- Angry Young White Man Denounces Angry Old White Men
- Attention Mr. Stern
- Heritage Of Hatred
- Palestinian Outflanks Israel & Its Supporters
- We're Not Surprised, Mr. Thorne.
- ‘No Effect On Downstream Flow’?
- Starting Over
- A Crime I Did Not Do
- The Idiot
- Mendocino County's Home Away From Home
- Beth To Doc Doo
ANGRY YOUNG WHITE MAN DENOUNCES ANGRY OLD WHITE MEN
Editor,
Re: “Balo’s Barn,” by David Severn. AVA 6/24/2015.
So basically your whole point, at least on the surface, is Balo pulled the wrong permit, but it’s a pretty, well-built barn that has farm equipment instead of horses? Oh yeah, and then they said they were going to do one thing then did another, but really didn’t break any laws. That’s front page news? Seems to me like Mr. Mullins is part of a small handful of people with money who have also done some pretty good things for this Valley, maybe not things you want, but things a lot others can appreciate. (I’ll keep the growing list of those things of which I’ve heard second hand to myself as incentive for you to actually try to write a balanced investigative article sometime.) Seems to me that there is a huge difference between a Tim Mullin’s and his vision for AV and say a Kendall-Jackson. But how would you know that if all you do is throw stones from a distance?
I also recall you guys were quite wrong about it being Balo’s pump in Indian Creek. Did you retract those statements? My point is this…if you were ever presented yourself as anything other than anti-development, anti-money, anti-anychange in AV you might actually get some of the big-money types to share their vision for the Valley. We might actually learn a thing or two. You might actually influence some of their thinking before it happens instead of crying about it after it happens.
What I just read was, yet again, nothing more than another takedown piece by a collective of angry old white men with an endlessly unchanged agenda that gets us nowhere as a community.
Matt Barnes
Philo
David Severn replies: I'm sick and tired of having rich people tell me they are of any benefit to the community. I recommend people reread Matt B as in Barnes and 3 Dog Farm for the silliness it contains. The Napafication of Anderson Valley is a huge negative. The Hippies of the 70s brought good ideas and a real love for this place. Loggers and ranchers created a real economy. The wine industry has brought us environmental degradation but nothing amounting to an economy. PS. Though he too misses the point of my article, I feel John Rensen's somewhat humorous reply was more intelligent. The last time I was called Mr. Stern was some years ago when I complained to the Sonoma State professor who was using Robert Mailer Anderson's novel "Boonville" to teach California History.
ATTENTION MR. STERN
Editor:
I just read the article “Balo’s Barn,” in last week’s AVA. My first thought was: David Stern, you have way too much time on your hands. And you must be a nightmare of a neighbor. They’re parking tractors in what they called a horse barn? Have you ever considered applying for a job with the NSA?
John Rensen
Potter Valley
HERITAGE OF HATRED
Editor
Ms. Lockyer's comments (Letters, January 15, SF Chronicle) re the Confederate flag are well meaning, but she only tells half the story. If she were to attend any white supremacy rally, here or abroad, she would see the Confederate flag displayed alongside the Swastika. The Swastika symbolizes hatred and Nazism. The Confederate flag also represents hatred to many Americans, black and white. The Aryan Nation and other hate groups are clear in their intent. Kill and hurt blacks in any way possible.
The blind spot in Ms. Lockyer's vision is the result of ignorance, sad to say. The Confederate flag is symbolic that the Civil War never really ended. It's a pitiful shame that we begin a new century with hatred still enslaving our hearts. The Confederate flag tells me that hate still lives in America.
Robert Ashley Martin
San Mateo
PALESTINIAN OUTFLANKS ISRAEL & ITS SUPPORTERS
Dear Editor:
The Palestinian Foreign Minister visited the International Criminal Court (ICC) to hand over files detailing alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza and settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The files were in an outline with no specific charges against named individuals. It was stressed it was not a referral for prosecution but merely supplying information to the ICC prosecutor. The prosecutor in a preliminary examination had found possible war crimes by both Israel and the State of Palestine in the Gaza War and the West Bank. By not making a referral the Palestinians were trying to avoid action by Congress to withhold money for projects in the West Bank. As for Israel they do not belong to the ICC and rejects its authority. There has been a couple of other issues that have come up. The French are moving forward with their own peace initiative to restart peace talks along with the help of the Arab states, the EU and the Security Council. One should not be surprised at the negative reaction of Netanyahu to the plan In addition, Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian, has called on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to retract its recognition of Israel until Israel recognizes the State of Palestine. The recognition of Israel led to the signing of the Oslo Accords which was the foundation for security agreements between the PLO and Israel.
