Letters for June 7, 2012

Revisiting the ‘glory days’

Re “When We Were Kings” (Cover story, by Joe Martin, June 7):

Right on, Joe! Way to bring me back to the glory days. It was really exciting during that run, and everybody loves it when the local teams are winning. I grew up a diehard Laker fan, and I will never forget the day watching one of the 2000 playoff games against the Lakers. I strangely found myself rooting for the Kings and realized my allegiance had changed.

Then, in 2001, I got to work at playoff game 3—Lakers at Arco—with my brother, Bill, who has been working behind a camera there since the Kings arrived in Sacramento. I can’t describe how awesome that was. I still get to catch a game now and again, and it is so true how enthusiastic the fans are. “They’re still here, and the story isn’t quite over.”

Great job, and a “Royal” thank you.

Dan Ehman
Chico

Supervisor ‘stooped low’

Re “Election rundown” (Newslines, by Tom Gascoyne, June 7):

There’s no way that [District 5 Supervisor Kim] Yamaguchi’s paid endorsement of [supervisorial candidate Joe] DiDuca is legal. Yamaguchi’s paid consultant work amounts to a bribe. It reflects badly on the supervisor and Butte County that Yamaguchi stooped this low to profit from his position for which we already pay him well.

Robin Huffman
Paradise

Editor’s note: The author also was a candidate for 5th District supervisor. She came in third, behind DiDuca and Doug Teeter, who will face each other in a November runoff.

Consent bill not needed

Re “Informed choice” (Healthlines, by Evan Tuchinsky, June 7):

This bill [requiring that parents receive counseling before opting their children out of vaccinations] is a waste of time and money. The law of informed consent is already in place.

Doctors should be counseling each and every patient before every procedure, including vaccines. All of the pros and the very real cons should be discussed in detail at the time vaccines are suggested in the first place.

This bill is suggesting that doctors are not doing their job. What this does is put more money into the doctor’s pockets for a return visit! Will insurance companies pay this? Will Medi-Cal pay this?

K. Fuller
Yuba City

Enough noise: two views

Re “Enough with the noise! (Guest comment, by Neal Wiegman, June 7):

I applaud Mr. Wiegman’s guest comment regarding Chico’s noise ordinance and agree with the specific consequences for violation of it. Our air is shared, and no one should have the right to fill it with smoke or noise pollution.

With modern electronics available, we should never have to listen to our neighbor’s music, not from his home or his back yard or his car stereo. He can use a headset and blast away to his ears’ content. The drivers with vehicles with subwoofers blaring should be cited severely as well.

It would be nice if all human beings were respectful of others and exercised basic values that should be insisted upon from childhood, but they are not. Let’s work together to make sure the peace and tranquility of our air matches the serenity of our parks and trees and streams.

Brian Anthony Kraemer
Chico

There’s another way to look at this: The professor has spent 22 years tormenting himself, his family, the neighbors and the police with his choice of residency, when he could have easily found another place to live.

Small towns sometimes grow up and become cities. It seems unreasonable to expect that the noise level of an entire apartment complex in your back yard is not going to be disruptive. Some will say that this man shouldn’t have to move; others may say that it is the right of young adults to enjoy their youth in a lively and fun place like Chico. Either way, it looks like this guy’s in it for the long haul. I, for one, can’t say that I wish him any luck.

To be fair, perhaps he inherited this land from his family or maybe he has a whole army of dead pets buried there; perhaps this is sacred ground. Either way, there’s an apartment complex in your back yard, dude! Good luck getting some sleep.

Ron Collins
Chico/Yankee Hill

Help the salmon

Re “The kings and I” (Chow, by Henri Bourride, June 7):

As a commercial salmon fisherman, I would really like to sell my salmon for less money, but after essentially four years of closures, our fleet needs to make some money right now.

You as consumers and citizens of our state have much more influence over the cost of salmon than we fishermen do. Enable us to catch more salmon on a continuous basis by ensuring good river flows and healthy streams, and the price will come down. These salmon should not cost you $20/lb. for fillets.

Mike Hudson
Berkeley

How to pick a chancellor

Re “Into the light” (Newslines, by Melissa Daugherty, May 31) and “Commit to openness” (Editorial, June 7):

The search process for a new chancellor for the California State University must be as open and rigorous as that to which we subject other university faculty and staff.

The notion that we are in the process of hiring a new fundraiser-in-chief for the university is wrong. We are hiring the educator-in-chief for one of the state’s most important institutions.

