A new voice

I’m still not sure who to vote for in the Oct. 7 election—I mean after I vote “no” on the recall. (It’s much too easy to blame Gov. Davis for the dismal situation that we find ourselves in. Reaching these fiscal depths took the combined efforts of a whole bunch of people, including the voters and the legislators.) But since I still get to vote for a candidate, I’m kind of leaning toward Brooke Adams (pictured), a 25-year-old, fresh-faced young woman from Orange County who boldly notes, “The current tax system is unfair. Rich people pay too much while others pay nothing.” Brooke is a life-long resident of Southern California, the daughter of an Orange County Superior Court judge, and was elected vice president of her junior class at Huntington Beach High School. Her Web site says that, as “a talented athlete, Brooke lettered on the Cheerleading Team all four years of high school. A popular student, she was elected the Homecoming Queen of 1995.” I figure with a résumé like that, Brooke will represent that forgotten segment of our society—rich kids from Orange County.

Brooke blames our state’s current mess on the baby boomers, the “Me Generation,” as she calls them. On the other hand, she says, her generation “has gone to war twice during my lifetime. We have restored democracy in the Middle East. We are ready to lead California out of the mess the current generation has put us in.” In another statement she boasts that her generation has fought and won three wars, liberating Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq. (If she thinks the latter two were successes, I hope she doesn’t try to liberate California from the baby boomers.) Brooke is listed on the ballot as an independent but refers to President Kennedy as her role model, citing his famous call for Americans to ask not what their country could do for them, but rather what they could do for their country. Hey Brooke, when he uttered those words, I think JFK just might have had paying taxes in mind. Still, judging by the success of the new night-time FOX soap opera The OC—the show clearly distinguishes the nice Orange County rich folks from the snooty ones—she might have the momentum to carry off a surprise victory come Oct. 7. Stay tuned.

What a difference an “a” makes. A few weeks ago this paper ran a letter by Randy Abbot urging the public to get involved in helping forge the Bidwell Park Master Management plan. Just like its author, whom I’ve known for a number of years, the letter was upbeat and positive. The next-to-the-last paragraph indicated Abbot’s concern that his letter not be interpreted as “too political”—he didn’t want to scare off the “‘too cool to care’ or ‘too pathetic’ or ‘let our politicians run things for us’ crowds.” Abbot called me this week and said the letter should have referred to the “too apathetic,” not the “too pathetic.” I went back and looked at the letter, and he was right. It was our fault. In our defense, the letter was handwritten and Abbot’s handwriting is, well, borderline pathetic. (Actually it’s not bad, but I thought saying so made for a clever way to finish this column.)

The local rumor mill has it that presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and red-headed stranger Willie Nelson are coming to Chico this month. Impossible, you say? Hard to believe? Consider: Nelson is scheduled to play the Tehama County Fairgrounds in a couple weeks; the singer has come out in strong support of the former boy mayor of Cleveland; Kucinich came to Grass Valley last May. All I’m saying is it could happen.