In peace and love,
Jim Updegraff
Sacramento
WE'RE NOT SURPRISED, MR. THORNE.
Dear Editor,
There is an annual event which takes place towards the end of June at the Mendocino Woodlands (in Jackson Demonstration State Forest, about five miles east of the Coast) called California Witchcamp. My wife and I, who live in Los Angeles, attended there last year for my first time. This year my wife and I signed up and had received confirmation of attendance. Since confirmation and before the start of camp there were a series of online discussions I initiated about camp and how people connect with one another which led to my being disinvited from camp. Some parts of my online posts were taken down due to concerns over having shared too much personal information. This led to discussions about the proper use of this space.
In the process, since this was mostly taking place on social media, camp leadership learned of my history of depression and suicidal ideation.
Shortly after this I received an email from camp leadership stating that I would not be allowed to attend camp this year due to concerns over my mental health status. Additionally I was informed that I would be given a refund as the camp had cancelled on me but my wife would not be receiving a refund as she was still free to attend. To be sure there is more detail to this story. For purposes of a letter to the editor I have attempted to give a summary of the major details. I am writing to this newspaper based upon a suggestion of the local chapter of the National Association for Mental Illness (NAMI). I thought you would like to know about the mistreatment of people such as myself based upon my mental health status that is taking place in this community.
Sincerely,
Kerry G. Thorne/Licensed Marriage &Family Therapist
Los Angeles
‘NO EFFECT ON DOWNSTREAM FLOW’?
Editor,
Does the Gualala River have 25,000 gallons per day to spare, in addition to ongoing diversions during yet another historical critical drought year?
The water drafting proposed for two timber harvest plans (THPs) by Gualala Redwood Inc.’s new owners indeed calls for a staggering 25,000 gallons per day to supply the “Apple” timber harvest plan for the hills above Sea Ranch, and the “Dogwood” logging plan for the floodplain of the lower five miles of the river up to the mouth.
Water drafting would occur from April 1 to Nov. 15 each year the logging occurs. It’s buried as “Item 26” in the hundreds of pages of disorganized documents along with massive amounts of outdated or boilerplate information. The maximum rate of pumping goes up to 350 gallons per MINUTE at Twin Bridges, Pepperwood Creek Crossing, powerline crossing, and a summer crossing.
But don’t worry. The timber plan assures us that the pumping would have “no effect on downstream flow” because the timber company’s hired consultant said so back during the pre-drought 2010 conditions. Oddly, there is no cumulative impact analysis of water drafting in the plans.
How could “no effect” be possible if an additional 25,000 gallons are diverted when the drought-drained river is already running below summer minimum flows allowed by law, like the last two years?
The logging plans have not yet been approved. The “Apple” plan THP number is 1-15-033 SON. The “Dogwood” THP is 1-15-042-SON. If you have concerns about water supply or fish, comments can be sent to CalFire at santarosapubliccomments@fire.ca.gov.
The Water Board so far has made few comments about these THPs. Their Santa Rosa office contact is 707/576-2220.
Peter Baye
Annapolis
STARTING OVER
AVA,
Tonight I received my first AVA since moving to California. I see you extended my sub too. Thank you. I now am current with the June 10 edition.
As to how I came to be here: for the last year I've been trying to get my security level lowered a notch. I am a "high max" due to youthful exuberance — keep in mind that no physical injuries resulted from any of my crimes.) Maybe 2% of the federal prison population is "high max" and if I get it lowered to the next level -- "high in" -- then I would be eligible to go to a different sort of prison and save up some money for my release in June of 2020. My case and unit managers agreed that I deserved custody reduction in light of my record for the past 11 years. The Parole board called it "superior." However, they did not know how to get one's custody level lowered.
