Letters (Aug. 29, 2018)

• Apportioning Responsibility
• Dems Disappoint In Ft Bragg
• When Wardens Freak Out
• Split The Diff
• Less Politics, More Stories
• There Are Ways…
• Senior Does Notsee Mole
• Vivify Your Fillers
• Acid In Their Brains
• Sags & Buttcheeks

APPORTIONING RESPONSIBILITY

To the Editor:

I am writing this letter because of reports that are gaining currency, and possibly buy-in by both government regulators and corporate risk managers.

Basically, to reduce responsibility and liability for accountability and massive shifting costs to regulated public utilities, there are discussions about one or a combination of many of the following:

• Temporary in terms of hours/possibly extended in terms of days, allowing the interruption or shut down of electric power in areas designated as high fire risk during high wind events;

• Making public utilities legally and financially responsible as a causative agent for wild fires that start anywhere near utility equipment and easements;

• Making public utilities invest in undergrounding electrical power lines without a public subsidy or partnership, essentially making a regulated public utility subsidize expensive infrastructure investment that isn’t cost effective under any known business model; and,

• Holding a regulated public utility responsible for tree maintenance on private property, whether existing or planted by a private property owner on an easement or adjoining the easement where the arc of fall or wind whipping will damage transmission lines.

The above concepts, seemingly well intentioned, are a recipe for creating an unreliable utility service suited for a Third-World country. And, the transfer of private responsibility to a regulated public utility will, ultimately, lead to bankruptcy for a necessary utility. Then, lacking a reliable electrical service, and to protect customers with refrigerator/freezers who keep perishable foods at home, or others with medical needs requiring power, there will be a rush to do one of the following-

• Install whole house battery backup systems that many utility customers cannot afford;

• Install solar panels with whole house battery backup systems that are expensive; or,

• Install gasoline or natural gas fueled whole house generator backup systems.

Anyone who has been lucky enough to have owned a home on a street with curbs, gutters and sidewalks knows that they are almost universally responsible for maintenance and replacement, even when such things are not within the lot boundaries. Following this legal precedent, the following should be considered:

• All utilities that pass through private property are situated on an easement.

• Property owners are required to contact #811 when excavating, even planting deep root vegetation on any utility easement.

• As it is the property owner’s responsibility to maintain or replace public service investments, like curbs, gutter and sidewalks on local government easements or property adjoining and providing access to private property, the owner of private property should likewise be expected to properly maintain their property so that it does not damage or endanger a regulated public utility service that is necessary for the health and welfare of the community- their neighbors, who should not be injured or deprived of an essential life service or support. All of this translates into an easy concept of individual responsibility and accountability:

• A property owner who buys or has owned property and plants trees on a utility easement that are of a height to interact with electrical transmission lines above, or whose arc of fall will damage electrical service equipment, must be required, at their expense, to remove the trees in question.

• Either inspectors with the utility or the PUC must photograph the involved trees and notify the property owner to remove the trees in question. If there is no compliance within 90-days, a show cause order must be used to condemn the trees, and the property owner should be billed via his/her/their monthly utility bill in an amortized 2-year payment schedule for their removal, or a lien should be put on the property. Egregious refusal should prompt legal action for removal and collection of costs.

Failure to maintain private property represents a public nuisance which, in this example, can have devastating consequences for everyone in a community, and, in the current examples of firestorms, can devastate a region across county lines. Trying to single out a regulated public utility may offer selfish satisfaction because no one likes paying ever increasing bills. But, doing so will have broader, long term negative effects for everyone in California. Owning property carries with it obligations beyond oneself and family, and there are risks, consequences and obligations to and for others. We live in community.

David W. Dippel

San Francisco and Redwood Valley

DEMS DISAPPOINT IN FT BRAGG

Editor,

On August 15th I received an email from the office of Congressman Jared Huffman's office regarding a Town Hall to be held in Fort Bragg on Tuesday, August 21st. I attended the town hall and would like to share my thoughts.

I am a Democrat, moving further and further left as time goes by, as well as a deeply committed “resister” to the existing government of the US, specifically, Trump and the remnants of what used to be the Republican party. (And to think I voted for Nixon!) I am, like so many other Americans, deeply concerned about the current state of the country and world and looked forward to hearing from our Congressman. 

I was not impressed.

