Letters (Aug. 8, 2018)

• Remembering The Gregory Evans Murder
• Count On It
• Obviously Climate Change, Plus…
• It's The Cold That'll Get You
• Rattlesnake Trails
• Save These Words

REMEMBERING THE GREGORY EVANS MURDER

Editor,

Thanks for the piece on my brother’s murder. You must have some great contacts to get that level of detail about the case.

https://www.theava.com/archives/85172

That was a tragic call I received in the middle of the night from Dad.

My parents never got over it.

Just a few facts. The murder took place in April 1984, not in 1987. And because of the tenacity of two Mendo sheriffs, Flores was caught by Mexican authorities in 1994 (10 years later) and thrown into prison. The US didn’t have an extradition treaty with Mexico at the time and relations between the two countries were strained over the execution of a USDA employee in Mexico right around Flores’ escape.

I can’t remember the names of the two sheriffs, but one ran against Tony Craver for his first term. Those sheriffs were ultimate professionals and very sensitive to our family during our time of grief. I know the other one moved to Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department.

Nevertheless, I really resent the fact the president is exploiting the pain of families who have suffered similar tragedies.

Shame on President Trump. He doesn’t give a shit about anybody but himself and is turning the U.S. democracy into his very own Banana Republic Kleptocracy.

Finally, please read what I posted on my blog a few weeks back: Enough Of This Racist Nonsense!

Thanks for getting it into your piece, “Yanez said later that Evans "was a very good person."

That will mean a lot to his daughters, who were two and five when he was murdered, and grew up to be beautiful young women and mothers.

PS. By the way, you used to cover us when I was on the MUSD school board in the early 2000s.

I resigned after the community voted down the first school bond for $8 million, and warned the voters they would have to pay much more if they chose forbearance. They ended up spending $20 million. The bond election was never about building a new school but about settling old scores.

It was an ugly political situation back then. Ken Rice would hammer us. I learned more about politics in that small community than I did as a professional economic and political analyst

I also learned the lesson than many need to learn today, “do you want to be pure or win?

Thanks.

Cheers,

Gary Evans

COUNT ON IT

Editor: 

Someone once referred to me as “our congresswoman who has never met a tiger salamander she didn’t love.” That was absolutely accurate. I was proud to fight for the California tiger salamander, because it needed and deserved protection. In the end, it took compromise and bipartisan effort to win the battle for the salamander to be listed as “endangered.”

Those were different political times in 2009 from what we are experiencing in 2018. Tennis Wick, Sonoma County’s planning director, suggested that we “keep our powder dry” when dealing with the Trump administration’s plan to roll back the Endangered Species Act.

I disagree.

We are dealing with a divided House and Senate, led by Republicans who are doing the president’s bidding on almost everything he wants whether they disagree or not. Unless we object loudly and clearly to rolling back the Endangered Species Act, every species listed as endangered will be at risk, including the tiger salamander.

We can count on Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson to fight the fight, but they need our support. Plus, they need a new Democratic Congress that respects the progress we have made to save endangered species and the environment and will move forward not backward.

Lynn Woolsey

Petaluma

OBVIOUSLY CLIMATE CHANGE, PLUS…

Editor,

The effects of climate change are here now and by the year 2050 population is projected to be 10 billion and the food supply can only feed 6 billion - so we are looking at mass starvation over the the next 30 years with mass migrations, war and there will be rising sea levels with a good portion of land lost to flooding. Temperatures in southern Europe are on the way to reach 48 C this year - same issue in other parts of the world - can people live in 125 degrees F all year? Deniers of climate change like Trump have their heads in the sand. 

In peace and love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

IT'S THE COLD THAT'LL GET YOU

Editor,

Lots of people are worried about global warming, but Malcolm Gaskill’s piece on the Little Ice Age in last month’s London Review of Books should instead serve to remind us of the vastly greater danger we would face were the world to become substantially cooler. As late as the 1880s, we experienced another mini ice age, this time caused by the eruption of Krakatoa; we would simply have no response if, say, the Yellowstone Caldera were to erupt. Perhaps the threat that the Siberian or Deccan traps might unleash massive amounts of lava has gone away, but suppose there are other such natural dangers lurking? We do not know enough about the interactions between solar activity, ocean currents, volcanic activity, planetary motion etc. to be in a position to make definitive judgments as to whether we are causing catastrophic climate change or helping to avoid another cooling period. Extreme cold weather, whatever the cause, remains a far greater threat to civilization and health than the rise in global temperature. Another ice age, with mile-high glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere, isn’t something that can be ruled out.

Stephen Essrig

New York, New York

RATTLESNAKE TRAILS

Editor,

What kind of drugs did people like Frank Graham of Navarro and Bruce Patterson from Prineville Oregon take when they were young men? Maybe they smelled too much of a Bunsen burner? There's no other explanation for how they came up with the crazy talk in last week’s AVA, especially Patterson. I can't even understand some of his words. When he asks what God am I talking about when I say God bless Donald Trump, I am talking about my God, the only God as far as I'm concerned. And Mr. Graham said all kinds of ugly stuff about Mr. Trump.

When people talk about our country and about our president I just don't have words to say how foul they must be. It's just ugly.

What kind of line has Caltrans put on Highway 253? It looks like a rattlesnake trail to me. It's pretty ugly. And there is something like a 4 inch drop off on the shoulders which if you caught with your front wheel you'd be gone. Typical Caltrans work in California. If you go to another state and see how they do it, you wouldn't believe yourself. Compared to Oregon, Nevada, and Washington, California highways make me want to puke. Just that ugly.

God bless Donald Trump, I repeat Mr. Patterson, God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

PS. Congratulations to Tommy Lemons on his refurbished restaurant. It looks really good. I can't wait to get a bite to eat there. Good job, Tommy.

PPS. On Friday a white pickup drove up to my driveway and four young men got out. They came in to visit me. It was Tony Pardini, Tony Pardini Jr., Olie Ericson, and his cousin. We had a great visit. They are refurbishing the old schoolhouse over on Chamberlain Creek. What a nice group of guys. I'm proud to have them for friends. Young Tony will be quite a guy. He has a lot going for him. He will do good, that guy.

PPPS. I hope my old friend Mancher Pardini gets better because he has been stoved up a little bit lately. I know he will get better.

SAVE THESE WORDS

To the Editor:

Sometimes change happens in small increments only to dissolve into sameness even the mundane. But there are times when change is so jarring we must erect barriers against it so as not to be deeply affected. But for many of us, the snatching of the children of those seeking asylum should not fade from our consciousness. These people came seeking asylum not knowing they were endangering their children; rather were fleeing from harm to protect them. They found their children were forcibly taken from them amidst a sea of trauma. That was thirty five days ago-June 16, 2018. Now it seems some cannot be immediately returned and there is much confusion in our current efforts to return the children to their parents.

I believe that those of us who have been strongly affected; individuals who use Facebook, tweet or simply use e mail or snail mail, word of mouth- please send this message along- changing the number with each passing day. We can be of benefit to these unfortunate asylum seekers and their children if we do the following: Find a place in your home, on your computer, telephone or at a public place to erect a box containing these words:

Too many days have passed

Since the children were taken.

When will the last to be returned

Come back to their families?

Keep the vigil alive in their behalf

And for our own caring hearts.

Gregory Sims

Boonville