- Day Trippers
- Funding Israel’s Genocide
- Unrepresented
- Happy New Year
- Bang! Bang!
- The PUC Doesn't Do…
- Asking The Impossible, But…
- How To…
DAY TRIPPERS
Dear Friends,
I had the most amazing and gratifying experience on Sunday in San Francisco. Many years ago I promised my neighbor and young friend of 10 years that I would take her to see the musical Hamilton one day.
Briana is now a Sophomore at Anderson Valley High School. She had long since memorized the entire musical and began her reading career with Hamilton when she she was a young girl. This girl needed to see this show!
It was a sharp learning curve for me. Tickets were hard to get and expensive by the time I jumped in. I asked through the AVA and out of town friends (patrons of the Arts) for financial help. My nephew helped with the actual buying of the tickets (so many scams!)We did it! Thanks to the generosity of friends who supported this endeavor and the Arts.
It was a joy to share this experience with Briana and her mom Griselda. To go to the iconic Orpheum Theater in San Francisco.
Long day but so good. We went to the “other side” where young people get to do this kind of thing as a part of life in the city. We started off in the Marina district, on Chestnut street after the 2.5 hour drive down to the city.
For the first time they tried (real) Ramen noodles, Chinese pot stickers, a Vietnamese Banh Mi Sandwich, a Lucca Italian delicatessen meatball sandwich, a Mediterranean Shwarma, and a fancy pastry shop for coffee and chocolate eclairs.
SF in its glory, a sunny day, a fun hands-on modern art installation in the Civic Center plaza, a farmers market, a visit into the public library, and a viewing of the Grace Cathedral.
We got to the theater early! Free parking on Sunday. It was all a giddy feeling.
The show was outstanding. Fun. Lots of audience participation, singing, dancing, etc.,.a diverse cast.
Briana bought herself a music book of sheet music as she is teaching herself to read music and play the piano. And a poster for her wall which she
is so proud of! We got home in the evening, tired and so, so happy.
I am grateful for the support from this AV community that allowed us to do this incredible day. Thank you.
Kira Brennan
Philo
FUNDING ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE
Editor:
I support Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson in their votes to continue funding Israel. I have observed for years how there will be a peace agreement, usually brokered by the United States, between Israel and the Palestinians and how every time, the Palestinians renege on it. I thought after the terrorist Yasser Arafat died that finally Palestinians would keep their part of the agreement, but no, the Mahmoud Abbas regime was just as bad.
The people in Gaza voted Hamas in. This is a known terrorist antisemitic group. They don’t just want to kill Israeli soldiers but any Jewish person in the world. The pro-Hamas demonstrators do not have my support.
By the way, I am not Jewish and have no relatives or friends in the Middle East. I just imagine the difference between Israel, which allows for anti-government demonstrations, and the Palestinian territories, which only allow pro-government demonstrations. Which would I rather support? Which respects women’s rights? Which respects LGBTQ+ rights?
The lawsuit is dumb and a waste of time and money.
Linda Robinett
Sebastopol
JEFF BLANKFORT REPLIES:
If there is and has been a single word that might describe the character of the average American citizen of any color or gender in the years following World War 2, during which I grew up, it would be ignorance and if an adjective is required to make that characteristic more specific, it would be willful. That would be the best that Americans such as Linda Robinette might offer in their defense in explaining why over the last quarter of a century the vast majority have supported or at the very least have allowed without objections their tax money to facilitate the mass murder of citizens of other counties across the planet who have never attacked or threatened to attack us, details which are irrelevant to the Robinettes of our great nation.
Israel, to be sure, represents a very special case. Not only have its agents in the United States managed over the years to gain extraordinary control over our domestic political processes and both of what nominally are our political parties, but they have managed to render impotent laws passed by both the House and Senate that would clearly have prohibited further arms and bomb shipments to Israel that have enabled its neo-fascist government to conduct a genocidal war against the Palestinians of Gaza such as the world has never before witnessed while repeatedly blocking UN Security Council sanctions against Israel by a predictable US veto.
Readers may recall that both parents of a Michigan teenager who provided their nutcase son with a gun that he used to kill some of his fellow students were sentenced to years in prison for enabling him to do so because, from his past actions, they should have known what their son planned to do with that gun and more recently, a Georgia father was indicted for murder along with his son for providing his offspring with the weapon when he should have known what the result would be, another school shooting. Using those examples. Joe Biden, arguably the most evil creature ever to inhabit the White House, would already be residing in a cell at The Hague next to Netanyahu and Gallant. But they won’t get there either because of the likes of Jarred Huffman and Mike Thompson who, like most of their colleagues, have a soft spot for Hebrew accents and Jewish dollars.
Since Israel’s US agents also control the courts on issues relating to Israel, the suit against the two members of Congress will most likely be dismissed, as was a case brought against the government by the Center for Constitutional Rights earlier this year, on the basis that US foreign policy is for the White House and Congress to decide, and not subject to court reviw. Short of marching on the White House with pitchforks or casting these pathetic creatures aside in the next election, there is nothing much voters can do, but the filing of the suit itself has already received wide publicity across the globe and if it can get people talking about the selling out of our government to Israel, it will have been worth it. As it is, I am not aware of any place in his district where Huffman can visit without drawing protests and expect this will be his last term before becoming a mouthpiece for the wine industry.
