- MSP Fires Off Letter To Mendo County Clerk
- Off Script
- A Park, Not An ORV Raceway
- Ninth Grade Terrors
- Who's Snitching?
MSP FIRES OFF LETTER TO MENDO COUNTY CLERK
Editor,
Honestly, it’s 2018, well into the new century, and it appears the Mendocino County Clerk’s office is still using an abacus to count the votes from June 5 — 13 DAYS AGO! Good Lord. And only ONE update on how the ballot counting is going.
And how about this from war-ravaged Iraq posted April 23, 2018: "A new electronic system will deliver the results of Iraq’s upcoming national election within hours of polls closing, the country’s chief electoral officer said."
Huh?
A Third World Country with no infrastructure will operate a better election system than Mendocino County? Maybe the Supervisors should send the Mendo County Clerk (and staff) to see that new system operate - in person.
MSP has had it — and sent off this email this morning:
Election Results Delay Turning Into Cruel Joke
To Whomever:
Why does Mendocino County always have to be LAST in the state for posting election results? Results were counted quicker last century.
And besides ONE update from the Clerk-Recorders regarding the number of ballots that needed to be counted, there has been silence. How has the counting been going ? Why the big secret?
It would be nice to have an update every couple of days - or at least one a week. It has been 13 days now since the election. Jeesh.
And Humboldt County, who has 45,000 MORE people than Mendocino County, said they would be posting their results Tuesday.
The Mendocino "method" of vote tabulation has been progressively worse and if you don't realize it, you need your head, as well as the election system, examined and corrected.
Thank you for your time.
Paul McCarthy, MendocinoSportsPlus
Elk
OFF SCRIPT
Editor:
The decision to cut off the microphone of the valedictorian at Petaluma High School’s graduation ceremony was in bleak contrast to any message a reputable academic institution should send.
If the school was concerned that their young and bright valedictorian might say something with which it disagreed, it should have settled the matter with her beforehand. If, after approving her speech, the school had concerns that she might go off-script, she should still have been allowed to have her say. Then, in the academic tradition of debate, rebuttal and civil discourse, the principal could have stated the school’s position.
The audience, most of whom were probably unaware of any back story causing this puzzling action, would have shrugged and moved on. As it was, this unexplained censorship caused shock and anger, with many minutes of boos and cries of, “Let her speak!” It was a disturbing and rather appalling disruption in what should have been a joyful ceremony.
If the principal’s clumsy mishandling of the situation was sanctioned by the school board, the board members should be embarrassed. It came off as an egregious form of public bullying and has given Petaluma High, its principal and the board a black eye far worse than any they might have received from letting the young woman speak.
Jane Carey
Paso Robles
A PARK, NOT AN ORV RACEWAY
Dear Editor,
An important event for the future of parks on the coast is coming up on June 28th. The Mendocino Coast Recreation and Parks District will hold a Public Forum addressing the use of the Regional Park (2 miles out Hwy 20 at Summers Lane) at Cotton Auditorium from 6:30-8:30 pm. Concerned citizens and residents are encouraged to attend and express their interests in use of the Park. This is the only large park owned by the District, which includes the whole Mendocino Coast, and has been underutilized and abused for many years.
The Park has a desolate history of being used by illegal Off-Road Vehicles, which have broken through the forest to run on the old trails and dirt roads, causing deep cuts in the surface and loosening the dirt to erosion. Newman Gulch, which supplies drinking water to Fort Bragg, cuts across the property and receives much of this sediment. The Park was also proposed to contain a golf course, and many of the taller trees cut down for fairways. That proposal died, but new plans for an Off-Road Vehicle Park have brought new challenges to the Park. Despite the impacts, much of this property can be allowed to recover and can be protected in a manner that values its natural significance, while at the same time serving to educate the public about the uniquely special habitats that are found there.
