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Letters (July 19, 2017)

By AVA News Service on July 19, 2017

* * *

WHO HAS THE FOOD BANK’S BLACK WAGON?

Editor,

A musical from Boonville,

Not so amusing.

Not Starring Clint Eastwood. Or Julie Andrews.

Starring someone who could put their cape on and help us solve this mystery

ACT I The Black Wagon disappeared from the Food Bank just prior to the May

distribution

ACT II Carelessness? Selfishness? Maliciousness?

ACT III Bring it back.

AV Food Bank

Boonville

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ATTENTION SIMPLE LIVERS

Editor,

The Not So Simple Living Fair needs you!  This amazing event is all-volunteer run, and we couldn’t do it without you! We are seeking volunteers to assist at the gate, in organizing the Saturday Potluck (don’t forget your dish to share!), and in a few other unfilled rolls. Your gift of a 1.5-2 hour shift will get you great appreciation from our all-volunteer staff.  If you offer a minimum of 3 hours, you can get in the fair for free for one day. 4.5 hours will get you in the whole event for free.

The deadline for applicants has been extended to July 21st, in hopes to fill all our needed slots!  You can visit http://notsosimple.info/2017/05/volunteer/  to sign up to be a volunteer.  This part, at least, really is simple!  We look forward to seeing you there!

Abeja Hummel, Volunteer coordinator/cheerleader

Boonville

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WINE BOOTH SMILES

Editor,

A belated but sincere Thank You on behalf of the Senior Center and Historical Society boards to everyone who helped us raise money via our annual wine booth at the Sierra Nevada Festival.

It's hard to believe that the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival is already a month in the past, and before any more time goes by, the boards of the Anderson Valley Senior Center and Historical Society have a lot of people to thank for helping us, once again, raise much-needed funding via our annual Festival wine booth. Of course, you can’t run a wine booth without wine, so a huge thank you goes out to the great folks at Navarro Vineyards and Pennyroyal Farms for the more than generous donation of the delicious and popular 2013 Navarro Zinfandel and Pennyroyal 2015 Sauvignon Blanc. We also want to thank our marvelous crew of volunteers who shrugged off the heat and the long shifts to greet each customer with a smile and make people want to come back for more. (The excellence of the wine helped, there, of course.) Finally, thanks to the folks of the SNWM Festival for facilitating our fund-raising efforts once more and for issuing all those volunteer passes so that everyone could come and go easily and enjoy the music, as well. So, to everyone who played a part, a belated but very sincere thank you for a job well done!

Thanks!

Jerry Karp, Boonville

For the Senior Denter/Historical Society

* * *

NUISANCE HOUSE, FORT BRAGG

Editor,

The Hospitality House has become a major source of serious problems for local residents and businesses, with increased littering,  loitering, and more serious crimes, degrading quality of life and harming the local economy

We feel the Use Permit for HH should be limited  to 24 beds, offering free meals only to these clients.

Random, regular drug-testing as well as criminal background checks should be standard requirements for clients and employees alike, in the interest of public safety.

Mismanagement must end by hiring a well-trained professional with excellent references.

HH must provide and pay for their own security personnel,  rather than continue to overburden the Fort Bragg Police Department.

Only clients sleeping at HH should be offered free meals, with a serious work-for-food program for the able bodied.

Use of funding by HH must be carefully audited by the City to prevent misuse of taxpayers' monies.

The board of directors should be composed of local residents, not people from other areas.

Thanks you for your time.

Alice and Douglas Chouteau

Fort Bragg

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SONOMA CLEAN POWER: JUST A MIDDLEMAN

Editor:

Were you aware that Sonoma Green Power does not produce any power but buys it from producers and resells it? They are nothing more than brokers and we had them shoved down our throats because our Lords of Supervisors probably thought it was a great "feel-good" opportunity. I believe in environmental protection, climate change, etc. I do not believe in subterfuge, innuendo and less than full disclosure.

M. Lee Wachs

Ukiah

* * *

THEY GOT TOTAL COVERAGE

To the Editor of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

Please consider an informational story outlining the health care plan for members of Congress and their families. Our representatives need to face up to the hypocrisy of their plan vs. our plan. Many people know our representatives have extensive coverage but not in detail. As they say, the devil is in the details.