We went to the head case manager for USP Hazelton in West Virginia and he told us how it is done and we set about doing the paperwork. Everybody signed the recommendation and sent it to Warden Terry O'Brien as the final person at Hazleton to sign and he then was to send it to Mr. Samuels, Director of the Bureau of Prisons in Washington DC.
The rest of this is conjecture.
The warden did not want to put his signature on the recommendation probably because I had kidnapped prison guards while escaping in the past. (I release them down the road unharmed.) That was long ago and today he had no valid reason for refusing to sign, so he ordered that I be put in the hole and had my property thoroughly searched. Finding nothing of significance, he then ordered my unit team case manager and unit manager to transfer me.
So here I am in sunny Southern California at a US penitentiary called "Victorville." Now if I want to start the process again to lower my security level a notch it will require years before the staff would become confident enough with me to recommend that.
I have five years left. I'll just do that here.
I received what was left of my property the other day. In the process of "searching" they must have destroyed and "lost" a lot of items.
This prison is cleaner and quieter than the one in West Virginia. There are pigeons and squirrels on the yard here. The radio does not get NPR or PRI anywhere in here. I'm trying to get a job at the educational department as a tutor. The store here sells large dark chocolate bars.
I will now read and then introduce the guys here to my issues of the AVA.
Freedom and health,
Paul Jorgensen
Victorville
A CRIME I DID NOT DO
Hello,
My name is Kerry "Shane" Abela, prisoner AW8106. I'm currently incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison in cell 3-18 Badger. My age is 51. I'm doing a sentence of 17 years at 85%. I was denied half time credit. My charge is first-degree burglary for selling a guitar and two microphones with a value of $300 for a homeless man who begged me to help him because he had no ID and he was homeless, hungry and cold. He said if I would buy the guitar he would give it to me cheap, or I could help him by using my ID to sell it to his friend at the music store so he could get it back at a later time. I agreed because my heart went out with his situation. I'm an advocate for the homeless, helping them out whenever I can, being that I was homeless once myself and I don't forget where I've been.
Because I knew this gentleman I had heard him in the past when he panhandled with his guitar. I used my ID only to be charged a year later for a crime I did not do because of my past. I was charged with a second strike and given four years for the crime which was doubled up, doubled to eight years, and a second strike then given nine more years on top of that for the third term I've done before many years ago.
This sentence so far has been a sham and a lie, depleting my bank account and putting my fiance on the street as we lost everything. She was later to have a heart attack and barely lived through this experience. To this day her health is in question as she is still homeless.
At my prelim the homeowner stated he knew who stole at his house for said person had stolen equipment on numerous occasions and he had to retrieve his things each time from said music store in Santa Cruz.
Later he was to state that I was not the man he was speaking of, that, that he had never seen me in his life, that the person he was thinking of was staying at that house and had access to the items at the house and was kicked out for stealing at the house. Later during my case this gentleman did a videotaped confession in front of my fiance and five witnesses but the court was not taking new evidence. After $30,000, nine months in jail, losing everything my fiance and I owned, I was offered freedom for a plea bargain. I stated I could not be guilty of something I did not do. I was told by my attorney/judge if I pled the Franklin Act that was an innocent plea in the interest of justice and my personal life that I would be set free to a program. After five months of doing a six-month program I was told by Probation that I would be remanded into custody, that I was not on probation or program eligible, and that the recommendation was 17 years in prison, and I would be remanded on my court date. I then fell into depression and hopelessness and relapsed and was kicked out of the program. That I was for a crime I did not do.
When judged I was given 17 years with 85% for selling a guitar to a music store for a homeless man. Now I sit in prison for a crime I did not do.
Sincerely, Kerry 'Shane' Abela
Prisoner AW 8106 San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin CA 95474,
PS. Thanks to Mendocino County resident Aaron Griffin who is my celly in prison doing a three-year term. Please write back if interested.
THE IDIOT
Editor/Publisher and fellow AVAers,
Sunny Saturday, first day of summer, 20 June 2015.
I'm reading Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. The idiot barks, "You shameless blabber." Snake in the grass, a hint is passed. He wants her to "knuckle under." In Russia, civil servants were not allowed to wear beards. Manoeuvre. Hauteur. Guile: sly treachery. Aspen: a poplar fluttering leaves. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, etc.