The Sierra Club has a great concern that the entire Park will be dedicated to Off-Road Vehicles to the exclusion of any other activity, and that the botanical resources will be destroyed. Specifically, the California Native Plant Society has stated their concerns: “The 586-acre property off of Highway 20, which the MCRPD and the California Recreational Alliance plan to develop as an Off-Highway Vehicle Park, contains one of the rarest plant communities in California, and one that is unique to our Mendocino Coast, the pygmy forest . . .. only 1480 acres of pygmy forest remain.” The property contains approximately 20% of all remaining Mendocino Pygmy Cypress Woodland (“pygmy forest”). Additionally, other sensitive natural communities including Bishop pine forest exist on the property. CA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife estimates a majority of the Regional Park is comprised of sensitive natural communities. The Regional Park rests on soils that are essential to the maintenance of that habitat. Pygmy soil types are ancient soils perched on a very flat and sandy terrace and retain water in a wetland type regime. Disturbance of the surface causes quick erosion and downcutting, which can drain the vegetation of needed moisture. The Park already has some roadcuts of 12-30 inches deep and at least one 6’ deep.
The MCRPD has received a grant for restoration in the Park, which is mainly to be used for fencing. While fencing is a good idea, the plan for it was proposed with no environmental review, using an “exemption” for the State Parks Off-Highway Vehicle grant. Therefore, there is no document that directs the restoration in avoiding damage and protecting sensitive plants. In fact, the MCRPD Board already allows continued use of the Park for Off-Road Vehicle training and trail rides. The “restoration” would not include improving or decommissioning the damaged roads at all, but anticipates continuing their use by ORVs and dirt bikes. A new EIR in the works is addressed to only the ORV proposal, not other desired activities.
The Park is simply not a good place for off-road use, with issues of water pollution, sensitive plants, neighborhood noise and exhaust, and incompatible activity. The public has an interest in developing its only Park in a responsible way for the enjoyment of all sorts of activities, and the neighbors are very concerned about the impacts to their neighborhood. Please attend the public forum on June 28th at Cotton Auditorium at 6:30-8:30 pm to voice your interests.
Rixanne Wehren,
Sierra Club, Mendocino Group
NINTH GRADE TERRORS
Dear Mr. Anderson,
I enjoyed your story about the teaching job in San Luis Obispo. After reading it I thought to myself, Could that really be true? Could ninth graders be so vicious that they would drive their teacher nuts?
I then thought back to my own ninth-grade days. At the time I was going to school in Virginia. Our school was located high on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River Valley. This was probably the reason civil defense authorities had chosen the site for a watchtower. The tower was a two-story 10x10 wooden structure. The upper level had windows open all around and it was staffed by middle-aged women who may have been volunteers. This was the mid-50s and there was a great fear in America of Russian bombers attacking the nation's capital. This tower was at one end of our sports field and occasionally a ball would hit the structure startling, or perhaps awakening, the Tower Lady. She would then shout down to us in an annoyed tone of voice telling us to get away. These confrontations led us to conclude that our Tower Lady was evil tempered and didn't really like young people.
So we resolved to terrorize her.
It took us a week to make all the preparations. We rolled up newspapers into sticks and coated them with red crayon wax. We found some stiff white wire that looked like a fuse and in the center of the bundle we put a Jet-X-capsule which would make smoke when ignited. Once our D-Day arrived, about 30 of us gathered in a group on the sports field and made a commotion to attract the woman’s attention. While she watched we lit the smoke capsule and one of us went forward and placed the fake bomb under the tower. We all then ran farther away. The Tower Lady fled in terror and who could blame her? It all looked so real. It was ironic that her immediate threat came not from the Russians but from the ninth grade students. I always wondered about how useful the tower was anyway. An enemy aircraft spotted from it would have been less than a minute away from the White House.
After remembering this I have no doubt that ninth graders could drive their teacher over the edge.
Best regards,
John Mills
Ben Lomond
WHO'S SNITCHING?
To whom it may concern:
My name is Gary Blank. I am in an ongoing homicide case [Blank is one of six pot trimmers accused of murdering Laytonville pot grower Jeffrey Settler] but after reading my first article in your paper I got to wondering — who is it that released information of my case to you and other associated press? If you could help me with this info that will be great so I can clean up the bias that is going on in my case. A lot of this is helping those who desire to prosecute me to use collusion and create more fake statements!
For your information in my statement I told them cops not guilty five or more times until hours later when I was in emotional and mental hysteria! In the law it is called an involuntary statement. Also the detectives did a lot of editing etc.
