Letters for November 1, 2001

Let women do it
Today women need to claim our nonviolence. We don’t look for violent solutions to our problems; we don’t think of violence most of the time. Nature or nurture, who knows? It’s just that, for the vast majority of women, violence is not an option.

Women have the capacity to deal with violence and with terrorism. We have been dealing with it for thousands of years. Let women solve the issues that are going on now without killing more innocents. It’s time for men to give it up. You’ve had several thousand years to work on it, and you haven’t yet found your way out of this cycle of violence and war.

Claudia King
Received via e-mail

Gratitude
Re Mary Cook’s essay [“The Unexpected Lesson” Oct. 25]:

Gorgeous.

Thanks.

Jennie Hammett
Chico

Sad TV
From Laura Smith’s article [“Channel 36?” Business, Oct. 11], it appears that Raymond Johns, the Connecticut TV executive who runs KHSL and KNVN, presents himself as the savior of our local TV stations. To the contrary, he has degraded the quality of our local news (I say “our” because the shows air over the public airways, licensed by our federal government). He has eliminated one local TV facility by operating both stations from one, and he has cut the number of people employed at the two stations by at least half—one news staff for two stations, one sales staff for two stations, one engineering staff for two stations, and so forth.

Before Johns bought KHSL, it had done well in Chico for almost half a century, through good and bad economic times. KNVN improved in quality over the years and strongly competed with KHSL for news viewers before Johns teamed with Evans Broadcasting and merged the two stations. The local community had received the benefit of the news competition in some fairly sharp and dynamic local news coverage.

Johns has destroyed that while increasing the profits he sends to his bank account in Connecticut, or wherever it may be. He manages the two stations simply to squeeze more money out of them, nothing else. Where does that money come from? Our local community. Where does it go? Somewhere else. He doesn’t care about our community. He does not serve it well. That’s the way it looks to me.

Mike Clark
Chico

Peacenik rules
They can’t fool me, even if I am an old fool! I don’t care how many flags or T-shirts are out there, I don’t believe that the majority of Americans want this bombing to go on. I know that the majority of Americans don’t want to kill more innocent people in any country.

The funny thing is, we think we’re outnumbered because of all the flags and corporate-owned media polls. But we’re not. Millions of people of all faiths, here and all over the world, are quietly praying the air strikes will stop. What else can we do?

Do the good-citizen thing. Notify your government officials you want the bombing stopped. We are hated in many countries because agents of our government have deposed popularly elected leaders and replaced them with puppet military dictators who sell out their people to American multinational corporations. So stop shopping at corporate-owned businesses. Shop locally and buy only what you really need. We are also hated because we are using up more than our share of the world’s natural resources.

Put your money where your heart is. Donate to a peace organization. Refuse to pay for war. Contact the War Resisters League (www.warresisters.org). Be a visible presence for peace. Wear and/or display a visible symbol of peace—a ribbon, T-shirt, bumper sticker, candle, etc.

If you do the above, you may encounter people who do not respect that you are not united with their stand and think that if you are not with them you are against them. Take a deep breath and listen to them with an open heart. Hear them out. Respect that they care too but see things differently. Don’t try to change them. Just be the demonstration of nonviolence that you want to see in the world.

Renee Renaud (a.k.a. Granny Greenjoy)
Chico

Imagine
I am, it appears, out of step with the majority of Americans, as I am devastated by the bombing of Afghanistan. It is hard to believe that the majority of Americans agree with the cost of this bombing, namely the killing of the innocent Afghans and the displacement of thousands of Afghanistan’s people.

I feel deeply ashamed when I see the pictures of the 3-year-old girl, wrapped in bandages in her hospital bed, her body mangled by American bombs, crying out for her mother; the old man staring blankly, having lost eight of his family members killed by American bombs; the flocks of destitute, panic-stricken mothers and fathers with their thirsty and hungry children clamoring to get into Pakistan and away from the American bombs.

There must be another way to curtail the killing of innocent Americans without participating in the same despicable behavior we witnessed on Sept. 11. In our attempt to “stamp out evil” we are causing death, misery, heartache and homelessness and sowing more seeds of hatred.

It is time for the nations of the world to step off the warring path and proceed on the path to conflict resolution and justice using peaceful means. We, the people of the United States of America, have the opportunity to set a powerful example to the rest of the world. Imagine what a joy it would be to live in a peaceful world.

Evanne O’Donnell
Chico

Chilied out
On Oct. 20, we held our Ninth-Annual Tower Records Chili Cook-off & Band Jam, gave away thousands of grab bags and fed approximately 5,000 hungry chili tasters. This was a restaurant-only cook-off; the participants brought their chili forward at 11 a.m., and by 5 p.m. all the chili had sold to the tasters.

Sierra Nevada was our winner for “Best Chili.” “Best Presentation” went to Zot’s Hot Dog’s & Deli, while “Most Enthusiastic Crew” was split between Marie Callendar’s and Bomber’s Baja Grill. We had great music all day, gave away a bunch of great stuff and had a fabulous raffle that raised a portion of our final total for our chosen benefactor, the Chico Boys & Girls Club.

We are proud to announce that Tower Records New & Used raised $3,000 dollars at the event. Over the past nine years, this has grown to become one of Chico’s most fun family events, and we look forward to the big 10th-Annual Tower Records Chili Cook-off & Band Jam next year.

Lynn E. Brown
GM, Tower Records
Chico