Judith Jensen

Santa Rosa

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THE 2020 ELECTION

Editor,

In the election of 1968, tainted by assassinations, a police riot in Chicago and anti-war demonstrations, Richard Nixon lied his way into the White House with a secret (and nonexistent) plan to end the war. Despite the rising clouds of Watergate and his mishandling of the war, Nixon was re-elected by a landslide in 1972. Hardly seems possible.

In 2000, George W. Bush attained the White House courtesy of a coup delivered by Florida (a state governed by his brother). Despite lying about weapons of mass destruction and initiating an unnecessary war in the Middle East, which is ongoing today, Bush was re-elected in 2004. Hardly seems possible.

In 2016, tainted by Russian interference and inappropriate political intervention by the FBI, Donald Trump, a prolific liar spectacularly ignorant of history, world events and ethics, amoral, misogynistic and generally boorish, attained the presidency. Hardly seems possible. Even he couldn’t believe it.

In Sonoma County, it is generally assumed that he will be a one-term president. Based on the above short history, that is a dangerous assumption.

Unless the Democrats come up with a cohesive and intelligent alternative program, led by youthful and, yes, charismatic candidates, it could well mean four more years for Trump in 2020. Hardly seems possible.

Chris Kuhn

Santa Rosa

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ONLY 16 MORE YEARS?

Editor,

So Proposition 57 has taken 23 years off my sentence. My release date is now June of 2160. And my first parole board date is, get this: February 27, 2033. That's only 16 years away. Who knows what else may happen since my first strike is before November of 1994 (March of 1994) and my second strike is no longer a strike. 136.1 is now a serious but nonviolent felony. Maybe by the time I am 60 or 65 I will be able to walk free again. I have my hopes of going back to Mendocino to be resentenced and. M.H. — I read your article. Homeboy, you know I send mine in full. Remember J.W. in that motel room in Willits? Nice night hook! Keep your head up and I'll see you on the flip.

Truly,

Walter K. Miller

High Desert State Prison

Susanville

DA DAVID EYSTER REPLIES: Last November the voters passed Proposition 57, the so-called Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016. Some voters have candidly admitted after-the-fact that they really did not understanding the ramifications of what they had voted in favor of implementing. This, of course, is not surprising since Prop 57 was drafted to be intentionally misleading to better its chances at passing.

The early release regulations promulgated by the Department of Corrections have now kicked in, as of two weeks ago -- July 1st. The first batch of early release convicts -- 800 in number -- are now being vetted by the parole board, with local prosecutors allowed only thirty days to review each file and draft opposition letters, when appropriate, to the parole board.

More pointed is this recent letter to the Anderson Valley Advertiser authored by inmate Walter Miller which may best illustrate the threat to public safety that was approved. Miller was convicted by a jury of the attempted murder of a deputy sheriff in 2013, along with several felonies, including residential burglary. Because of these crimes, the defendant's white supremacist gang-related background, and his lengthy criminal record, Miller was sentenced by Judge Behnke to 181 YEARS TO LIFE in state prison. Miller is talking about what should be a forever sentence. This letter should make all law-abiding citizens sick to their stomachs at the very least.

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WE’RE NUMBER 5!

Dear Editor:

California Could Become the Fifth Largest Economy in the World.

There was an article in the Sacramento Bee reporting on the world's 2016 ranking of economies by Palo Alto economist Stephen Levy, who heads the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. The ranking was the same as last year after California passed France and Brazil. The economy  of California is growing so quickly Levy projects that this year California will overtake the United Kingdom which is the fifth largest economic. The economy of the U.K totals $2.62 trillion and California $2.60 trillion. California as the result of the recession was ranked 10th in 2010.  Levy acknowledges housing, transportation and air quality problems but points out employment rate has dropped to 4.7 %, the lowest in 17 years. Also, California's economic growth of 2.9% last year nearly double the U. S. average last year, and was the 7th best among the  states.  As a sidebar, I would comment that Mr. Levy does not appear to factor in the effect of climate change nor the economic policies of President. Trump or the GOP Congress on his forecasts. I also would comment that California with its population has only 2 Senators while numerous sparsely populated states like Nebraska also have 2 senators whose actions can adversely affect the economy of California.

In peace and love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

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PORN & PROSTITUTION

Redactor Poderoso,

Kindly explain why, if legal prostitution may be the only salvation for Ukiah, pornography must still be banned.

