Letters (November 3, 2023)

• Williamson Act ‘Farmers’
• True Crime Podcast About Mendocino
• On Call
• A Fine Historian’s Life’s Work
• A Flawed Process
• Bad Timing, Again
• The Good Party, The Bad Party, The Ugly Party
• Notice To County Taxpayers
• Love Hurts
• Mendo’s Edifice Complex
• Louis Bedrock
• Not Moneque's Fault
• Middle Beast
• Design Flaw
• Meanwhile, On The Grassy Knoll
• An Intelligence Failure
• Making The World Less Safe
• U.S. Responsibility
• Sakowitz Dead Right On Gaza
• A Just Solution
• It Will Happen Again

WILLIAMSON ACT ‘FARMERS’

A Boonville Farmer Writes:

We have a quick question about which the AVA may have some knowledge (and an opinion!). We just received notice that the County is raising the Williamson Act property taxes. Since, to our knowledge, there are not a lot of those properties doing what the Williamson Act was supposed to encourage, i.e., farming of some sort. We're curious whether the county has given enough effort to eliminating those properties that don't qualify and raising their taxes, before going after those of us doing the “right thing.”

* * *

Mark Scaramella Replies:

We're in no position to opine on the particulars of the Williamson Act situation.

But at last report we heard that there were over 4,000 properties in the County that are enrolled. Which sounds like a ridiculously high number. We suspect that a lot of them are what you might call boutique ag ops just for the purpose of getting the tax break.

The County is, of course, broke. So it's not surprising that they're looking at raising the rates, and they might be trying to fix the criteria or screen them more. But you can probably imagine the reaction from some people who might have their tax break questioned.

As several others have pointed out, however, they'd get a lot more money going after the under-assessed, unenrolled and delinquent taxes owed, than going after the Williamson Act list.

Theoretically, you could try asking your supervisor or the elected Assessor about the situation and the likelihood of screening improvements and/or abuse, but our experience with the Supervisor hasn't been all that good.

* * *

COUNTY ASSESSOR-RECORDER-CLERK Katrina Bartolomie responds to on-line questions about the Williamson Act tax breaks and changes. We are not raising taxes, we discovered that we have not been assessing Williamson Act contracted land properly for many years. One of our first calls was to the State for guidance,,by law we have to correct the error going back four years. We have approximately 4200 parcels under Williamson Act contract. Many parcels have a minimal increase, while some have a significant increase. Tax bills will be mailed out within the next week. Once you receive your tax bill, we encourage you to call our office; we are happy to review your property with you and make corrections if necessary. We will have a call line set up – 707 234-6849. 

If you are not using your land for Ag purposes, please let us know so those adjustments can be made. The Williamson Act applications are not in question, although we have found properties that are not in compliance and those properties will go into non-renewal. We have been building the Williamson Act parcels in the property system and discovered Williamson Act properties have not been assessed correctly (in the old property system). By law they have to be assessed each year. 

The changes are being made and assessing the properties correctly so the County can be in compliance with the State’s regulations. We are doing our normal work, this does not have anything to do with a fiscal crisis. (We know, bad timing, but because the error was discovered we are required to correct the error). If you own contracted land and have questions, please call us. The Assessor’s office has no idea who pays their bills, that would be the Tax Collector. If you are in compliance with your contract you will still benefit from the reduced property taxes the Williamson Act officers. Again, when you get your tax bill, if you have any questions, please call our office, we are happy to review your property with you.

TRUE CRIME PODCAST ABOUT MENDOCINO

Hello,

My name is River Wade. I'm a resident of Ukiah and I just released a podcast ‘Darkness Lurks In The Redwoods’ that features true crime stories about Mendocino County. The first season focuses on the Manson Family and their time spent in Mendocino. I was hoping your newspaper might be interested in doing a feature on the podcast. You can listen to the podcast on any of your favorite streaming services. I'll attach an apple podcast link below...

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/darkness-lurks-in-the-redwoods/id1711135839

Thank you so much! -River Kolby Wade

<mendomountainstudios@gmail.com>

ON CALL

Editor,

It’s 2023 and 2024 is on its way. North Highway 1 Roadwork for bike riders and still no phone or internet service.

Plumbing Tip: Fill your kitchen sink full of hot, soapy water and flush your drain every two months.

Sincerely,

Phil Santos, the Full Service Plumber you can reach.

