Letters for June 9, 2016

Barking up the GOP

“Make America great again” barks the snake oil salesman Donald Trump. Wouldn’t it be a “great America” if we all could inherit a million dollars from dear old Dad?

Does Trump want to return to the days when we had a president with a 60 percent approval rating at this point in his second term in office, aka Bill Clinton? Or does Trump prefer the “great America” under Ronald Reagan with his 48 percent approval rating using the same criteria? Or is Trump satisfied with President Obama’s current 51 percent approval rating? I’m sure Trump doesn’t want to return to the days of June 2008, when George W. Bush had an approval rating of 28 percent.

Even Doug LaMalfa is a born again Trump man. There are so many local right-wing letter writers that are allergic to the facts. They’re entitled to their hate-filled opinions, but not their vile-filled actuality.

It’s interesting to watch them tepidly transform from coded racial slurs to more misogynistic appellations. Even Thomas Sowell (hardly a regressive liberal) wrote in a recent column that “the GOP establishment, whose betrayal of their supporters created Trump,” contradicts assertions from letter writers looking at the world through the bottom of a glass, and blaming “Trump on the liberal media.”

Ray Estes

Chico

Donald Trump is fecally replete.

Don Atkinson

Chico

Farewell to the Greatest

Goodbye, Muhammad! We respected your Islamic name and learned early to never call ya Cassius. Wish you were here today to speak for people everywhere.

One senses all this stupidity never could have occurred because no Trumpster would have the courage and brains to float even one round with the champ. The joy and hilarity you brought to our families’ lives can never be measured, ever. You’re the only trash talker we actually loved. Many of us fully supported your opposition to the unnecessary violence and racist brutality in foreign and domestic policy. We thought you would become ambassador to the United Nations before illness began knocking you out.

It is quite ironic you passed during this time. Imagine “them” even thinking about deporting the poetic one. That might have resurrected and had you again dancing and punching for “our” human rights. Mike Tyson lost his title for being a wife abuser. You, for standing in your corner and refusing to serve a country that was entangled in one of the most painful and disgraceful foreign policy atrocities in recorded history.

Perhaps if there is a demolition of The Esplanade, similar to how you dismantled many opponents, the name of each roundabout can be changed to Ali Avenue. Because you, just like our “pretty” roadway, will always be the Greatest.

Kenneth Keith

Los Molinos

The passing of Muhammad Ali will be a learning experience for millions of Americans. When Cassius Clay announced that he was a Muslim (yes, Mr. Trump, a Muslim), and changed his name to Muhammad Ali, it was not well-received by white America.

Then, in March 1966, Ali said he would refuse to be drafted (“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong”), and white America got even angrier.

I was drafted into the U.S. Army a few months later (about 46,000 men were being drafted monthly). My memory is hazy, but I would bet the vast majority of the white guys being drafted didn’t have a good thing to say about Ali.

Ali was proved right about the war in Vietnam, and most Americans ended up agreeing with him. All those who spoke out against the war, including Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Fonda and others, were attacked by our government and much of the media. Since the upheaval of the civil rights era, though, America’s thinking and acceptance of diversity has changed.

America is better off today with Ali and others having challenged the status quo.

Bob Mulholland

Chico

No more autos

Early morning at Second and Main, conversation over coffee is made difficult by the noise of traffic. On one of the nicest days of the year, in one of the nicest places on the planet, we have to tolerate this stupid mechanical insult to our ears and lungs. The sensible, practical thing would be to eliminate car traffic on Main and Broadway, except for early morning deliveries. Our town should be for us to live in, not for machines.

Here’s the news: The age of the automobile is over, and that is a good thing. The devastating cost of the automobile in death and suffering, in dumping poisons on a scale unseen in human history—just in this one industry—in the concentration of wealth and political corruption, is not acceptable. There is not one good thing to say about the auto industry as it exists.

In our living spaces, the ill effects of noise, physiologically and psychologically, are well-known. Breathing exhaust and tire dust is not good. And, if downtown wants to compete with the mall, make it a nicer place to be. Think about it!

Nelson Kaiser

Chico

The big picture

I’m so glad that there are small-minded people and ones that don’t see the big picture. In Butte County, I’m sure people don’t want fracking, but you want gas for your cars and plastics. Oh, and to feel safe, you will vote yes on Measures G and H.

If you open your mind and read The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer, you will find out that marijuana (hemp) was a crop in America that not only powered cars and farm equipment, but also was used for canvas in the covered wagons and ships that sailed.

We need a big change here in the USA. The government is too big and tells us what we can’t and can do, which is very little. We need to go big. For one, I would like to see hemp grown for food, fuel, clothing, medical and recreational purposes. Until then, we’ll see fracking off the California coast and more people in jail for a plant that can change us for the better.

Dario Martinez

Oroville

Editor’s note: See page 10 for results from the primary election.

Correction

Last week’s Newslines story “Slow go,” by Evan Tuchinsky, incorrectly reported the name of the Butte Regional Conservation Plan. We apologize for the error, which has been corrected online. —ed.