To begin with, it was apparent that the Congressman's town hall was cursory at best. It was “announced” with only seven (7) days notice and not to the general public. It was scheduled for only one hour. The hour chosen was between 4 to 5 p.m., a time when the great majority of us are still at work. I couldn't help thinking that traveling to the Coast takes immensely more time than the Congressman allotted to meet with our community. When the meeting began, it was requested that questions presented by the audience would be best kept to a limit of one minute!

Substance? Although it was valuable and interesting for me and others to get a better understanding about some of the challenges the Congressman encounters in his role that are not readily apparent to us, those challenges did not make up for the elephant in the room about what the plans and/or goals of the elected Democrats in the legislature are about some extremely critical and life and death issues.

Besides neglecting to equate “keeping our kids safe from gun violence while at school” as a major issue being addressed by our Washington legislators, a response that “the NRA has a very strong hold/influence on many of the legislators across the aisle,” was the Congressman's answer. However, it was stated that a Democratic majority win in the November midterms would give our legislators more options to explore in dealing with this issue.

So, I attended the town hall and asked a question about school gun violence with the expectation of acquiring a better understanding of what our leaders in Washington are strategizing and/or focusing on when dealing with guns and school shooting and what all I heard was that Democrats are hoping for a majority win in November. 

So, only with a Democratic majority could this issue be addressed? As in let's wait and see? I don't know about anyone else, but that was disconcerting for me to hear. I guess I expected and hoped that our legislators had perhaps some slightly more definitive types of answers, more along the lines of this is Plan A, if we win the majority, or this is our Plan B, C, D, etc. If 2016 taught us anything, it is that nothing is guaranteed and/or anything can happen! Congressman Huffman!

What if the Democrats don't win back the majority? Another day, week, month? Time keeps passing — hoping, praying that our children don't experience our worst nightmare.

I would also note in relation to this matter, the protest against violence that occurred in March of this year outside a luncheon that the NRA was having at Portuguese Hall in Fort Bragg, prompted a request to Congressman Huffman through his San Rafael and Fort Bragg offices for his participation in a town hall here in Fort Bragg, likewise extending that same invitation to our Chief of Police, Fabian Lizarraga to address gun violence at school, as well as a look at the almost 50% of acts of gun violence against law enforcement in this nation that occur due to illegal gun ownership. Chief Lizarraga has responded and we have since met and discussed the question. I would like to think improvements will be made locally.

Dear Elected Washington Legislators in the House and Senate, Our children— our sons, our daughters — are now back to school! Another school year has begun. Are you asking us to give it another couple of months before you come up with some ideas for addressing the matter? Until then, are we just supposed to cross our fingers and hope and pray that our CHILDREN! remain safe?

One can only conclude that our elected legislators in Washington, can't seem to effectively meet the needs of their constituents. Then why did we hear about their representation abilities and effectiveness while running for their positions? 

Yes. I'm frustrated. I would have at the very least accepted the rationale offered by the Congressman on this issue, if it would have been acknowledged that nothing will ever happen unless we come together as citizens and demand our voices be heard. A little direction on how we could assert those demands in this current political climate would have been a whole lot more palatable than “we are waiting for a majority win.”

Rosemary Mangino 

Fort Bragg

WHEN WARDENS FREAK OUT

Editor

It's okay again for me to write to you now because we have a new warden.

Back in the middle of 2017 young man from a Central American country climbed out of here over a fence, a building, then three more fences with the middle one electrified and wandered around Atwater, California, for a couple of days.

The warden at that time, Mr. Andre Matevousian, at first denied anyone was missing, then panic took hold and he ordered his guards go out and look for the guy even going so far as to stop cars with Latinos in them and check ID. That last is illegal as prison guards are not police. His worst mistake was that he did not notify the local sheriff of an escaped convict for about 11 hours. I heard that part on the local a.m. radio Tuesday.

After a couple of days the local sheriff found the escapee walking along a road and calmly arrested him, no dramatic incident, no guns drawn, no crimes committed, he just wanted to go home to Central America.

The warden here went bugfuck after that. Every letter I wrote in which I mentioned that escape (or the next one, keep reading) just disappeared. Warden Matevousian eliminated all 46 people with whom I had approved contact via mail, e-mail or phone. He did that with hundreds of prisoners. He then staged massive prison wide shakedowns and a book confiscation. While doing this he used the guards who normally supervise the trustee camp right outside of the prison to help with all the extra work. It was then that a trustee prisoner escaped and he was the second one from there to go in a year.