408-499-1152

Westport

A FINE HISTORIAN’S LIFE’S WORK

Dear Mark Scaramella,

I have read your praises of my uncle Arthur’s work several times and passed on some of those references to my four cousins. It means so much to them as they lost their father much too early in their lives when he died of rare brain cancer in Berkeley in 1997.

My aunt Barney has offered to send me more copies of his works as she is moving and I wanted to share them with any interested readers. I can be reached by email.

Sincerely,

Andrea Hadik

Fort Bragg

A FLAWED PROCESS

Letter to the Editor,

I was present at the October 17th BOS meeting and watched how the board handled Item 4D, the Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) recommendation to move forward working with Ford Street Project’s Substance Use Services Request for Proposal to financially support the Ukiah Recovery Expansion Project. Ford Street has already secured $3 million for the first phase of the $7.1 million project and is looking for $4.1 million to complete the project.

Instead of deciding to approve or deny the request from BHRS and the Mental Health Treatment Act Citizens’ Oversight Committee, aka the Measure B Committee, some of the supervisors attacked Ford Street’s director, Jackie Williams, over a lack of a budget; they questioned the cost estimate of the project, and the funding requested. Then the BOS promoted their own proposal to use the Measure B funds to help fund a behavioral health wing of the new jail expansion. County Counsel is researching whether Measure B funds can even be used to fund the jail.

I understand that we need a new jail. Our old jail has outlived its engineered lifespan and a new jail is necessary for the health and safety of inmates and officers. The estimated construction cost of the new jail has increased beyond the original $26 million estimate but the $25 million funding commitment from the State has not. The County will ultimately pay the difference unless additional funding is secured. I don’t dispute any of this.

What I dispute is the process. Measure B was passed to fund mental health services including building new facilities. The Measure B committee is supposed to oversee the funds generated from our taxes, vet project proposals, and bring projects deemed worthy of funding to the board for final approval. During the BOS meeting, it looked as though the board was looking to usurp the role of the Measure B committee. This doesn’t sit well with me.

I watched the Measure B committee meeting Wednesday and saw the effort to work around the process codified in the Mental Health Treatment Act continue. There was a request for Support from the Measure B Committee for construction of the Behavioral Health Wing of the Mendocino County Jail on the agenda. Agenda items are supposed to be within the purview of the board or committee. There is no proposal before the committee to use Measure B funds to fund a portion of the new jail. The request for support was more than a symbolic gesture. It was an attempt to pressure the Measure B committee to fund a portion of the cost of the new jail without going through the proper procedures set forth to secure funding for projects. Regardless of the merits of the project, it should follow the same process that Ford Street has and that process should not be unduly undermined by the BOS which effectively circumvents the responsibility and authority of the Measure B committee. I want to thank committee members Shannon Riley and Sherrie Ebyam for asserting the duty of the committee to follow due process.

In our democracy, there are reasons we have checks and balances. They ensure fairness, reduce mistakes, and decrease the risk of the consolidation of power. The merit of Ford Street’s project should continue to be vetted through the Measure B committee. If the jail project wants to seek funding, it should bring a proposal to the Measure B committee. The BOS should be patient and not interfere or intervene on behalf of other projects before they go through the Measure B committee.

Adam Gaska

Candidate for 1st District Supervisor

Redwood Valley

BAD TIMING, AGAIN

Editor,

Have you noticed that the agenda for the Board of Supervisors meeting that begins at 9:00 AM next Tuesday the 31st includes Item 4e: “... Board of Supervisors will Provide Opportunity for Auditor-Controller Treasurer Tax Collector to Present Any Information in Response to Suspension ...”, sponsored by “Chair McGourty.”

Uhhh, is the Board somehow not aware that the court hearing for the same Auditor-Controller Treasurer Tax Collector to plea on the charge by the DA of misappropriation of public funds has been scheduled since over a week ago for ... 9:00 AM on Tuesday the 31st also?

I thought the public should know (and have the opportunity to attend the latter, Courtroom A. See you there.)

Stephen Scalmanini

Ukiah

THE GOOD PARTY, THE BAD PARTY, THE UGLY PARTY

Dear Editor,

I greatly enjoyed your collection of hot air from supervisor candidate Trevor Mockel. I'm guessing I'll stop laughing about the plenitude of his platitudes when I meet the man. I imagine your outrage may be rightly in reaction to all five supervisors endorsing him, which seems way outside what they should have done. It looks bad when any elected board tries to control any election, much less one to pick a new member of their own ruling group! Lawdy! It's very uncommon and inappropriate for any supervisor or councilperson outside of the retiring one to try to control who they will work with like this. It even looks bad for the departing supervisor to do this, but nothing compared to all five!