Hurray, it's the first day of summer. And it shall be USA Independence Day in 14 days. Yet yr eye-goggles ready for the flashes, bangs and the celestial fireworks outburst over the College of the Redwoods that celebrates America's freedom, the American family. God bless America and the AVA.
Sincerely,
Diana Deadtree Vance
Mendocino with Associate more timber, hiss boo trucks full of lumber, Fort Bragg.
MENDOCINO COUNTY'S HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Editor,
The Number One Vacation Hotspot In California
I'm Aaron R. Griffin, 33 years old of Ukiah. My address is: San Quentin State Prison AW8134 94974. I'm here now at good old San Quentin doing a three-year term. I'm five months into my sentence enjoyin' life, kickin' it, chill'n with the homeboyz, the "woodz."
My bunky Kerry Abela is doing a 17 year term for "a crime he didn't commit."
We got the penthouse suite. It's a luxurious two-bedroom with bath/shower/sink all-in-one, with a bayside view on the third floor of Badger Inn, Room 318. So we got the overlook of the Bay through our 36-inch by eight-foot Bayview window/gunner tier door. Our interior room-cell is an eye-catching puke green. My buddy and I decided to go on vacation with last minute reservations when we happened to show up on the same day for intake. My bunky Kerry decided to upgrade and bought a bathroom mirror in laminate 5 x 6 (inches LOL). That way we can shave with our top-of-the-line razors. We're pretty lazy so we hang out in the penthouse for about 23 hours a day except for Tuesday and Friday when we step outside for two hours to get a fresh breath of the beautiful day air and take a lap or 100. There are other visitors to play basketball and handball with, and we have a personal barber who's willing to cut our hair bald for free or at the tip tip of a couple cups of delicious Top Ramen soups. Geez, this is the only place on earth I want to be. It does not get any better than this. I mean there's no females -- that's always a plus.
We take showers for four or five minutes underneath five showerheads with 50 other dudes. Hell yes, forget the females. When you get 50 naked dudes head butting each other with their heads — and not the head with the brains in it — it's hot.
So I give this place a 10 out of 10 for the most popular hot spot all for free paid by the taxpayers who work hard for their money and pitch in to buy us the best vacation a man can have on Planet Earth.
By the way, there's also a five-star chow hall which serves only the finest food a man can eat. Says right on the box which our food comes out of: "not for human consumption." Hundred percent true. Who wouldn't eat that? Especially if that's all you got to eat. That makes this a fine place to dine. Room, septic, water, mattress, bedding, (stained) clothing and not for human consumption food — all compliments of the great state of California.
Prisoner Aaron R. Griffin AW 8134 Badger 318
San Quentin State Prison 94974
BETH TO DOC DOO
Letter to the Editor,
Dear Dr. Doo,
Helped Lara and Mark launch the Home Depot demonstrations in Ukiah a fortnight ago—Don’t buy Mendocino Redwood Co.’s phony baloney “Certified” deck boards at Home Depot. Four hours in the sun without a hat, must have given me a touch of sunstroke, which left me waking up dizzy for two days; so when I heard the loud knocking on my cabin door, I figured I’d passed out and was lucidly dreaming
Imagine my lovely surprise when I woke up in your cartoon… in captivity.
Lovely because I simply have not been able to break through the Redwood Curtain with the story of the Bros. Fisher’s pernicious policy of hack & squirting 85,000 acres of trees—hardwoods, firs and hemlock—then left standing dead for carbon accounting purposes.
Left standing dead for up to a decade! Millions of trees, miles of interspersed dead zones, created with a persistent poison aggravated by fog drip, which has been banned by the European Union since 2003.
Standing dead tree forests surrounding the communities of Comptche and Elk and Westport and Navarro and Brooktrails and Piercy, all the way from Comptche to the out skirts of Ukiah. Despite the David (as in David and Goliath) efforts of the stalwart chief of the Albion/Little River Volunteer Fire Department to get CalFire or the Supes or his own small fire district to call a Moratorium on the practice.
Millions of standing dead timber: All so the Fisher Bros. Robert and John, can leave enough carbon in the forest to go after the old, moist 2nd growth that give our communities some protection from the spread of wildfire when the lightning strikes, as it will in clusters more and more frequently due to the warming climate.