Warden Matevousian then went into full nutcase mode and removed all the books from the prison library never to be seen again.

During this month long same period in the fall of 2017, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Mr. Mark Inch, issued orders to severely restrict prisoners from ordering books. Congress heard about that and reprimanded Mr. Inch so much that he resigned just eight months after being appointed by Donald Trump. The warden here was moved on in March of 2018 and a new one, Mr. Stephen Lake, is slowly setting things back to right. Although our library is bare we may order books again. The vending machines in the visiting room once again have items in them. I have 15 people back on my contact list now, including the AVA.

Your August 8, 2018 edition of the AVA was a very popular issue. I have passed it around here because of the excerpted article from your book about trying to rehabilitate delinquents in 1971. I wrote a note in the margin that I read the book and donated it to the USP Hazelton library in West Virginia.

I have a parole hearing coming up in September and they may say that I am to get out in June of 2019. If they don't then I am to get out in June of 2020. I may need another year of fine tuning after all these decades.

I am the computer tutor here and I know how to use the things and I look forward to reading the AVA online.

Freedom,

Paul Jorgensen #53599-146

USB Atwater, P.O. Box 019001, Atwater, CA 95301

SPLIT THE DIFF

Editor: 

A 30 minute change — Regarding daylight saving time – there may be a simple solution that no one has mentioned. Simply move clocks forward a half-hour from standard time, and leave them there. This would split the difference year round and would require no further adjustment.

Donald Montgomery

Sebastopol

LESS POLITICS, MORE STORIES

Letter to the Editor

Mr. Anderson did not write Mr. Philbrick a blank check. He simply has a paper to sell, and with his equanimity of mind, recognizes good copy when he sees it. Mr. Philbrick finally loosened up enough to write an anecdote that is apolitical, and I hope he continues in this vein. He admits to a 50 year war with moles. He does not condemn the moles as being spawn of those goddam liberals. He even admits to firing his handgun at a mole from horseback. This does suggest a certain intemperance of mind.  Obviously he missed the mole, and as an old cowboy, should have known better than to surprise his horse so rudely.  I am not faulting Mr. Philbrick for having an erroneous view of his targeting abilities. I missed a ground squirrel at 5 feet with a rifle. I wonder if Mr. Philbrick is the same old cowboy who admitted that his biggest mistake was to rope a deer.  I hope he will lay off the politics and tell us more stories.  

Jay Williamson

Santa Rosa

THERE ARE WAYS…

Editor: 

I stayed in a village of converted shipping containers for employees on the American Embassy compound in Afghanistan. Each container was a one-room bed/living room with a TV, a desk and an attached bathroom. Each had a window. Concrete walkways wound around them. While they all looked pretty much the same on the outside, some of the insides were elaborately decorated. Other containers served as offices. Surely a precedent for quick, cheap housing.

Virginia Foley

Guerneville

SENIOR DOES NOTSEE MOLE

Editor,

Trumpet Philbrick gets thrown off his high horse after shooting at moles? W.T.F.? He can't be a real person, who'd be so stupid? 

He's a perfect example of a notsee. Most good folks would see that shooting off a .357 magnum, while riding a horse is bad news. However, notsees do not see what is obvious to most of us, that actions have consequences. 

This just confirms what I'd suspected about ol' Jerry, mainly that he has brain damage from years of being tossed from his high horse. Many notsees have extensive brain damage, and could use a good dose of quality health care. 

Jerry thinks we should support Trump like he does, but look how wrong he is in the way that he deals with guns & horses.. Foolish! 

However, I do enjoy laughing at his idiocy and ignorance, and he is a senior, so I wish him all all the best! 

Best Regards,

Rob Mahon

Covelo

VIVIFY YOUR FILLERS

Editor,

Hi guys. It's me. Last time I wrote I urged you to embrace a makeover -- modest ones in the masthead: like change it to "America’s at last newspaper," and "peace to the cottage industries."

While you're mulling that over, I got something else for you. I've noticed -- no, it's painfully obvious really -- that the italicized bumpers sprinkled throughout the paper are at best anemic, pointless and forgettable. You want just the opposite. A quote should inspire, be deeply relevant, an ear-worm that whispers to you all day for months, even years.

I'm here to help. May I?

Brevity is the soul of wit. —Noel Coward

God is a comedian playing to an audience that is afraid to laugh. —Voltaire. (All the heavy hitters have only one name.)