Based solely on the entertaining list of blather you published from him, Sako's one word letter to the editor said it best. “Vapid.”

On that front I was bombarded with Facebook ads recently for something called “The Good Party.” John will need to go back to the lexicon for a big brother word to Vapid for this outfit. I asked three questions on their Facebook page, full of jolly endorsements from people or bots thrilled with whatever the Good Party is doing. My questions:.

1. Who is funding The Good Party?

2. Can you name me one person who is involved with running The Good Party?

3. Can you give me one policy position?

Posting that got me banned from their page with no explanation. So I went to their web page, goodparty.org, which seems to boost some sort of apologetic liberalism, although it could be remorseful conservatism, I can't tell from the storm of cliches, platitudes and other twaddle.

Web searching for articles did no good. There are thousands of "Good Party" references on the web, especially about the right wing party of Turkey, which translates to "Good Party" in English. There is also a Good Party in South Africa and unrelated catering companies by that unfortunate name in Toronto, Chicago and Mobile, Alabama. There is also a song by that name authored by an aspiring singer who goes by the name "Jack."

I still want to know the who, what, when, where and especially Why? Who exactly sets out to change the world and says, what would be a good name? I have got it!! "Good Party." The name would be more interesting and credible if they lost one of the O's.

I am reminded of a trick of old mobsters with long last names. Change their name to John Smith or Bob Johnson. This made searching out their work harder for police or journalists.

At goodparty.org, this tragically rhyming message screams under the "About" tab.

Good Party is not a political party! We're building tools to change the rules and a movement of people to disrupt the corrupt!

Their slogan is "The movement to make people matter more than money." I think they trump Trump or your candidate in the realms of the vapid. I would have ignored them if they had not banned my post on Facebook for asking who was funding this, who was running it and can you please give me one specific? Irritated minds want to know: What the heck?

Frank Hartzell

Cleone

NOTICE TO COUNTY TAXPAYERS

It has come to our attention, taxpayers with more than one notice, could see errors on the tax bills, due to a printing error with the contracted vendor.

The corrected tax bills will be prepared and sent to you as soon as possible. To avoid any confusion, we kindly request you use the reprinted bill when sending in your payment.

We understand that errors like these can be inconvenient, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you have any questions or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to our Tax Collector's office at (707) 234-6875.

LOVE HURTS

Hello,

Thanks to Mazie Malone for the positive words about my plight. What Mr. Dorner said about me is completely false. I never brutalized his daughter or the cats. To clear things up, I was charged with domestic assault on his daughter Brianna Haley Dorner five years ago. Yes. But I was acquitted of all charges because the judge found me not the primary aggressor. The situation where I supposedly brutalized Haley was after me and her dad had argument shortly after I moved in over her insecurity with me thinking just because I still talk to my daughter's mother who at the time lived in New York which in her mind meant I was cheating on her. She started throwing my things out the upstairs window. So I stepped in her way and stood in the doorway of the closet. She then began to beat on my chest. I then grabbed her wrists to get her to stop hitting me. She proceeded to bite me on my chest on my left side. I finally got her mouth off my chest but she removed a 3.5 inch piece of flesh. I managed to spin her around and put her in a four-point restraint hold. That's what George is referring to as my brutality. This was early in the relationship between her and me. It lasted close to five years after that incident.

As far as the cats, let me tell you Shade Cloud Walker Beck and Magick Bear originally started out as mine. It was me who found both of them and brought them home and took care of them. Mr. Dorner only paid for them to get fixed which was against my wishes. He stole my best friends when he finally convinced Haley to kick me out for good. I can't lie. George did help me by allowing me to stay with them but I know he never liked me because every night I would hear him talking trash on me. I'm sure it was because he was afraid I would take his daughter away from him. George has two daughters, one is Haley and one will be left unnamed. Both daughters he had abandoned for years so he is not without his faults. He has no right to judge me or say I'm a vandal. I am only facing vandalism charges because I chose not to be a snitch and tell who really did it.

Mr. Dorner's daughter Haley has been screwing my life up in many ways. I lost my job as an anger management counselor at Manzanita Services over her vendetta with me. Now Haley works at Building Bridges homeless shelter, the only shelter in Ukiah, and yet again because of her I am homeless because of another lie told to the managers of the shelter. I was kicked out and put on an indefinite denial of services. That means I can't get a bed, do laundry, take a shower, use the bathroom or clinic services. I can't even be on the property. She told the director she didn't feel safe with me talking about our past which I find to be total BS. I think she actually is either just embarrassed or ashamed to admit that we were together and that she alone is responsible for the situation I am currently in. I also know she is responsible for another resident losing his bed because of her unprofessionalism and unfaithfulness in her marriage to her husband who is dying from cancer. But I'm not writing a smear campaign letter. I am simply trying to clear my name that George so blatantly tried to slander and to explain to the readers why I'm in this situation I'm currently in.

