Letters (Oct 7, 2015)

• Just Three People?
• No Laughing Matter
• NRA & Congress
• Oaky Joe In His Own Words
• Save The Gualala Redwoods
• Red & Gold Forever
• The Pushkin Sonnets

JUST THREE PEOPLE?

To The Editor,

The fact that three people, none of whom live in Redwood Valley, can make a decision that affects everyone living here and changes the bucolic nature of our pastoral rural small town — against the wishes of its citrizens, is undemocratic, unjust and unfair.

Ghandi, and most recently in Willits, Vandana Shiva, world renowned agriculturiest, protector of seed diversity, etc., etc., have both stated unjust laws should not be obeyed.

The higher ranking General Public should give General Dollar his marching orders straight out of town.

Past. Susan Wertheimer

Redwood Valley

NO LAUGHING MATTER

To the Editor:

Thank you, Dan Houck

My partner and I were profoundly moved by Dan Houck's account of his wife Loretta's fall from the back of his truck and her subsequent brain injury. ("It Began As a Day Like Any Other," AVA, 9/23/15).

Dan set the stage with vivid detail, at the start of a much anticipated camping weekend at the couple's favorite local event, the Anderson Valley Beer Fest.

Although many of us know Dan as a funnyman on his KZYX radio show, "The Treehouse," the accident was no laughing matter. How grateful we felt to the Anderson Valley paramedics who got Loretta safely and quickly on a helicopter to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. How relieved we were that Dan's friends helped him through that terrible night as he came to understand the gravity of his beloved partner's injury.

We pray that Loretta will be home and out of rehab soon and that Dan will be back on the air making us laugh again.

Thank you, Dan, for sharing your story. And thanks to the AVA for running it. A more conventional newspaper might not have found the "news hole" for such an in-depth personal essay.

Jane Futcher

Longvale

NRA & CONGRESS

Dear Editor:

Everyone agrees that we must stop the mass shootings but there is very little action to take meaningful measures that would stop the carnage. From a couple of the GOP candidates we have heard some very stupid comments - Jeb Bush 'stuff happens' and John Kasich to use the death penalty (These killers either commit suicide or get killed by the police). At the congressional level the NRA calls the shots. The NRA gets their main financial support from the gun manufacturers and the gun dealers. If a congressperson supports any gun control measures she/he can be sure there be a lot of money from the NRA given to their opponent. The gun lobby reminds me of the military industrial complex. At the state level California has very strict gun laws but in many of the red states gun laws are very lax. Plus one can not be sure how the Court will rule if a state adopts some very restrictive laws, I am not optimistic that for the foreseeable future that there will be new laws that can stop these mass killings.

In peace and love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

OAKY JOE IN HIS OWN WORDS

Hello,

To those of you familiar with my story and to those of you who are not, a brief history.

My name is Oaky Joe Munson. I grow pot for sick people. If the cops don't come and take it I give it to the sick people. I've been arrested a whole bunch of times and cases have been dismissed a whole bunch of times. For ten years my wife, children and collective members had been subjected to numerous civil liberties violations brought on by local law enforcement under the guidance of federal authority!

A few years ago my daughter and I were traveling to Virginia to see my mother who had had a stroke. While we were waiting at the Sacramento airport I saw Sheriff Tom Allman. I said, "Hi Tom." He said, "Hello James."I said, "Hey, you want to take a look at some of my patients' pictures?" He said, "Well, okay."

I spent ten minutes showing him the pictures and I was able to explain what ails a lot of the different patients. After he looked at the pictures he said, "So how are things going for James?" And all I could think to say was, "Much better, sir, since I've moved out of your county." He kind of laughed and wished me a pleasant trip.

One evening I saw Sheriff Allman out back of the bar in Willits. We told each other a dumb joke and then I asked him why he had sent his deputies out to my home. He said, "How many plants, James?" I said, "137 with 15 recommendations." He said, "That's too many, the Feds said over 100, gotta go. If it is over 100 they gotta go, James."

In a recent interview with a reporter, Sheriff Allman is on record saying, "Growers like Munson are playing legal games and making loads of money while thumbing their noses at law enforcement." He continued to say, "The moral of the story is, don't come up on our radar and we won't show up on your property." And he added, "Having a massive garden, no matter how many recommendations you have, is a great way to be noticed."

Can we look closer at what law enforcement (Allman) said. "If you have a massive garden no matter how many recommendations you have is a great way to be noticed."

Am I missing something here? In my mind that means that 50 recommendations mean shit to the people who are being paid to be protected under the law. Cops don't give a shit about some guy with a bottle full of pain pills, but if he is getting medical pot for any reason than he is a lowlife.