The current search process described by CSU Board of Trustees Chairman Bob Linscheid in the May 31 CN&R marries the worst of current corporate favoritism with bygone academic elitism. Our new chancellor needs to be a public servant who inspires confidence and investment from both within the system and outside the system by being an intellectual, political and civic leader, not just another chief financial officer of a large corporation.

Selecting a leader based on a resignation to the current inevitability-of-disinvestment-in-public-higher-education mantra, instead of the goals of the California master plan, dooms the institution and the state.

Susan Green
Chico

Editor’s note: The author, a professor of history and Chicano Studies at Chico State, is statewide treasurer of the California Faculty Association.

Who’s behind the terrorists?

Re “Karma and the Constitution” (From This Corner, by Robert Speer, June 7):

Robert Speer fails his readers by leaving out the backgrounds of Anwar al-Awlaki and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Webster Tarpley describes Al-Awlaki as “by no means the only patsy handler” used by the CIA. Tarpley goes on to say that “just about every major terror attack has been run by an operative with direct ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex.”

To ignore “deep politics,” as author Peter Dale Scott calls the workings of power, is to settle for the intellectual comfort provided to us by the powerful. It’s comfortable to understand Obomba’s “worries”; allows us faith in his ability to grok the “terrible moral complexities” of state-sponsored murder. How much more complex when intelligence operatives are setting in motion the terror that we are fighting.

True comfort for a liberal is an Obomba playing the role of Christ by taking the murders upon himself so that others (Speer? You? Me?) don’t have “to feel responsible for the deaths….” True conservative comfort is resting in a beautiful America, settled with liberal trash, FEMA camps overflowing; Romney’s new morning for Ignorant America.

Couple of years ago I explained a bit of modern politics to a man who had been in the Battle of the Bulge. After hearing my bit he said, “That isn’t the country I fought for.” My reply: “Maybe the country you fought for doesn’t exist anymore.”

The coup d’etat was executed on Nov. 22, 1963. Any real understanding of what has replaced America must begin there.

Jackie TwoSticks
Paradise

Brewery blues

I am tired of hearing how Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is such a great place to work. It is a great place for some and not so great for others.

There are several temporary employees who receive no benefits. The important word here is temporary. I was a temporary employee for three years—not three months or even six months, but three years. I accrued no vacation, no holiday pay, no insurance, no paid time off, no bonuses, no pay raises, etc., because I was temporary.

I stayed with the brewery because jobs are slim. I was promised more than once I would be hired on, along with two other co-workers. This practice of keeping people temporary must be to avoid paying benefits. Why else?

I was there for three years, so I must have been doing a good job or they would not have kept me that long. The crew of six I worked with was laid off all at once. The reason: budget issues.

I realize they can do what they want, but keeping people temporary year after year is unethical. The brewery is good for Chico, but it needs to re-evaluate its employee practices.

Shawn MacDonald
Chico

Take money out of politics

Thought experiment: How about a ballot proposition that takes money completely out of politics? If one person, one vote is what we all really believe in: why not prohibit everyone—whether “corporate” persons or “real” ones, unions or PACs—from donating any money to a campaign?

How then, you might ask, would people learn about whom or what to vote for, without TV and radio attack ads or mailers?

Well, how about simply through fliers, tabling, telephoning, word-of-mouth, social media, blogging, old-fashioned persuasion among friends, partners and social circles—wouldn’t that be more than sufficient for any mature democracy to make its own decisions?

The TV and radio lobby would fight this elimination of its perennially lucrative ad revenue. And with Citizens United, we shall be rolling the proverbial boulder up the hill. But guess what? If the people spoke, TV and radio would acquiesce and sponsor airtime for intelligent debate and candidate interviews. They already cover inaugurations and national emergencies commercial-free, don’t they?

Take all money out of politics—all of it—and replace it with the volunteered personal energy of “real” citizens, and we will create a society that truly reflects the desires and interests of its people.

Tom Blodget
Chico

Ed was an inspiration

I am so sad that Ed McLaughlin died. He rode his bike everywhere and taught us all that you don’t always need a car to get around. He was an inspiration to many of us in Chico, and his accident was so unfortunate for a person who spent his entire adult life on a bike and then he couldn’t ride one and was paralyzed.

Life is so cruel sometimes, and makes you wonder why good people who make a difference die too young. Enjoy each day, and treasure your good health. You never know what tomorrow might bring.

Here’s to you, Ed. I hope you are riding your bike in heaven.

Joanne Skeen
Chico