Jay Williamson

Santa Rosa

ED NOTE: I think we've danced this dance before. One more time, and in my opinion, of course: Pornography is the ritual humiliation of half the world's population for the titillation of the other half — the dumber, more generally pathetic half, the audience for pornography. Prostitution, in its less sordid, uncoerced manifestations, is the commercial exchange of a sexual act by mutually consenting adults. I was joking if I said prostitution is Ukiah's only hope. What I recall saying is that at one time there were legally tolerated or legally sanctioned brothels everywhere in Mendocino County, as there were in many American communities. (Humphrey Bogart lived in one in San Francisco for weeks at a time in the early 1950s.) The brothel in Ukiah was so popular there's a commemorative plaque on the sidewalk in front of where it once stood. Now that you bring it up, though, I'm sure a well-regulated brothel, or series of brothels, would draw many more male visitors to Ukiah than, say, the Grace Hudson Museum, presently the town's sole tourist draw. 

* * *

ACHOO HAIKU

Editor,

Build a new bunch of guillotines.

Make the blades heavy and sharp.

Set them up in the town square.

Trump Team Treason

shouldn't go unpunished.

Make Mike Pence

pull the string

on his own guillotine.

Let Bernie rule benignly.

Ken Ellis

New Bedford, MA

* * *

IS RUSSIA AN ENEMY?

Amigos,

Is this a true statement? Those who answer "yes" proudly depend on several of the following for their news & political opinion: NYT, WashPo, MSNBC, CNN, Daily Beast, Daily Kos, NPR, New Yorker, Atlantic, PBS, Salon, HuffPo, Democracy Now, Sam Harris Podcasts.

Phil Baldwin

Ukiah

PS. If you wonder about my chief sources, well, heck: Ukiah Daily Journal, AVA, Consortium News, Counterpunch, Antiwar.com, RT, Russia Insider, Dissident Voice, Press TV, MintPress, Black Agenda Report, 21st Century Wire, New Eastern Outlook. Yes, to counterbalance the 12 lefty anti-imperialist sites I do watch Tucker Carlson of FOX News & occasionally for opposition research I check out CNN's Anderson Cooper & MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

* * *

CUKES & COFFEE KLATCHES

To the Editor:

I remember the editor of the Ukiah paper years ago stating that he had sent two dollars to the Boonville pinko sheet as his contribution for the purchase of a bus ticket for shipping Bruce Anderson out of the county.

Now there you have the solution to Ukiah’s homeless situation. The Ukiah homeless asks for a bite to eat or a warm place to sleep on a cold December evening. Oh, sorry. There are no homeless services, public or private anymore. It was decided that the most humane thing to do would be to transfer all of the resources available to the bus ticket fund.

Would you like a bus ticket and where would you like to go? Lozenges? Fine. We will buy you a ticket to Lozenges and here is a cucumber (organic) sandwich to eat during your trip. Goodbye.

Well, now the 2018 Third District supervisor campaign has started with weekly coffee times in Willits and Laytonville to meet the candidates. My guess is that there is not a whole lot of interest in county government around here. That could change if a certain weekly paper would have a reporter present at these coffee times to listen to the concerns of those attending. I'm sure Jim Shields will cover the Laytonville meetings. After a few weeks these reports will be the most popular part of the newspapers.

In recent years half of the graduates of Willits high school have Hispanic surnames. It will be interesting to know if the Latino community is happy. Well the candidates for supervisor be able to address their concerns? Congratulations to Mark Scaramella who has been named civilized engineer of the month for his interest in the Willits Bypass.

Ralph Bostrom

Willits

PS. The New York Times really dislikes Donald J. Trump intensely. They have heard that no one expects America’s last newspaper to be written objectively; they would like to send two executives to Boonville to learn how to write subjectively. Can you have someone meet their corporate jet at the Sonoma Coiunty Airport?

Here’s a quick quiz for Contestant #0003, Mr. Mark Scaramella, the Answer Man!

(a) Who invented Afternoon-mare?

(b) Who invented the character Mr. Kurtz?

(c) What was the father’s occupation in “Look Homeward Angel?”

(d) In what novel do we encounter a ticket porter?

(e) Who was Charlotte’s friend?

(f) What word was Normal Mailer unable to spell correctly?

(g) Who wrote “Up In Michigan”?

ms replies: a. Don’t know. b. Conrad. c. A professional drunk? d. Something by Dickens? e. A spider? f. Misspelled? g. Hemingway, probably. 

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