I would like to bring up a few more points about our patients' garden:

50-plus valid recommendations (25 or more are senior citizens). No complaining neighbors, no guns (I'll say this twice: NO GUNS. (I have little kids." No criminal element. (We only work with patients.) No parks nearby (3 miles away), no churches nearby (3 miles away), no schools nearby (3 miles away), no synthetic chemicals (organic medical marijuana), no diversion of water, no diversions of medicine (only to patients), no mean dogs, no environmental damage, no alcohol or tobacco. Et cetera.

I have moved my family four times in the last seven years as a direct result of police action. I think I'm finished moving. My children love their school! My wife has a great thyroid doctor and I'm not going anywhere! The Sonoma County Sheriff and the District Attorney are pointing at each other and saying that they are not responsible for the raid. I've had over 100 phone calls placed to the District Attorney's Office in Sonoma County on behalf of the collective. At first the District Attorney laughed and told my collective member they "had nothing to do with it and to call the sheriff." Now they won't talk to anyone!

I have another question. Why is the deputy DA's signature on the search warrant? Why won't they look at who they are hitting before instead of after? These guys have been flying over my house for three years. Why couldn't they send a couple of squad cars? The tank was overkill in a big way. I have been busted for pot many times and law enforcement knows that I do not ever have guns!

Why doesn't District Attorney Ravitch know what her counterparts are doing? Why is the investigator calling all the patients after they (law enforcement) took their medicine? Is this to look for criminal activity or to exonerate me? I think the former rather than the latter. Did Ravitch have her head under a rock the whole time she was a deputy district attorney in Mendocino County? I had 18 — count ’em — 18 felonies dismissed while she was part of that District Attorney's Office. How could she let this happen? She is supposed to be in charge.

The Sonoma County Sheriff's spokeswoman, Sergeant Cecile Focha, libeled herself when she reported to the media that trees were clear-cut to make way for marijuana plants. The facts: Nine trees were cut, all 14 inches in diameter or smaller on a private 17 acre property as directed by the fire marshal and CalFire. "100 feet of defensible space." Every tree cut was well within 100 feet of the house that the landowner lives in with his wife. Sgt. Focha spoke more: "Deputies are continuing to enforce all laws in the same way as prior to passage of Proposition 215"

What does Proposition 215 mean to the police, the district attorney? The police are being paid well to sort out the real from the fake. Deputies are responsible for finding the legitimate collective. Why can't local law enforcement call the shots instead of being coerced into breaking local laws in favor of federal law? The feds are very two-faced about this. I have spoken to federal medical marijuana patient Irvin Rosenfeld, author of the book "My Medicine." He confirmed to me that he has been receiving medical marijuana from the federal government along with other people supplied by the feds — grown by a big university. He receives his medications in a tin can full joints, low-grade, indoor, synthetically grown pot. Damn shame! Say one thing and do another. The last time I checked I lived in California where the voters voted to legalize medical pot. In my opinion local cops are bound to local laws.

Furthermore, cops take all the patients' medicine and are not responsible for taking good care of it in case the judge dismisses the case. The damage is done! How can they be allowed to take people's private property and destroy it and not be held accountable? What can a person do to convince the law that things are on the up and up? In Japan, if something is impossible, they will tell you that "This would be very difficult." Same, same!

The police who had been to my gardens tell me that they have never seen a legitimate medical garden. These are the people who are supposed to be conducting compliance checks.

Gun toting, knuckle dragging neanderthals do more harm than good. Stop letting the fox guard the chicken coop. There is going to be a number of years of transition going from illegal marijuana to legal marijuana and we are going to let these irresponsible totally unaccountable officials continue their smash, grab and a arrest cycle?

Please already — Enough! Stop!

Hey folks, we are not playing on a level field. The police can get away with breaking many many laws under the guise of the badge. As citizens it seems we are held to a higher standard of responsibility. I believe this concept of accountability in a medical garden should be shouldered equally between citizen and cop!

If people think that they can count on the cops to be fair and impartial then the cops will gain a lot more of the respect they command from the very same people that they are paid to protect.

Police will only acknowledge recommendations that are out of date. All the up-to-date recommendations are completely ignored.

Fifty sick people went to their doctors and spent their own money to try and follow laws. I run a collective for sick and dying people — human beings who have discovered the astounding benefits of the marijuana plant. This is not a bunch of young bucks running around in $100,000 pickups. This is medicine for really messed up people, some of whom are on their way to a very unpleasant death.

Believable? Who is? The judge? The cops? The district attorney? Or the defense?

A bunch of plants, a bunch of patients, a bunch of cops, a bunch of felony charges, a bunch of medicines taken, a bunch of acquittals, a bunch of anger, a bunch of disappointment, a bunch of waste — of time, money, and effort on everyone's part including the police.

When I go to the Americans For Safe Access (ASA) meetings I haven't noticed any medical marijuana growers in attendance. If you are legitimate, come on down to San Francisco and meet some of the really sick folks. Bring some medications because we smoke out after the meeting.