Screw you George, for trying to lie and slander me thinking I would not try to clear the air. Please keep your old ass mouth shut about things you don't know the actual or whole truth about because you might come to realize that what you say about people could either get them severely hurt or just make you end up looking like an ignorant retarded old fool.

I meant what I said in my last article letter. I really do want to make a better life for myself and my kids and will accept any and all help any one of you kind-hearted folks could offer me.

Thanks again and God bless.

Sincerely,

Warren Beck

Mendocino County Jail

Ukiah

* * *

GEORGE DORNER RESPONDS: I can appreciate how the Good Samaritan would have felt, if after rescuing the ill, starving beggar from the ditch, the rescued vagrant had turned around and punched him in the face. My original post was intended as a heads up warning for the feminine gender. His rage-filled ranting reply above shows you who he is. Beware.

MENDO’S EDIFICE COMPLEX

Editor,

Are you an optimist or pessimist? Do you see the world as a playground where all your dreams can come true or a barren wasteland of strife and hopelessness? A rather striking contrast to consider how we view life full of love, support & kindness, happy & carefree or debilitating dread and doom? I am fortunate in that I see all of it the good, the bad and the ugly, otherwise known as reality! Not to be confused with that old Clint Eastwood movie! The truth always comes knocking, sometimes gently an often with brute strength.

I am that knock, knock, knock, knock gentle and forceful at the same time. You just have to open the door of your mind, a little bit at a time til you can see clearly. I have to find a million and one ways to say the same thing, over and over again hopefully without sounding like a broken record and boring you all to death, but here I go again.

Mental Health is a general term for taking care of your brain health. Mental illness is a multitude of conditions that affect the brain. There are many!

Serious Mental Illness is Bipolar Disorder, schizoaffective Disorder, Schizophrenia and Severe Major Depression which affect cognition and interferes with ones life and the ability to function on the daily. Anosognosia which 50 percent of people with Serious Mental Illness experience is literally the inability to understand you are sick you have no insight in to the fact that you need help therefore unable to accomplish anything to get that help or adhere to necessary medications.

When I speak of Mental Illness I am specifically speaking of Serious Mental Illness.

The problems we face are a direct association with Serious Mental Illness! Homelessness, addiction and incarceration!

When you nurture the root all the branches and leaves flourish. But first the roots must be connected.

While we gaze upon the flowering of thoughts and ideas and what is right and wrong even our own egos, in awe of it all. The fact remains what we perceive and the truth are not the same.

The truth is we blame the poor, mentally ill and addicted for their lot in life, for their incarceration and homelessness. Instead of providing the necessary intercedence (which by the way is not jail) to redirect their illness and plight. Aside from that addiction is also an illness in its own right and pretty soon homelessness will be too.

Regardless the money does not matter, build all the psych and jail beds you want, have at it. It is not going to provide the necessary support for helping families like mine.

Mazie Malone

Ukiah

LOUIS BEDROCK

Editor,

This is in regard to Louis Bedrock, a writer and translator whose articles have been published in this paper.

It is with great sadness that I am reporting that Louis died on October 26, 2023 in Inverness, Florida. He was 78 years old. He had been on a bike riding vacation and passed away suddenly in his motel room. I think he had written several pieces about his riding experiences and the people he met on the trail. I had accompanied him on several of those trips.

Respectfully,

Stefan Zucker

Roselle Park, New Jersey

NOT MONEQUE'S FAULT

Dawn Ferreira:

The Bottom Line; there seems to be some misunderstanding going on regarding the State of the CV Starr Center. There are some who are placing the blame of The CV Starr's financial situation on Moneque Wooden. It is my understanding that Moneque chose to leave MCRPD and go to work for the city under public works as an analyst. In August, MCRPD decided to cancel the operating agreement, thus leaving the CV Starr center without any management oversight. We are all thankful that the city made the judgment call of sending Moneque back. What she found was that the CV Starr Center is in financial distress, and if changes aren't made, it will not be financially sustainable for the future. This is by no means her fault .