Sincerely,
Gary Blank
Ukiah
I had one good teacher in high school, in the ninth grade. There was a decent one in 8th grade, too. And the between the two of them, I learned that I could write. The rest of them deserved whatever they got from the little terrorists.
Rixanne Wehren (Sierra Club, Mendocino Group),
I’ll (once again) give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume you are not aware of the Sierra Club’s treacherous betrayal of its founding principles:
— [ http://www.susps.org/ ]
For the love of money
Since 1996, leaders of the Sierra Club have refused to admit that immigration driven, rapid U.S. population growth causes massive environmental problems. And they have refused to acknowledge the need to reduce U.S. immigration levels in order to stabilize the U.S. population and protect our natural resources. Their refusal to do what common sense says is best for the environment was a mystery for nearly a decade.
Then, on Oct. 27, 2004, the Los Angeles Times revealed the answer: David Gelbaum, a super rich donor, had demanded this position from the Sierra Club in return for huge donations! Kenneth Weiss, author of the LA Times article that broke the story, quoted what David Gelbaum said to Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope:
“I did tell Carl Pope in 1994 or 1995 that if they ever came out anti-immigration, they would never get a dollar from me.”
In 1996 and again in 1998, the Club’s leaders proved their loyalty to Gelbaum’s position on immigration, first by enacting a policy of neutrality on immigration and then by aggressively opposing a referendum to overturn that policy. In 2000 and 2001, Gelbaum rewarded the Club with total donations to the Sierra Club Foundation exceeding $100 million. In 2004 and 2005, the Club’s top leaders and management showed their gratitude for the donations by stifling dissent and vehemently opposing member efforts to enact an immigration reduction policy.
Mr. Gelbaum is entitled to restrict how his donations to the Sierra Club Foundation are spent. But he should NOT be permitted to influence how other members’ dues or donations are spent or to dictate policy choices via the threat of withholding contributions. That is completely inappropriate.
Even worse, Sierra Club leaders accepted Gelbaum’s conditions in secret and forced a modification of the Club’s policy to conform to his wishes. Furthermore, Club leaders certainly shouldn’t have misrepresented immigration reductionists as anti-immigrant or racist in order to guarantee Gelbaum’s donations; there is nothing inherently racist or anti-immigrant about sustainable levels of immigration.
Worst of all, the U.S. population continues to grow by about 3 million people per year, of which nearly half are immigrants, and two-thirds of the growth is a result of immigration, if the children of immigrants are included. Our forests continue to be clearcut to provide construction materials, our groundwater is depleted to provide water for our growing population, we grow more and more dependent on foreign sources of oil, and we are unable to reduce our output of greenhouse gases, all thanks to our burgeoning population.
We don’t like it when the oil, timber, coal, and nuclear power industries oppose environmental reform, yet we understand why they do it: for the love of money. Is it any better when the Sierra Club opposes environmental reform for the love of money?
…CONTINUED: — [ http://www.susps.org ]
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PS: Rixanne, if I’m wrong about any of this, please, let me know!
Otherwise we’ll have to assume you are fully aware of the utter corruption of the Sierra Club in which you are a willing participant.
Pat Kittle,
How politically convenient and opportunistically timely for your racist rant scapegoating immigrants – many of whom are here due to U. S. corporate-controlled trade agreements (to say nothing about corporate coercion and straightforward blood-letting), militarism, political subterfuge, and imperialism — as the cause of all that’s wrong with this absolutely decrepit, crude, unjust, and sociopathic culture in which we attempt to live.
Your argument against the Sierra Club is a red herring that deliberately ignores that U. S. corporate greed, legislated into its irrevocable position of power and privilege 240 years ago, continues to be the absolute root of all that’s wrong with this nation, blithely abetted by its collaborators and apologists and other citizens mired in the sewers of the status quo.
And if you really think “we” grow more . . . dependent on foreign . . . oil” and that “we” are unable to reduce “our” output of greenhouses gases . . .” then I thank you for making my points for me. If you would please do so, let me know how “we” should address these issues to effect a more positive outcome. I’m sure that with your influence and wisdom power will gladly capitulate.
You get an A in obfuscation, but a 0 in logic.