- Kennedy Quackery
- It Could Happen Here
- Losing Credibility
- Hey Potter Valley!
- Antle’s Price
- 57 Years & Counting
- Alternative Info Sources
- Our Darkest Hour
- Attention Toto
- Too Many Obstacles
KENNEDY QUACKERY
Editor:
As a child I received a smallpox vaccination. In 1971 the practice was discontinued because the vaccine had eliminated the disease. We came close to achieving the same with measles and polio, but false association of the MMR vaccine with autism and foreign paranoia toward the polio vaccine has so far prevented this. The new federal guideline to reduce the number of childhood immunizations will unfortunately send the message that immunizations might not be safe, or that they are optional, and it may take away insurance coverage.
Vaccines for children are one of the most effective public health measures ever. I practiced pediatrics for over 50 years, and during that time I witnessed the near elimination of polio, measles, mumps, rubella and meningitis and a reduction in pneumonia and ear infections. Unfortunately, this success has led to complacency because people have not witnessed these diseases.
Some viral vaccines, such as measles and polio, confer lifelong immunity, and that is the rationale for giving these immunizations at the youngest effective age. It is truly sad that all the experts on the immunization advisory board were replaced with anti-vaxxers. Fever children will be immunized and diseases will reemerge.
Dr. Leland Davis
Santa Rosa
IT COULD HAPPEN HERE
Dear Editor:
It is looking like there may be trouble on the horizon in our community with ICE blazing in and compromising the rights of many through imposing force, violence and lack of due process. We could and should be prepared to protest this. This is our life together here on the coast. Most of us deeply value what we have, value the people who make it possible, value our neighbors, value a solid measure of integrity.
This all speaks to motives when it comes to objecting to the tactics and illegalities of ICE and the current stampede to suppression the administration is insisting upon. A president is leading a tribunal of thugs, parolees and lowlifes not fit to determine our values!
Think about how we can fend for ourselves. First and foremost, we can be awake and respond together, as we are the law of We the People. We can represent ourselves if we are left to it. We can object in much greater numbers to do visible meet and greet in opposition (morally and, with some dread, in person). Letters and articles submitted to news outlets and government representatives start from the bottom up. Breaking the spell of ICE invasions begins at home with us coming out of our closets, off our couches and away from all our reading about this.
It would be a good idea to consider being involved. One never knows what could happen next. Do we sit passively and despondently, waiting for gazillions of weird people to roll like tanks over us? $40 billion is going to go a long way in massive suppression. That is where this is headed.
If you are not worried about yourself, do it because you care for your fellow human beings. We are, when all is said and done, in this together. Let’s start acting on that.
Anne Early
Gualala
LOSING CREDIBILITY
Editor:
Federal officials called Renee Good a domestic terrorist before they even knew her name. Further evidence indicates she was nothing of the sort but instead a U.S. citizen trying (right or wrong) to protect her neighborhood from what she believed was unwarranted action by ICE agents near her son’s school.
Now our federal government tells us the agent who shot Good was injured, suffered from internal bleeding and was hospitalized (though apparently he was released the same day). Perhaps he did suffer injuries in the incident. But the evidence we have seen shows him walking normally following the incident and then leaving in a car. The difference in the evidence we have seen and statements made by the federal government is substantial. The government says they alone, excluding local involvement, will investigate this incident. The result of these actions is an erosion of trust.
Now, even if the federal government is telling the truth (again, for example, perhaps the agent who shot Good was indeed injured), it is impossible to know if they can be believed. A large number of U.S. citizens no longer trust our government on even the most basic of issues. This lack of trust significantly undermines our democracy and the legitimacy of our government.
Chris Carpenter
Petaluma
HEY POTTER VALLEY!
It’s very important for us to identify those within the Potter Valley Irrigation District whose well might have gone dry after the Aug 4 Flow Variance went into effect that severely reduced irrigation.
There are strong laws in place against blocking access to drinking water. PG&E needs to respect those laws. PG&E has requested permission to PERMANENTLY reduce irrigation flows.
Having this information will help protect future Potter Valley water.
Please spread this within your networks and Message this information to me.
Thank you!
Dr. Rich Brazil, DVM
ANTLE’S PRICE
To the Editor:
Darcie Antle, Mendocino County CEO, was vastly overpaid for being incompetent and arrogant!
Darcie Antle earned $319,112 in 2024, according to public payroll data.
According to public records, Darcie Antle's salary increased by 12% ($33,650) from 2023 to 2024. Her salary increased by 24% ($54,917) from 2021 to 2023.
Darcie Antle's salary was 166% higher than the average and 199% higher than the median salary in Mendocino County in 2024.
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
57 YEARS & COUNTING
Editor,
Where Have They Gone?
John Stephenson, Ralph Maize, and Ronald Parker…
It all began in the summer of 1968. Three young men—John Stephenson, Ron Parker, and I, Ralph Maize—found ourselves bound by duty and camaraderie at the Mendocino County
Sheriff’s Office. That summer, we worked the graveyard shift, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., patrolling the quiet roads and not-so-quiet calls of Mendocino County. We were rookies then—John and Ron just starting out, I already five years into the job. But from those long nights and shared patrol cars, a lifelong friendship was born.