She is a number cruncher who is looking for the best way to turn this mess around. If truth be told, the swimming team is costing quite a bit more than they bring in, i.e., Lifeguard and custodian cost. Does that mean they need to go ? Certainly not! We all need to work on fundraising, grants and how we can cut back where possible and still keep our pool open for the community and our swim teams.. Wasting time and energy on the blame game is getting us nowhere. Can we please move forward with ways to make money to get the center out of this financial mess.

Judith Valadao

Fort Bragg

MIDDLE BEAST

Editor,

Minding my own business coming back from my local bar breakfast when up Sacramento's L Street comes a large pro-Palestine demonstration. Palestinian flags flying, chants of "Free Palestine!,” famalies and friends, head scarfs and keffiyehs, megaphones, "Israel be damned!,” taking me completely by surprise.

Considering the recent events in Gaza and Israel I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised. I knew there was a substantial Palestinian community in Sacramento and certainly more than. enough supporters.

I must say here that in college I lived on a kibbutz in southern Israel, not too far from the recent Hamas slaughter. I'm a Vietnam vet so I know about killing civilians but this Hamas…

I've taken Israel's side for many years. But like other folks on the left my sympathies are certainly with the Palestinians. However, this recent Hamas makes it hard to connect with any demonstration for Palestinian rights after such an horrific attack into Israel. It feels like the demonstrators are siding with Hamas, while siding with Israel in any way makes you a Zionist fascist. What's a liberal to do? "Never again…”

“Free Palestine…” Can there ever be a middle ground? I think not. Wipe out Hamas? I heard that about the VC in Vietnam. Good luck with that, Same with up north in Lebanon. “There's always a war…” as George Orwell said in ‘1984.’ I'm afraid Israel will always be at war with someone. I hate to admit it but I think some war should come to Iran. No country has clean hands, just ask the native women and children who got Hamased by the U.S. cavalry. But Iran needs to feel some pain, not just sanctions. I don't have to fight so it’s easy for me to say just as it is for any "Death to Israel'” demonstrator. Easy to yell. A lot harder to give up Monday Night Football and actually go to the war zone and back up the yelling.

William J. Hughes

Sacramento

DESIGN FLAW

Editor:

Pride causes us to associate ideas with self-esteem. This character defect prevents open discussion and creates resistance to change. An example of this is the internal-combustion engine controversy. Its reliance on fossil fuels is a crucial flaw. Scientists like Arie Haagan-Smit proved burning petroleum products created air pollution as early as 1950. Corporate self-interest stimulated denial, stalled change and exacerbated consequences.

Tom Fantulin

Fort Bragg

MEANWHILE, ON THE GRASSY KNOLL

Editor,

I must say that I'm baffled by the resistance of the AVA to acknowledge the obvious fact of JFK's assassination by other than Lee Harvey Oswald. Especially after reading that book by Franklin about it. To me the clearest piece of evidence was the one video that they were unable to round up and disappear at the time, the Zapruder film, which despite a mountain of disingenuity trying to explain how what you see in front of your face isn't really what happened.

It is self-evident that the bullet is coming from in front of the car, thus blowing a chunk of JFK's skull out onto the back trunk lid, where his wife struggled to retrieve it. As far as I understand the logistics there, clearly the shot was fired from the railway bridge up ahead and not from the same direction as the camera is coming from. How can you guys be wedded to such delusion?

John Arteaga

Ukiah

AN INTELLIGENCE FAILURE

Editor:

The Mideast situation is fraught with so many unknown complexities, what-ifs and dangers. One aspect that’s been missed: Mossad’s -- Israel’s CIA -- contribution to this.

Mossad clearly blew it. Not knowing of Hamas’ months-long planning for a massive attack has to be one of the biggest intelligence failures ever. Had they known, Israel could have disrupted it beforehand or at least gotten their defense forces ready to repel it.

Had that happened, the depth of infiltration and number killed would have been minimal. And like all the previous border conflicts over the past 20 years, it would have been over in a few days. An Israeli proportionate response would have been a few surgical bombings in Gaza. And the world would have moved on -- as it always has.

Instead, with Israel seeking revenge against Hamas and its brutalities, and believing it can eliminate Hamas by bombing Gaza to smithereens, cutting off food and water and massing a large-scale invasion, things will only get worse.

No one will really win, but hard-luck Gaza residents will surely be the worst victims.

Rick Childs 

Mendocino

MAKING THE WORLD LESS SAFE

Editor:

As an American Jew, I’m profoundly concerned about the escalating atrocities committed against Palestinians in Gaza. I also grieve for the victims of terrorism in Israel. Many families are suffering because of lost children, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, friends. And it needs to stop.