All of my collective members want me to file a lawsuit! I want to get the one remaining charge against me dismissed before we go there, for me, to pursue a lawsuit. I have enlisted the help of Cannabis Radio and the Grow Show. This is a Los Angeles-based radio station. This will air next Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal has me on their website with a videographer's film and all of the aftermath of the recent raid. The San Francisco Chronicle has a reporter looking into this, and other media outlets as well. We have started the Oaky Joe Defense Fund. If you want to send any contributions send them to:

Keith Faulder, Attorney at Law, 390 West Standley Street, Ukiah, CA 95482. Or e-mail: Keith@FaulderLaw.com.

Contact me at Joe@OakyJoes.com. Please comment, like or dislike. I want to see it, please!

Oaky Joe Munson

Sonoma County

PS. Feel free to call the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office at 707-565-2011. Please be polite.

SAVE THE GUALALA REDWOODS

Editor,

Gualala Redwoods has not given up. It is developing a revised plan to log the magnificent redwood forest along the Gualala River adjacent to the Gualala Regional Park, the Sea Ranch, and the town of Gualala. They propose to log most of the Gualala floodplain including areas next to public and private campgrounds and the Sea Ranch "Hot Spot." A map of the areas that have been proposed for logging is online at Gualalariver.org.

The Gualala River and this forest support an array of plants and wildlife from delicate Calypso orchids to bald eagles and endangered wild salmon. The river and forest also provide the beauty that sustains our thriving local ecotourism industry and all the jobs and businesses that it supports. It is also of course the basis of the water supply for the people of Gualala and Sea Ranch.

Because the logging would be so destructive, Gualala Redwoods needs an exception to environmental rules to carry out its plan. No exceptions should be made to log this precious, century-old Gualala Redwood forest. It's the only one we have.

For these reasons a petition by Jeanne Jackson asking for a thorough environmental review of these logging plans garnered over 1400 signatures from both locals and visitors who were moved to speak out to protect this irreplaceable and very special place.

Our local State Senator Mike McGuire, assembly member Jim Wood, and Congressman Jared Huffman responded swiftly to complaints about the inadequate public comment period for these unprecedented proposals, known as the "Dogwood" and "Apple" timber harvest plans. As a result, logging plans will be recirculated with a new comment period.

We thank these elected officials and the petition signers for ensuring that public distress about the destruction of this forest can be heard.

Emily B. Roberson, Nancy R. Morin,

California Native Plant Society

Gualala

RED & GOLD FOREVER

AVA,

An open letter to Jed York —

Dear Mr. York:

Please don't change the Niners uniforms. Those black and red ones were ugly as sin. The red and gold were good enough to win five Super Bowls and many conference championships. Stay with the red and gold, that's the team's identity.

Louise Mariana

Mendocino

THE PUSHKIN SONNETS

Editor, 

Making attempts to write Pushkin sonnets. My first wife's second husband gave me a copy of Eugene Onegin in 1970 before they were husband and wife. I read it and wrote nothing but rhymes from then on. But only recently when I reread it did I know what a Pushkin sonnet was. Slow on the uptake my friends tell me.  I can do the rhymes but that's about it. Pushkin wrote in iambic tetrameter with an added wrinkle of masculine and feminine endings that mimic the rhyme scheme.  Here's the first stanza of Eugene Onegin, a novel of 389 such stanzas.

* * *

My uncle—high ideals inspire him;

but when past joking he fell sick,

he really forced one to admire him—

and never played a shrewder trick.

Let others learn from his example!

But God, how deadly dull to sample

sickroom attendance night and day

and never stir a foot away!

And the sly baseness, fit to throttle,

of entertaining the half-dead:

one smoothes the pillows down in bed,

and glumly serves the medicine bottle,

and sighs, and asks oneself all through:

"When will the devil come for you?"

* * *

Here's my weak imitation...

A gimlet eye

Is boring in

Those walking by

With steely thin

Needles probing seams inside

For satin pockets schemes supplied

With vast and various forms of loot

To pad the visage of this suit.

The gimlet eye looks for a chance

Of getting a tiny piece of that

Which keeps the passerby so fat,

And use the bread to help finance

A trip down south and leave the weather

To unlucky birds of a feather.

* * *

I've been working on this one which started the story Frankie

Elders remember the USA

Where moms stayed home and father’s worked;

When you could let your children play

Out after dark where no one lurked.

These so-called elders have no clue

That that experience was had by few.

Bullshit rises wide and fast

When pundits wash and rinse the past—

Pull on your waders,

It’s getting deep;

The talk is cheap—

Windbag crusaders

Bluster up nostalgic talk

In hopes that they'll turn back the clock.

John Wester

San Diego