Fifty-seven years is more than a career—it’s a lifetime. We cuffed the bad guys and placed them in the backseat, just like deputies do today. The tools have changed, the uniforms have evolved, but the fundamentals of the job — and the bond it creates — remain the same. John and Ron both retired as lieutenants, proud of the work we did and the lives we touched.
My path took me even further— rising to Undersheriff before joining the federal ranks, conducting investigations across the country. Each of us carved out a legacy in law enforcement, shaped by integrity, grit, and a shared sense of purpose.
Now, in the twilight of our lives, we look back not with regret, but with gratitude. This isn’t breaking news—it’s just the truth. And truth is something we’ve always lived by in our chosen profession. One day, we’ll have that seven-point badge pinned on us from above. But until then, we’ll keep showing up for our Wednesday coffee breaks. Because how many people can say they’ve had the same coffee buddies for 57 years?
As of September 2025, we were still sipping, reminiscing, and laughing. And that, my friends, is the kind of legacy no badge can measure.
R. Maize
Ukiah
ALTERNATIVE INFO SOURCES
Editor,
We, the American “people,” are asea on the U.S.S. Bounty, Captain Bligh at the helm and nary a Fletcher Christian in sight. A bit turgid, I admit, but the real perils far exceed any of Buck Turgidson’s wildest fantasies.
The dark history of our antecedents’ slaughter and exploitation of defenseless indigenous peoples, writ unspeakably in “Genocide and Vandetta,” is the present in the Middle East, at the behest of bloodthirsty charlatans holding our institutions hostage.
Our saving grace (AI bogeymen notwithstanding) may be the availability of real time videos and politically knowledgeable historians and commentators provided on line. I’m a novice at this theater of information, but some of these are very instructive, if not comforting.
There was a time, when a different future was imagined, if that helps:
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 377 (V), 1950, “Uniting For Peace”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_377_(V)
2002 Arab League Summit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Arab_League_summit
Today’s perspective is de-mystified by these informed commentators: Phil Giraldi, Gilbert Doctorow, Glenn Diesen, Pepe Escobar, Alex Krainer, Matthew Hoh, Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate, Justin Podhur, Dimitri Lascaris, Ali Abunimah (The Electronic Intifada) and many more, on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=electronic+intifada
Some of the sum and substance of our times as seen through this amazing cyberverse, but not good news.
Betsy Cawn
Upper Lake
P.S. — These thoughtful interlocutors join the gifts of Chris Hedges, Caitlin Johnson, and others brought to us by the implacable AVA, in my daily survey of our world’s dismays. Solidaridaj.
OUR DARKEST HOUR
Editor:
Winston Churchill spoke to the British people at the beginning of World War II. He indicated that it was their darkest hour — fearing an invasion by German troops. It seems to me that we are now in our darkest hour, and our enemy is the current administration as it is killing American citizens, attacking sovereign countries without authorization, making efforts to deny people the right to vote, trying to control educational institutions and trying to tear down the independence of the Federal Reserve — to name a few examples. We must make sure we are all registered to vote and vote. We must support Congress’ effort to obtain the Epstein files. We must continue to protest as we, the American people, will overcome and emerge as a stronger country as a result.
I have hope, and all of us must believe as Churchill did in 1940, that we will overcome. It took the allies five years to accomplish the task, but we may do it sooner if we keep up the pressure and Congress begins to reassume its oversight responsibilities.
Ed Shenk
Napa
ATTENTION TOTO
Editor:
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” We are all like Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz.” We have been forced from a place of relative safety and familiarity and find ourselves out of place, alienated, apprehensive. We are like Moses: strangers in a strange land. We long for a sense of belonging, and we are yearning for a new home.
Like Dorothy, we must join with our friends and commence a frightening adventure to defeat President Donald Trump, the wicked witch. We must face obstacles worse than flying monkeys, poppy fields and the Emerald City, where things are not what they seem. If we can overcome our own fears and doubts and stand united, we will outsmart and overpower the wicked witch. We will douse him with water until he says, “I’m melting! Melting.”
As Glinda the good witch says, “You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.” So, let us pull on our ruby slippers and understand clearly that “there’s no place like home” — and we will get there.
Gene A. Hottel
Santa Rosa
TOO MANY OBSTACLES
Editor:
Mobile homes are being rapidly threatened by corporations wanting to relocate longtime residents. Rents are around $3,000 a month. It makes no logical sense. Applying for “low income” housing is complicated and confusing. It’s impossible to find an experienced counselor to guide the process. You wait five to 12 years on lists to get in, fill out boxes and piles of paperwork, then get into a lottery (if you’re lucky), with names picked out of a hat, I guess. Then, the odds of qualifying, with just so much income and this much savings, is a crapshoot.
We can’t stay in our own communities. Being over 73 and in this dilemma is not uncommon. The entire system of housing needs a major overhaul. Think outside the box. Build more homes with at least one large window to see out of and with transportation to town. Qualify people for affordable places who demonstrate local involvement over the span of years. Reduce taxes on the sale of homes for people over 72 — help them downsize. Limit people who own more than one home and do not live here.
Katy Byrne
Sonoma
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