Letters for April 19, 2007

Intense feeling about ‘intensity’
Re: “Chalk talk” (In My Eyes, by Evan Tuchinsky, CN&R, April 12):

I would like to make a few comments regarding your article:

A) Molly Goodenbour’s coaching style has nothing to do with the problems she and the [Chico State] women’s basketball program are facing. The problems mentioned by the athletes were that she was unethical, demeaning, belittling, degrading, foul-mouthed and displayed negative behavior and a negative personality. Coaching style is only brought up by Molly, [Athletic Director] Anita [Barker], the administration and the media so that the personal issues get overlooked.

B) Anita says Goodenbour “sets a very high standard academically” and “What she wants for them is success.” Is that any different from any past coach of this program? Is she implying something we are missing?

C) You state Goodenbour was thrust on this season’s players. No! She was hired to be a coach, a teacher, a leader and, maybe, a role model to a group of successful young athletes who had already attained national prominence.

D) “Short-term sacrifice for long-term gain is a sound strategy… but only if the gain exceeds the sacrifice.” Ye gads! Molly sacrificed the established integrity of the women’s program and innocent student-athletes who had already proven their excellence on the court and in the community. Sometimes maybe the short term is best for the long run—but not this time and not in this way.


David Ford
Redding

Editor’s note: Mr. Ford is the father of Haley Ford, a senior who left the team midseason.

Regarding the ladies basketball coach at CSU Chico: After investigating her methods, superiors should ask themselves if they would—now—daily—allow someone to talk to (or yell at) them in the same manner the coach uses. If not, the coach should be fired. Winning is not more important than the self-esteem of the lady players and students.

In no other segment of society is verbal abuse allowed, rewarded and called intensity.


Norm Dillinger
Chico

Objections to M&T mine
The proposed mine is in the wrong place. There is plenty gravel in other locations. Don’t let Baldwin hurt our county for their convenience.


Bill Di Grazia
Chico

As a bona-fide river-watcher, it distresses me to see so many demands put on the natural resources of our rivers. Not only the water, but sand, gravel, fish, mammals, and about anything else an industry can think of to make money from is jeopardized in one way or another. The Feather River has been monopolized since the days of the Gold Rush (streams silted, bedrock dredged, forests cut) and is currently harnessed by Oroville Dam to be fed upon like vultures at a trough. Sand and gravel excavations continue. Recreation and refuge should have more status.

So I am in sympathy that the Sacramento River is in peril of taking a hit from the M&T/ Baldwin gravel mine right in a sensitive area near congested communities where there are insufficient roads and that don’t need an acceleration in air pollution, potential aquifer disturbances and a generally disruption of the scenic values that could terrorize wildlife in that sector near the important Llano Seco area.

We should do all we can to protect some of the original character of our rivers that they may survive into the future in a reasonable healthy and natural state of being. I oppose the proposal presented by M&T/Baldwin to extract rocks from this site.


Rex Burress
Oroville

Editor’s note: For more on this proposal up before the Board of Supervisors, please see the Newslines story.

Raise your voice
May I urge CN&R readers who are concerned about Butte County’s environment to take an active role in forming the General Plan? At public meetings I have attended, I learned that different policies now being formed could soon be used to carefully evaluate whether and how development projects continue. That is one reason why your input is sorely needed.

We also need you to reinforce the concerns that many citizens expressed. These include preventing water transfers from Butte County, preserving our heritage, expanding economic development to emphasize locally based jobs, preventing more urban sprawl, expanding mass transportation and bikeways, emphasizing sustainability, preserving our agricultural areas, building buffer zones and making it more difficult for individuals to seek “variances” from zoning ordinances.

Please consider participating at meetings and/or responding to your favorite issues at www.buttegeneralplan.net. You also can call (530) 538-6571 to find out when meetings will take place.


Grace M. Marvin
Sierra Club, Yahi Group

Editor’s note: The next public meeting, in Durham, is scheduled for Wednesday (April 25) at 6 p.m. at Durham Memorial Hall.

Open letter to Congress
Why is Congress continually allowing President Bush to set himself above the Constitution? Recess appointments must be stopped in perpetuity. Bush has found an underhanded loophole to make political appointments that would not pass the scrutiny of Congress, effectively thumbing his nose at the Constitution and the American people.

Bush continually abuses his powers, including the Patriot Act and the Presidential War Powers Act. Guantánamo Bay should be closed. Bush has been allowed to designate people as “enemy combatants” without benefit of trial, and it won’t be long before he starts including anyone who opposes the war in his designation.

As a 5-year-old, I used the excuse “I forgot” when I tried to get away with lying. It seems there are more lies that come out of the White House using this childish excuse than with any other administration.

The people elected George W. Bush; we did not appoint him king. His actions show an utter contempt for the will of the people and the Constitution he was sworn to defend.


Tiffany Montaño
“Former Bush supporter, Former Republican”

Berry Creek

Prosecution argument
One of the secretly fired heads of U.S. Justice Department district offices is Margaret Mary Chiara, of the Western Michigan district office. She had won election—twice—for four-year terms as a county DA. Then she was appointed as a Republican by President Bush, like all the other heads of the Justice Department district offices. In 2005, she was inducted into the Michigan Hall of Fame for Women.

Why was she fired? Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s personal lawyer for many years, said she was not doing a good job. Neither was Carol Lam, the fired U.S. prosecutor in San Diego, who convicted Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham for taking bribes. Nor did he think in 2005 that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was doing a good job, though Fitzgerald won White House aide Scooter Libby’s conviction.

Is it incompetence pure, or mixed with malice, that Bush and Gonzales are not following up the prosecution on the crime of betraying Valerie Plame? Was Chiara one of the eight fired because she was doing a good, impartial job of bringing justice?

The Bush administration, as usual, is not zealous in pursuing the facts, much less in making decisions based on facts.


John Chendo
Davis

Iraq study guides
To those interested in finding out more about what really is going on in Iraq, may I suggest a couple of recent books?

Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill and Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran provide information beyond that available through the corporate media.


Josef Bahlke
Red Bluff