As for Robinette’s knowledge about Palestinian history, while not being Jewish and having no relatives in the Middle East, she has certainly made use of Zionist propaganda and of the lowest grade.
But here are the facts: Arafat’s legitimizing Israel’s presence in 60% of the Palestinian West Bank while signing an agreement with Israel at Oslo which would have a US CIA trained Palestinian Authority militia suppress further armed resistance to Israeli occupation represented, at least in my opinion, the greatest betrayal of a liberation movement by its recognized leader in known history, and his chosen successor, Mahmoud Abbas. He has been consistently praised by Israeli security forces to this day. It is not an accident that his term in office, with a one-year extension, expired 15 years ago and only US and Israeli support provides him with any legitimacy.
Arafat did not walk away empty handed from Oslo. Each month soon afterward, he began receiving $8 million into his private bank account, totaling $375 MILLION, not to make him a rich man but to pay the salaries of the FOURTEEN competing intelligence agencies in the Palestinian Authority assigned areas. (See Jewish Virtual Library online.) By the time he died, the corruption by the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah (and still is) that the Palestinian people chose Hamas as the alternative when GW Bush called for elections in the West Bank and Gaza. When the results turned out differently from what they wanted, the US, under Elliot Abrams of Iran-Contra infamy who planned a Fatah takeover in Gaza which ended in utter failure and a Fatah defeat. The only terrorists in Israel/Occupied Palestine are Israelis, who, I decided, after living there for two two-month periods, separated by a span of 20 years, were the most sadistic people I had ever encountered. Altogether, one might say fitting role models for the likes of Robbinette.
Jeffrey Blankfort
Ukiah
UNREPRESENTED
Editor:
I’ve never particularly felt represented by anyone, let alone politically, but I know the politics of where I live, and I have to say I’m surprised. The man who actually represents me and who has been representing Northern Californians for 25 years just voted to strip transgender kids of service members of their medication (“House passes $895 billion defense bill, ban on transgender care for minors,” Dec. 12). After a cursory look at his grand total of 13 bills passed since 1999 (77% of which are designating new names to landmarks) I have to ask: does anyone here feel represented?
My neighbors, young and old, want meaningful action and social progress. I happen to believe a single voice is powerful enough for change, and I want my representatives to reflect that. I feel that the congressman for Santa Rosa has made it clear his values don’t align with his constituents but he’s content to continue to enjoy the benefits of elected office while giving little back. It frustrates me and feels like an insult to the character of the people in our part of the world.
Casey DeWitt
Santa Rosa
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Editor,
Parenting tip: kids love balloons
Get some balloons. Adults like them, too. There’s something wrong with you if you don’t like balloons.
Balloons for all.
Happy new year everyone
Kirk Vodopals
Navarro
BANG! BANG!
Editor:
Guns, guns, guns! It’s a coward’s answer to their anger and frustrations. What does it take, America, to end this carnage? How about limiting easy access to guns for a start?
Sue Bates-Pintar
Petaluma
THE PUC DOESN'T DO…
Editor:
Unfortunately, the California Public Utilities Commission is controlled by the utilities it is supposed to regulate. Six consecutive rate hikes approved for PG&E. A billion and a half in profits last year, and then PG&E commercials informing us they are doing everything in their “power” to keep our rates down. They must think we are all brain-dead. AT&T sleeps in the same bed. Our phone lines are controlled by Frontier. We were forced to give up on them and get Hughesnet for phone service. Expensive! The PUC isn’t guilty of misfeasance, but it’s heinously guilty of malfeasance. It’s time to hold them accountable along with the governor who appointed them and the Senate that is supposed to oversee them. “You’re fired.”
Jack Burger
Cazadero
ASKING THE IMPOSSIBLE, BUT…
Editor,
I am writing to echo the sentiments of Norman Solomon, who called on our congressional Rep. Jared Huffman to stop supporting weapons to Israel.
It is way past time to end what several important organizations are calling a “genocide” of Palestinians by Israel, with the U.S. as its partner. After all, the weapons from the U.S. are, in part, allowing this slaughter — officially declared a genocide by the UN and Amnesty International — to continue.
It is a real-time horror show. There are so many child amputees in Gaza, recent reports have called it a crisis. Starvation and disease are rampant. The infrastructure to support a civil society, providing necessary services like water and sewage systems, working hospitals with basic medicine and schools, has been destroyed.
Americans may not be aware of our tax dollars at work, but the rest of the world is watching. It’s time for Huffman to back the arms embargo and get on the right side of history.
Susan Hopp
Mill Valley
HOW TO…
Editor,
I think there is an easy and logical solution to the very “obnoxious and inconvenient twice-a-year clock change.”
It would benefit all of us to shift the time earlier by 30 minutes and be done with it. Parents wouldn’t be sending their young ones off to school in the dark quite as much and it would be a little brighter in the evening during the summer months.
If U.S. officials could get organized and do this, I think the rest of the world would likely follow suit.
Diane Lynch
Tiburon
Nice reply, Jeff, to Linda Robinett’s ill-informed letter.
If you want to know what is wrong with wrong with the courts just read this decision.
Net neutrality eviscerated by appeals court ruling / Emboldened by the downfall of Chevron deference, the Sixth Circuit struck down the FCC’s net neutrality rules.