect rather than kill these mostly flightless feathered odd descendants of the dinosaur.
No matter how hot, I’ve seen ranch hands like myself out in the scorching sun when most other critters are settling into the shade for the day to conserve energy, and avoid heat stroke. I recall repairing a shade cloth to protect some 50 distressed young chickens in 112-degree heat. No one should have been working that day. However, if I hadn’t repaired the shade, those pullets would surely have died.
I've seen Frankie seek cooler places in the yard when it’s hot, where he knows to find both breeze and shade, while I'm laboring in the sun, wiping sweat away from my eyes. He knows all of the actual cool spots in the yard when it's obviously time to be chill. And he shows no feelings of guilt about laying himself down and resting when necessary.
Stacy Warde
Ukiah
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