- Frequent Flyer Turns Frequent Reader
- Gator Aid
- Keeping It Real
- Fix What Needs Fixing
- PG&E’s War On Solar
- No More Bobcat Trapping In California
- Legalize It!
- Most Corrupt?
- That Holy Word
- Memo Of The Week
- Small Beer
FREQUENT FLYER TURNS FREQUENT READER
Editor,
Hello. My name is Franz Wittenkeller. Unfortunately, I’ve been in your paper for a lot of Drunk in Publics. I was part of the Frequent Flyer Club with Captain Fathom and my brother Mike Vickers.
Other issues: I’m a fort Bragg native and I’m friends with Bruce McEwen. He used to hang out with us street people smoking our weed and drinking our beers.
But my purpose in this letter is to ask a favor from you: See, I love your paper, but I don’t have the means to get it here at Avenal State. I have a year left on my sentence and I would ask if you could send a sub my way. I miss all the news from home and I want to be reacquainted with Mendocino before I come home. I thank you for taking time to read this letter. Please tell Bruce McE Hey, from Wittenkeller.
Franz Wittenkeller
Avenal
GATOR AID
Dear Editor and Readers,
I've been fortunate enough to access the AVA from several inmates who have had subscriptions throughout my 25 year tour of the California prison system. I am of course a huge fan of your publication, specifically Flynn Washburne's "Stony Lonesome" essays. His self-deprecating sense of humor, his candidly honest revelations regarding his conviction for bank robbery, drug use and sordid history are refreshing in a forum most often utilized by inmates to complain, whine, profess their innocence and allege the abuse of an unjust prison system "out to get them."
Case in point, Mr. James 'Gator' Lawson's contribution in Letters to the Editor for July 29, 2015. Mr. Lawson attempts to portray himself as a victim in the prison system while also attempting to portray the president, the government and the citizens of California as dumb, or at least dumber than him! He further attempts to convince us all that we are in dire need of "change."
I find it difficult to take Mr. Lawson seriously when he has served four prison terms and 20 parole violations. One would think Mr. Lawson would "change," rather than utilize his time filing frivolous appeals and petty grievances.
Mr. Lawson states that he spends his time "walking the halls laughing at the system's stupidity." I find this ironic considering it is the system which laughs at his stupidity, not to mention the community which he plans to return to upon his release. Your readers need to know that Mr. Lawson does not represent all of us inmates in the system. Most of us are working diligently to change the behavior that brought us to prison. So please dismiss the uninformed, uneducated rants of Mr. Lawson and acknowledge that some of us are dedicated to the change needed in the system and this world.
Respectfully,
Philip McDermott
San Quentin
KEEPING IT REAL
Hello,
Yes, it's me again. I just wanted to let you know that my address is slightly different.
I try to keep up with what's going on. I heard Mr. France got railroaded. The DA's office is making a mountain out of a molehill again figure. Go figure. Mendocino is the only county in California where it's okay to commit sex crimes, but god forbid you send a text message in the heat of the moment. If any of those high powered prosecutors even remotely [illegible] women they would understand.
They couldn't make it anywhere else, like Contra Costa County. That's why they landed in Mendocino. I am glad "The Dunegans" got what they that coming. But I've still got more time than both of them together and I didn't hurt anyone. I'm still bitter over that, but I made this bed, right? Old Al, Eyster, and Behnke tucked me in real good. My appeals attorney can't believe what a joke my trial was including my lawyer. They say it's better to be hated than ignored. I don't see the reasoning. Negative attention is better than — who really cares — If I keep it real they are there are worse things I've done and never got caught. Thank God Skaggs doesn't know about that shit. He'd still be talking to Mr. Porter.
Anyway, my family still loves me and I wish I hadn't put them through all of this, but they are the only ones who haven't "fallen off" or straight up turned their backs on me.
Thanks for printing my crap and for sending me the paper. There are several guys in line who appreciate it also.
Walter Miller
Susanville
FIX WHAT NEEDS FIXING
Editor,
According to the front of the Ukiah Daily Journal for July 29, 2015, our city planners are thinking about a roundabout for Low Gap and Bush Streets.
Really?
Last Monday I was southbound on Highway 101 and took the westbound Talmage off-ramp. Traffic was backed up to the bottom of the ramp. By the time I got to the top of the ramp I cold see the problem. Westbound traffic on Talmage Road was backed up to the ramp by vehicles in line to the left turn lane to southbound Airport Park Road. This occurs way to often.
Why haven’t our city planners fixed this problem? This should be a priority to put two left turn lanes for westbound Talmage Road to southbound Airport Park Road. This would alleviate backed up traffic on the freeway and on Talmage Road. This problem will only get worse if and when Costco is built.