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? —Milton Berle

The best mind altering drug is the truth. —Lily Tomlin

But where is what I started for so long ago and why is it yet unfound? —Walt Whitman

One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions. —Grace Hopper

Dream as if you will live forever, live as if you'll die today. —James Dean.

History teaches us that man learnd nothing from history. —Hegel

Oh human tenderness where are you to be found? Perhaps in books alone? —Izet Sarajlic

You can't direct the wind, but you can adjust the sails. —Unknown

We believe whatever we want to believe. —Demosthenes (That was for you Jerry Philbrick you dithering myopic ass-clown)

Life isn't about what you were dealt, it's how you play your hand. —Unknown, again

Children see magic because they look for it. —Christopher Moore

It doesn't matter how far you go in life; it matters how we got here. —Brendan Frasier

If you want to be somebody else, change your mind. —Noah Idea, again.

We all have time machines, the ones that take you backward are memories, the ones that take you forward are dreams. —H.G. Wells

Sacred cows make the best hamburgers. —Abbie Hoffman

A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. —Anonymous

if you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing your secrets to the trees. —Khalil Gibran

95% of statistics are made up on the spot. —Donald Trump

Just because there's a picture and it’s on the Internet doesn't mean it's true. —Abe Lincoln

I hope I've illustrated the beauty, power and veracity in a finely tuned quote, fellows.

Your fan,

Russell E. Haber

Gualala/Low Gap Jail

PS. Any errors are solely the responsibility of the editor — he has a computer, I don't!

ED NOTE: I agree with you that our fillers have gone stale. Electronic paste-up doesn't leave room for many and anymore they're simply an afterthought. In the days of hand paste-up fillers were a much anticipated part of our weekly, and we went to an extra effort to get the liveliest ones into the paper. Most of us in what's left of the print business recognize that the cyber-revolution is fast making dinosaurs of us. 

ACID IN THEIR BRAINS 

Editor,

Environmentalists have ruined this country. No burning. No herbicide. No logging. Clinton killed timber. He put $275 million in an environmental slush fund when he got out of office so they could start doing their nasty work. Environmentalists got going in 1968 on Redwood Summer and other crap like that. And the Democrats let them get away with it. They have ruined this country. That plus political correctness, anti-Americanism, socialism, crap on the Constitution, second amendment, freedom of speech, liberal wackos in the teachers union brainwashing our children, no respect for law enforcement, hate the military, open borders, sanctuary cities.

We are so lucky to have President drop straightening this country out and making it great again. The environmental liberals have sucked this country dry in the last 24 years. He will fix it in a couple of years.

People should say Molly Tibbetts name over and over until they puke with disgust about how people are responding to it. The Democrats just say, oh that girl. They don't give a damn about how she got killed or who did it. Americans have had enough. Time to storm the jail, take him out into a field and publicly execute him. It's time to take the law into our own hands, get rid of the rotten liberal judges. That man will get better care than any one of us citizens. He'll get everything he needs -- medical, TV, workout room, they can't touch them. Political correctness won't allow them to even touch him in any way. He has more rights than we do. And yet he ran down and killed and murdered this beautiful girl. Isn't that something to be proud of, America?

We need President Putin in over a year to help President Trump straighten this country out. It wouldn't take long. Rotten child molesters, people who kill women jogging, people who feast on old people -- it wouldn't take long before they would think twice before they commit a crime if they were publicly executed. Or dragged down the street to death. Or something like that.

To the people who have written letters against me, you sound like people who still have acid in your bloodstream when you took it back in your 20s when everybody in that category were doing drugs and stuff. That's how they sound. They make as much sense as -- I'm afraid to say. It.

God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

SAGS & BUTTCHEEKS

Editor,

I must confess that I’m shaking my head at the whole idea of “relaxing” the dress codes, to the extent they existed. I recently attended classes at City College here in San Francisco during the last two semesters. I couldn’t believe how many of the students showed up at classes. I was thinking, You consider this dressing for college classes? Some girls were dressed like they were getting ready to go work the streets after class, their clothes looking like they were ironed on to their skin or just falling off. 

Many of the “guys” could be seen walking around with their pants literally falling off their hips with a hand under the genitals to hold them up, looking like they needed to find a urinal as soon as possible. I was never aware that anybody was made to feel any shame.

Not in the least. Instead of relaxing codes for dress, how about learning what is appropriate dressing for school? In Europe the code is totally different. Students dress like young adults.

Charles Leyes

San Francisco