Letters for September 29, 2005

Had enough?
To the “Bush Believers":

Is this enough? Has George W. Bush irrefutably proven yet, beyond any doubt, that he is, in fact, completely and utterly inept as a leader? If not, then enlighten me otherwise. Please. I beg of you. Seriously. I am positively baffled as to what an individual, let alone our president, could do to further descend our nation in the eyes of the world. His truly delinquent response to a national disaster was embarrassing; a recurrent throughout his presidency.

Mat Bacior
Chico

Favorite Tom
Builders Tom Fogarty and Tony Symmes get what builder Tom DiGiovanni wants, too. DiGiovanni doesn’t want Symmes’ low-income housing or Fogarty’s 80 houses on a ridge within sight of DiGiovanni’s Meriam Park, so the liberal-led council says “no.” I don’t remember the council ever saying “no” to DiGiovanni. He’s gotten concessions to everything in the code on every project he’s built in Chico—concessions that allow him to shove in more houses for more profit. Why is his baseball stadium OK where houses on a ridge are not?

He won’t have to ask for concessions much longer. The city is allowing him to write his own “parallel” code to circumvent the public process. According to Planning Director Kim Seidler, DiGiovanni’s new traditional neighborhood code (TND) “could make the approval process somewhat simpler and more predictable. In connection with the Meriam Park project, the developer is drafting a TND code….”

So, while Forgarty and Symmes get sent home without a goodnight kiss, DiGiovanni slides his right in.

Juanita Sumner
Chico

Easy on the Bush babies
There is a fine line between reasoned, fair-minded criticism and naked, disrespectful and close-minded antagonism. Disappointingly, your latest essay, “The bawling of the Bush babies,” [Sept. 22] most definitely crosses that line. I’ve come to expect a certain progressive perspective and left-leaning advocacy in the News & Review, and have been consistently impressed by the overall respectful tone and well-supported arguments provided. The News & Review typically avoids the kind of visceral and condescending blather common to right-leaning talking heads like Sean Hannity or Michael Savage. However, in the Bush babies article, you dived into the muck with both feet, seeming to revel in the most condescending and disrespectful language I’ve ever seen directed at your audience in print.

There is no respect offered for anyone with a differing perspective, and an almost bigoted dismissal of a person expressing any support of the president as a child-like “apologist.” While I can admire a well-written article starkly criticizing the president (as there is certainly plenty to criticize), I have little save disappointment for a mean-spirited and insulting litany of attacks on anyone who might think differently than the author. That is the kind of naked disdain for plurality of thought and alternate perspectives that I’d expect to hear from rightwing talk radio, not a publication I had come to respect.

Regardless of your position on “Daddy Bush,” there are ways of voicing criticism that don’t involve verbally vomiting on your audience. The tone and content of that essay was beneath both you and your readers.

Jason Young
Chico

Profits of war
According to the Sept. 12, 2005 weekly American Free Press, David Brooks, chief executive officer of DHB Industries, manufacturer of bullet-proof vests, made $525,000 in 2001. On March 20, 2003, U.S. troops invaded Iraq. In 2004 CEO Brooks had earnings of $70 million.

Two years and five months after the U.S. blitzkrieg began, the troops are still there and Bush’s war goes on, and on, and on.

Bill McCord
Chico

Thanks for the help
With the good vibes, prayers, letters and telephone calls from many of you, we have earned a great victory. We would like to thank Jan Sneed and the Chico Area Recreational District board for their support. CARD is going to allow and help the community create and install a monument to honor Dr. King in Community Park, one that is satisfactory to all of us in the Chico Community Coalition.

We would like to thank Mayor Scott Gruendl and City Councilmember Steve Bertagna for initiating changing the street name Whitman Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Thanks to the City Council and support staff and the City Council for their efforts.

David Becker is heading our monument committee; he can be contacted at 893-1044. Friends, the cost to create and install a monument depends on the quality. I do believe you want quality to honor Dr. King and what he stood for. We need your help to make this happen. If anyone would like to contribute to the monument fund please send checks only, not cash, made out to M L King Jr. M. fund. All donations are tax-deductible and a receipt will be sent to you. Mail your donation to Chico Community Coalition, P.O. Box 6967, Chico, CA 95927 or drop your contribution off at our memorial information booth at the Oct. 2 celebration that begins at noon in the children’s area of Community Park.

Joe Person Sr.
Chair, Chico Community Coalition

That which is real
There are people who are very vocal in their position on the protecting of various animals and plants. This is a choice made that is not always popular with others, but the option is expressed in various ways to ascertain a sincere regard for their stance. The right to affirm such ideas is unquestionable, and there is persuasive rhetoric to support views that may seem extreme to some.

The question of the act of abortion is one that haunts many of us whose concepts are disturbed by the indifferent attitude of many of these same folks. Can we be honest in accepting a true and valid definition of this horrific act called abortion? Are we content to disregard that which is real by inserting opinions of free will and individual choice?

Each of us answers those questions by our stance on the issue—and no politics or influence of power should be a factor in the situation.

Louie Ricci
Non-denominational Christian evangelist
Chico