R. McIntosh
Ukiah
PG&E’S WAR ON SOLAR
Editor,
PG&E isn’t just starting to push back against solar. They’ve been waging a war on solar for years. When my solar panels were installed in 2006, peak daytime pricing meant I gave PG&E over $100 worth of electricity a year that they didn’t have to pay me for. AB920, enacted in 2009, required PG&E to pay for that surplus. But few of their solar customers actually get paid, and at a low wholesale price. On the other hand, my solar-friendly power company, Marin Clean Energy (MCE), pays cash for surplus solar generation at the full retail price per kilowatt hour, including an extra penny for 100 percent green power. In 2010, PG&E’s Prop. 16 tried to prevent other local agencies from forming. And they’ve continued to undercut them by gaming the rate system. Time-of-use rate changes and unjustified generation credits shifted $250 from MCE to PG&E on my last year’s bills. PG&E’s attack on solar continued last month with new rate changes that will cost me hundreds more per year. Now PG&E proposes to surcharge solar customers, who actually reduce the overall grid load. This makes no sense.
Walt Bilofsky
Tiburon
NO MORE BOBCAT TRAPPING IN CALIFORNIA
Editor,
The ground shook on August 5, 2015. No it wasn't an earthquake. It was a momentous decision made by the California Fish & Game Commission to end the long held practice of bobcat trapping in the State of California.
Trapping and killing these magnificent wild animals for their fur pelts, once considered a proud part of California's heritage, is now considered a cruel bloodsport for frivolous purpose by the great majority of Californians. Three of the five Commissioners had the insight to recognize that times have changed, and had the courage to vote a ban on this barbaric tradition. That is a ground breaking decision.
Today in California wild animals face tremendous survival pressures from the extreme drought we are all experiencing, habitat loss due to human development, and human predation. At this time in our history it is imperative that we humans learn how to live with our wild animal neighbors rather than targeting them for fun and profit.
In Mendocino County, our Board of Supervisors persists in it's policy of lethal wildlife control even though a great majority of County residents want a policy that prioritizes non-lethal methods. Mendocino County Supervisors need to take a lesson from the California Fish & Game Commission, and catch up with the changing times.
Sincerely,
Jon Spitz
Laytonville
PS. Supervisor McCowen's response to my last letter that exposed the duplicity of the BOS's renewal of the County's lethal Wildlife Services contract was so full of factual misrepresentations and pathetic rationalizations that it would take me a full page of the Advertiser to correct them all. Suffice it to say that McCowen's response just goes to show his terminal deafness to any evidence presented that contradicts his predetermined position on an issue. If McCowen's constituents knew with what contempt he holds public input into the political process, he'd be out of a job.
LEGALIZE IT!
Editor,
There seems to be just enough drought, fires, busts and new anti-pot measures to keep the market rate for drug cannabis at a steady if not increasing price. The word on the street is that all of the venture capitalists that swarm from New York and the eastern seaboard to buy the 50 and 100 packs (in lbs.) of light deprived early harvest are all being turned away empty handed. I find this kind of gratifying when these are the very shysters that have expanded the illegal market across state lines and basically step in with bundles of cash at harvest time and dictate the prices with a heavy hand. Money talks bullshit walks seems to be the guiding principle in other profit oriented agriculture like grapes where buyers set the price. Meanwhile these "investors" are turning huge profits throughout the rest of the US where prohibition is still in full effect. It boggles my mind to imagine the weight being shipped out of Colorado at this time. Are they flying small planes from private landing strips like pot was being smuggled from Colombia in the 70's?!?
Can you even believe that marijuana used to be smuggled into the US from Colombia and Mexico? Every successive effort by law enforcement to eradicate marijuana over the years has led to greater sophistication by growers and distributors. The US and Mexican government sprayed paraquat on the ganja fields in Mexico in the late 70's and so people began their own personal marijuana botany experiments at home throughout the eighties, perhaps the governments greatest folly in the war on weed. The federal government with corporate backing flew in military style to bust peoples small shady gardens in the eighties and so people moved indoors to consume massive amounts of energy for production (100 lbs of coal for 1 lb of indoor weed) or further into the woods to disturb streams and wildlife. Busts on indoor gardens proliferated which created more greenhouse grows. Greenhouse grows created more diesel spills and fertilizer runoff. Greenhouse grows get busted which creates more guerilla grows and larger greenhouses further out of the way into more virgin land. Guerilla grows are quite obviously the most destructive and dangerous of all grows. Each of these successive developments has made the whole process more hidden, exploitative, capitalistic, militaristic, and environmentally destructive.
Essentially all of the best efforts of law enforcement have created a many headed Hydra. It is high time to bring marijuana production out of the dark, off of the mountain and the hell out of our national parks.
Not only would it be politically expedient to legalize marijuana nationwide in 2016, it would be good for law enforcement and frankly if Hillary Clinton or Jebcito Bush are elected president of the United States it will be necessary for the mental health of the entire nation to have full access to some strong drug cannabis.
