Letters (March 27, 2019)

• The Perfect Candidate
• ‘On Tyranny’
• Whatever Happened To...
• Son Of A Happy Man
• What About Pillsbury?
• The Vice President’s Men
• Let ‘Em All Go
• How Would That Even Work?

THE PERFECT CANDIDATE

To the Editor:

While perusing page seven in the February 7 edition of the AVA I see Mendocino County advertising for a substance abuse program and services manager. Who better qualified than the AVA's own Flynn Washburne whose well chronicled experience with in and outs, ups and downs of substance abuse has been a prominent feature of the AVA for several years now.

Also, as I read the legal notices I can easily come to your conclusion that you are whoever you say you are — just take it to court to ratify your new identity — and history begins anew at first light of day.

I am a bit confused by fictitious business names. Are they required by law as a de facto exemption to truth in advertising?

It's a bad day when page 7 holds my attention.

Cheerio!

Gary Durheim

Seaside, Oregon

‘ON TYRANNY’

Letter to the Editor,

Does current political and social news distress you? Do you feel "there is nothing I can do"?

You might try reading "On Tyranny — Twenty lessons from the 20th Century" by Tim Snyder. It's a small or bisexual, only 126 pages. Following are the first 11 chapter titles:

Do not obey in advance. Defend institutions. Beware the one-party state. Take responsibility for the face of the world. Remember professional ethics. Be wary of paramilitaries. Be reflective if you must be armed. Stand out. Be kind to our language. Believe in truth. Investigate.

Buy a copy for only $8.95 and after reading it think about what your lifetime has taught you about war and power. If you are old enough share with a young person what you know about World War II and the consequences in Europe and the Far East. Talk about where and how citizenship skills are useful and needed.

Next, read more. Support our fourth estate by subscribing to publications that discuss beyond entertainment. Avoid the fast and false news of digital media. Talk with friends and strangers. Think about long-term consequences. Give the book to someone else. Keep engaging young people.

You could also write a letter to the AVA discussing your reactions to the book. What does "we the people" mean? Is there an endangerment to free speech especially with those with whom we disagree? What is civil discourse?

Beverly Dutra

Philo

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...

To the Editor:

I read with great interest that KZYX has hired a new General Manager, Marty Durlin. I also read that the station will be hiring a new Program Director.

Let’s hope the new General Manager and Program Director — both — work together in ending KZYX’s long-standing “blacklisted for life” policy.

The policy is censorship in its ugliest form. It is oppressive and not in keeping with the mission and values of a truly “public” radio station, not that KZYX ever purported to be truly public. KZYX has been, for many years, a club of insiders.

Here’s where the new management of KZYX should start:

1. Marco McClean and his “Memo of the Air” should be on the KZYX schedule.

2. Doug McKenty should host his “Open Lines” show again.

3. Norman de Vall should resume his interviewing candidates running for public office during election season.

4. K.C. Meadows of the Ukiah Daily Journal should have a public affairs show.

5. Bruce Anderson and Mark Scaramella of the Anderson Valley Advertiser should have a public affairs show.

6. Beth Bosk of the New Settler Interview should have a public affairs show.

7. Me? I got tired of waiting. I now host and produce “Heroes and Patriots” out of KMUD, with Mary Massey, formerly of WPLN, Nashville Public Radio. However, it would be nice if KZYX carried the rebroadcast of our show, as some other stations do.

At “Heroes and Patriots”, we hope our next two guests will be General Wesley Clark, U.S. Army (retired), former NATO Commander, on Thursday, April 4, and Roger McNamee, Silicon Valley billionaire and author of “Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Castastrophe”, on Thursday, May 2.

Our show airs the first Thursday of every month at 9 am, For listeners out of the broadcast area, we stream live from the web athttp://www.kmud.org.

Please support truly public, community radio at KMUD. We are “neighbors making radio for neighbors”.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

ED NOTE: Gosh, thanks John, but yammering away on kzyx has never been an inclusivity I've sought, it or any other kind, frankly. I wish the new manager well, and would advise her to wear her bulletproof vest backwards at all times given who she'll be dealing with.

SON OF A HAPPY MAN

Dear AVA,

Hello from the beautiful High Desert State Prison in Susanville. I would like to ask you if you could send me a complimentary description to America's Last Newspaper. I had a subscription before but let it run out. There are a couple of fellows in my cell block from Mendocino County who also enjoy reading the AVA. I am currently here for court from an incident in 2015. I caught a battery on staff and thought for sure I would never see this godforsaken place again. I am currently years from going back to court. I was offered a plea deal. The whole California Department of Corrections report is a lie. I am sure I can prove it's a lie in court. But there is no penalty for correctional officer who files a false rules report. Two inmates were assaulted prior to my attack of self-defense. All of the correctional officer reports match but the Lassen County District Attorney waited three years to file charges. As soon as the correctional officer placed his hand on the first inmate the alarm should have been alerted!

I enjoy reading the Okie Joe Munson stories. When he was a pot grower in the 80s my late father who passed in 2015 was an outlaw pot grower in those days until his death. My father died a happy man. He brought in one more harvest before he passed and I would highly appreciate it if you folks could honor my request for a complimentary subscription. I would like to hear from [Leeland? illegible]. If you know him please give him my address.