Did you know the State in all its bureaucratic stupidity has even scaled the amount of carbon in dead trees you can keep credit for from poisoned trees with crumbling leaves still on, through poisoned trees with limbs not yet fallen, to naked stalks.
Been calling Peter Firmite, the Chron’s environment feature writer with this story since last September, when the Mendocino Redwood Company filed a 758 acre thp (one of five) that would have removed 62% of the old second growth from Railroad Gulch, a healthy healing forestland bordering the estuary of the lower Albion, right there where the juvenile salmon hang out before their oceanic journey.
Called and called, emailed and emailed Peter Firmite and he’s yet to acknowledge.
My guess is it’s because of all those GAP and Old Navy and Athleta ads in the San Francisco Chronicle.
So thank you so much Dr. Doo for getting our stories out.
Exposing the risks we face, we and the Defenders of the original forest of the Mattole, who are doing the Maccabee thing against the neuvo lumber barons John & Robert and their lackies, including Dennis Thibeaut, who outright, unabashedly doesn’t believe climate change effects the coastal forests. Doesn’t believe poisoned canopies burn hotter, faster than naturally dead trees.
And thanks for the company of the cat I’ve named Cohort. Cohort has managed to slither through his/her bondage and has promised to deliver this missive to the AVA drop box, and return to see me through this new ordeal.
Plus, I wanted to send you kudos for the choice of the adjective “evil” in characterizing the Fisher Bros. in your last panel. (in that the use of the word “evil” generally freaks us humanists out.)
So I'll leave you with this story: . . . In 2012 the European clothiers called a conclave of the global retailers with the goal of working out a procedure of strict nation-wide factory safety inspections in Bengladesh, where all of them had moved their merchandize-making because wages in Bengladesh had become lower than wages in China.
(This is when Robert Fisher is chairman of the Board of Directors of GAP Inc.)
Robert’s person walked out of the discussions, telling a reporter from the Guardian that to do so would expose them to “liability” and! they didn’t want to spend any more money on “safety”. Actually said that on the way out.
The international clothiers disbanded rather than give a competitive edge to GAP.
Three months later, 112 garment workers died in a horrendous fire that started in the basement of a locked building.
Six months after that fire an eight story building in Rana Plaza collapsed killing another 1000 people.
The Bengladesh workers left the building the day before, after noticing gaps spreading through the concrete. They returned the next day, gathering outside the building to pick up pay for the work they had done the preceding month, and were met by club wielding thugs who bludgeoned them back into the building and work. The owner of the building claiming he had to meet a deadline for an order from GAP Inc. or nobody would get paid…
Specifically, at those last moments of their lives, 1000 workers were sewing clothing for GAP.
I am not making this stuff up.
Nor am I making up the collapse of the Willits Bypass viaduct falsework, where 4 workers fell to their almost-deaths, constucting a bypass that could not have been built without the Fisher Bros. selling CALtrans 800,000 yards of (only slightly) contaminated fill dirt from the old Apache Mill site, to smother the largest wetlands in northern so that the brothers could level a highly scenic mountainside, flattening an area for a new commercial site right outside the new, unnecessary 4-lane Interchange. A permit for earth removal John & Robert Fisher never, ever would have gotten through otherwise without an EIR.
This the self same Robert Fisher, chairman of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (collector of lovely old scenic California photographs) who was appointed last November by Gov. Jerry Brown to be the co-czar of his new ‘Climate Change and Economic Growth’ commission! —Jerry Brown’s wife having been Robert Fisher’s closest adviser for 12 years when she worked for the GAP.
We Are All Bangladeshi Workers!
Would someone please, please put that consigna in Spanish on a picket sign for me, and attach themselves to the ‘Hack & Squirt/ Standing Dead Trees’ float at the 4th of July parade in Mendocino next week —that particular parade being the other way to break the story through the Redwood Curtain.
Love you, Dr Doo. I have faith Cohort is returning. So I’ll keep in touch
Captivity is not so bad. Did I ever tell you about the time I almost delivered my son named after Medgar Evers in a Cleveland jail, and one of the matrons gave me a donut to eat to keep him put before his due date.
Your friend.
Beth Bosk
Mendocino
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