Nate Collins
Oakland
*Hydra - the mythical 8 headed monster slain by Hercules.
MOST CORRUPT?
Editor:
I can't give you my name because I work for the county, but I can tell you most of the county's big shots check out your website every day, and a few are even brave enough to be seen with the hard copy. I hope Mr. Marmon will excuse the cuss word here, but the reason the dependency attorneys simply go through the motions is, basically, the Mendocino County Courthouse, and Mendocino County government generally, is your basic clusterfuck, and has been for years. It's all one big CYA blob. The judges could demand honest representation in custody cases but they're the biggest blobs in the blob, so to speak. County Counsel, Doug Losak, for instance, is a key blob in custody cases, and he's incompetent even by Mendo standards, and most of the rest of the blob is afraid to say anything about anything because the blob will eat them. Losak survives by running errands for Supervisor Hamburg, easily the most corrupt individual in the history of this county to hold public office.
Name Withheld
Ukiah
THAT HOLY WORD
Editor,
Here I go again with that holy word: competition. It's more than a word, it's a thing which gives us all here in the United States one of the highest qualities of life in the world. Everyone agrees that competition should be in every walk of life — except their job because their job takes special skill, is in short supply, or is very dangerous, etc. Yes, we are all the same, and we all try to eliminate competition.
One could go back to Henry Ford who was very competitive but made it possible for all our people to have a car. Or Rockefeller who lowered the price of kerosene to a quarter of what it was. It was the lighting fluid of the time. What is the general feeling of workers who have no competition such as most government workers; in particular when they can't be fired: Take it easy or you will work your way out of a job.
Generally in the private world there is always someone wishing to make a product or service better and cheaper. This brings up what has happened to our crumbling infrastructure that we have no funds to fix. What a mile of road now costs should build two miles of road. The cost of building a bridge cost two and three times more than it should cost. For example, the building of the second half of the Oakland Bay Bridge recently finished after three times more cost and time as it should have.
Recently, Egypt opened up the enlargement of the Suez Canal for bigger ships and built another canal next to the original so that ships could go both ways at the same time. Before it had been ships traveled one way at a time and had long waits to enter. Now Egypt is not known as an industrial nation but they did this 100 miles of canal in one year because there was a competition to make lots more money as the world's shipping increases. Either build bigger ships which are already too big to go around Africa, or enlarge the Suez Canal. Because of competition, this major construction was done in one year and the world benefits.
That's why our huge campaign contributions kill competition. When a candidate gets in office he already has been paid off on how he will make decisions.
Emil Rossi
Boonville
MEMO OF THE WEEK
“Patron Comment Form”
I just spoke to the branch manager here at the Rincon Valley Library. I raised a California Constitutional objection to the posting of a comment in the foyer area which by its placement gives the impression of government endorsement of religion - in this case an quotation attributed to a religious sectarian figure.
"It Is Better To Light One Small Candle Than To Curse The Darkness” — Confucius
This and other religious based comments should not be given focal display at the entrance to a public facility. This is a slippery slope which would or lead to the possible posting of the Christian 10 commandments, the anti-intellectual Islamic State male supremacy, or even something like the Westborough baptist babblings. Religion and atheism at a public library belong in books on the shelf, not in a place of prominence.
In your response please give me the courtesy of replying to and including the entire text of this message. (There doesn't appear to be a way for me to use this form and have a copy sent to my email)
Please notify me of your decision in this matter within 10 business days.
Irv Sutley, Glen Ellen
* * *
Dear Mr. Sutley,
Thank you for writing us with your concerns. We appreciate your comments and feedback. Since you have already spoken with Jennifer Duran, Branch Manager at the Rincon Library, and would like further assistance, I will forward your message on to our Public Services Coordinator, Kiyo Okazaki. I am certain Kiyo will get back to you regarding your concerns as soon as possible. Again, thank you again for letting us know.
— Vandy / Central Library Reference
SMALL BEER
Editor:
Bruce, I just stopped in to say hello, pour myself a cup of coffee, and drop off this week's CORRECTIONS BOX. Don't bother sending my check; buy yourself a small beer, but leave a tip.
CORRECTION. We cringe with embarrassment to admit that we ourselves faked last week's anti-KZYX Letter to the Editor, and worse, we failed to be funny. After twenty-five years of trying to knock the station down, we've become boring, predictable, and afflicted with dysphemism. The AVA regrets the errors.
Gordon Black
Mendocino
Ed reply: Dysphemism? Sorry to hear about your STD, but really, Gordy, at your age? And, heck, you've been boring and predictable for years; don't be too hard on yourself. “Cringe with embarrassment” and “we ourselves”? My, my, the redundancies, not to mention the misconception.
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