Yes, there are many unanswered questions about how we got here, why the world was OK with 2 million Palestinians living stateless in an occupied Gaza and what to do about Hamas a terror group.

But Israel’s leadership — with its overwhelming military might and support from much of the West — does not properly represent the interests of Israelis nor Jews around the world. In fact, I can’t think of a better way to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist — and increase antisemitism worldwide — than to turn off water and power, force people from their homes and continuously bomb communities killing indiscriminately. Lest we forget, Israel’s mandate is to be a haven for Jews who were stripped of their homes and humanity and forced into death camps during the Holocaust. Do we mean it when we say never again? Israel’s actions now are making the world less safe for both Palestinians and Jews -- today and tomorrow.

Joey Kahn

Napa

U.S. RESPONSIBILITY

Editor:

There is an even larger context to this unprecedented uprising by the people of Gaza. It is the 75 years that the majority of the international community has looked the other way while Israel has taken more and more Palestinian land and waged a bloody war of occupation against the people whose land they continue to steal.

The blame for this rests especially on the shoulders of the U.S. Congress and successive administrations that supply Israel with billions of taxpayer dollars so Israel can purchase American weapons with which to attack the people of Palestine.

If powerful countries like the U.S. had intervened to end the occupation, or even refused to take sides, this horrific war between Palestine and Israel would never have happened.

Lois Pearlman

Guerneville

SAKOWITZ DEAD RIGHT ON GAZA

Editor,

I don't often agree with John Sakowitz but his letter in the October 18 issue, spelling out the essential background to the massacres of Gaza from the air being conducted by Israel's air force, a war crime backed to the bloody hilt by US President Joe Biden and the majority of both Democrats and Republicans and expressed unequivocally in the UN, by US ambassador, Linda Thomas Greenfield, who cast the lone vote vetoing a resolution calling for a ceasefire because it didn't included support for Israel's “right to defend itself.”

By being “the first US president to visit Israel at a time of war,” Israel's Duce Netanyahu, told the world, Biden will, I expect, go down in history as this century's Neville Chamberlain, who gave his blessings to Adolph Hitler before the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia, but by sending two US carrier groups to help Israel defend itself from what was essentially an uprising at "the world's largest outdoor prison," he appears to have exceeded Chamberlain in his willingness to crawl before evil.

Jeff Blankfort

Ukiah

A JUST SOLUTION

Editor:

President Joe Biden sharing his sorrow and sadness at the Hamas attack and voicing our country’s abiding support for Israel was appropriate, but he should have said loudly and clearly that the current situation (even without Hamas) is not sustainable. Many say this is not the time for this reckoning, that we should wait until the current situation is resolved.

But now is the time – now when we can understand and feel the inevitable results of our policies.

Unfortunately, he showed a continuing inability to acknowledge the reality of the facts on the ground. He proposes sending $14 billion to Israel vs. $100 million to the Palestinians. He promoted sending 20 trucks with humanitarian aid from Egypt into Gaza while before Oct. 7, 450 trucks crossed through Rafah every day.

Biden should support a cease fire (not veto a resolution calling just for a humanitarian pause) and acknowledge the underlying context for what is happening. Israel must halt the dehumanization, occupation and humiliation of Palestinians. Even if Israel is able to “defeat” Hamas, another group of hopeless Palestinians will take its place.

Until there is a just solution Israeli Jews will not be safe.

Joan Meisel

Cloverdale

IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN

Dear Editor,

The solution to this deadly, increasingly tragic uniquely American crisis is clear, simple and obvious-standing out right in front of our faces: ban sales of mass assault guns. Once Congress agrees to write a straightforward bill and a president signs it into law: Presto, change-o: 650 Americans live on yearly.

What’s stopping us? There is the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution. Ratified Dec. 15, 1791 it was supported by John Adams, James Monroe, and most of all, by James Madison. The theory was that by assuring the right to own and bear arms, militias could be formed to overcome a national army which might take away the rights of the public.

It was never needed. Such a thing never happened. However, as has sometimes happened before, a law passed for one thing gets reapplied or misdirected. This has happened. A weapon, the AR or AK-15 or 17, was designed, patented and manufactured by gun-makers for military use is now mass produced; sold to millions.

Last week Robert Card killed 18, wounded 13. GOP lawmakers ignore over 80%.

It will happen again.

Frank H. Baumgardner, III 

Santa Rosa