God bless and warm regards

Marc Hunter, P-80840 

P.O. Box 3030 E4-212 

Susanville, CA 96127

WHAT ABOUT PILLSBURY?

Editor,

Sunday’s Press Democrat article on Scott Dam was riddled with high-end cost quotes and exaggerated statistics. While I cannot argue with the need for fish passage, there is a lot more at stake than meets the eye.

Lake Pillsbury provides 77,000 acre-feet of water to 600,000 downstream users. Recent flow models have demonstrated that with dam removal the Eel River would go dry approximately 60% of the time. It’s anticipated that the cannabis industry will further reduce flows. Costs to raise Coyote Dam 36 feet to increase Lake Mendocino’s capacity were estimated at $320 million, significantly more than the estimate to retrofit Scott Dam for fish passage.

Not all stakeholders are represented on Rep. Jared Huffman’s committee, which is weighted toward dam removal. The Lake Pillsbury Alliance — a stakeholders group comprised of homeowners, ranchers, campers and recreational users — was denied a seat at the table. Collateral damage?

In a time of climate change, Lake Pillsbury is a valuable resource for water, flood control and fire suppression. It’s a place for families to unplug and enjoy nature. Let’s find a reasonable solution to meet the needs of the people rather than taking the path of least resistance and falling prey the powerful anti-dam groups and the politicians who support them.

Carolyn Davis Cinquini

Santa Rosa

THE VICE PRESIDENT’S MEN

Editor,

Edward Luttwak seems certain that Ronald Reagan would never have “‘pressed the button.” My personal experience suggests otherwise. I was raised and educated in California, and after graduating from Berkeley in 1977 was at a loose end for some years before somebody suggested, in 1982, that I take the Foreign Service exam to become a diplomat. I passed the written section and was then invited to participate in the oral exam, which took place on an upper story of the Federal Building in San Francisco. This had several different sections: a personality interview; being grilled by a Central European specialist on the situation in Poland (where regurgitating accounts in Time and Newsweek of the activities of Solidarność provoked disdain in the examiner, and certainly ensured that I failed the exam); and participating in simulated group decision-making in a hypothetical overseas embassy. The gentleman coordinating this exercise was a veteran Latin American specialist for the State Department.

Afterwards, he invited the six of us to fire questions at him, anything we liked: he would respond candidly, but we were never to attribute the answers to him — if we did he would deny the episode ever took place. The first question was, why was such a capable and senior Foreign Service officer testing the likes of us? He was home, he said, after a long tour of duty and had initially been assigned two desk tasks which he could not agree to carry out. And these were? The first, he said, was to draw up a feasibility study for restaging the Bay of Pigs invasion. This had clearly been tailored to his expertise, but was ethically inimical to him. The second proposed project was even more repugnant: to draw up a feasibility study for a nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union.

Marc Dubin

Essex, England

LET ‘EM ALL GO

Editor, 

Gruesome Newsom commuted all the sentences for prisoners on death row. The victims were raped and killed and dumped on the side of the highway. The families of those poor victims were hoping for closure. Now they get nothing! What about the people who voted not to commute their sentences? Votes don't count. We don't care about votes, I guess. 

They spent $30 million chasing the Golden State Killer's to catch a guy who killed 29 people. When they finally caught him he was guilty as hell and instead of killing him he will have a trial that will cost $20 million. So $50 million spent on a killer, okay?

This is a sanctuary state so every criminal and wannabe hoodlum who wants to come into this state can endanger all the local citizens. Newsome thinks that’s fine. Why can't somebody go into Nancy Pelosi's $10 million mansion and use a butcher knife on her like that illegal did to that poor woman in San Jose. They could get away with it because we are a sanctuary state. Right? 

I guess the ugly liberals who run our country think they are above the law. They can have their sanctuary states but they stay protected. They have bodyguards and guard dogs and live behind tall fences. I guess they are better human beings than the rest of us. I don't think so. They are not above the law. 

All our taxes license fees go to nothing. No infrastructure work. It's pitiful how our state is being run. The people of California don't have the balls to stand up and do anything about it. 

Law enforcement does a great job all over the country. Sheriff Allman and his guys do a great job running down criminals, but then the liberal judges turn them loose or give them short sentences. It's disgusting. 

God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

HOW WOULD THAT EVEN WORK?

Editor,

I Googled about that UC Davis professor teaching his students, step by step, how to kill cops. What I came up with was that in 2014, a Professor at UC Davis tweeted this as his opinion. There is no indication, regardless of Jerry Philbrick's lurid allegations, that this teacher taught cop killing in his classrooms. How would that even work? As a community college teacher, I know the demographic. Students would have said something like, "Fuck you, man, my dad's a cop," or called 911 on their iPhone. 

What I find unsettling is an undercurrent of support for Jerry Philbrick among some of the Anderson Valley Advertiser readership. Hell, somebody recently suggested he should be in control of Mendocino water. 

Jerry, it doesn't take a lot of balls to insult and threaten strangers behind the safety of a screen. Fat teenage boys do it every day. 

Richard Russell

San Jose