Letters for March 22, 2018

Worst idea ever

Re “Bloat” by Dennis Myers (Feature, March 8):

Thank you for finding the courage to open this door and begin to speak the unspeakable. It may only be the tip of the iceberg, but it is still a major breakthrough. Probably not 1 percent of the American people could say what NSC 68 [the “Truman Doctrine”] was and what it meant. But, it may well be the most important doctrine ever enacted by the U.S. government (yes, I’m including the Monroe Doctrine). It committed us to a level of spending, and worse, to a concurrent mental attitude that has bankrupted (financially and morally) the former wealthiest, most powerful of nations. This has been going on for 70 years with little or no attention from our citizens, and certainly no attention to consequences.

Thomas Lambie

Nevada City

via newsreview.com

Freedom isn’t free

Re “Bloat” by Dennis Myers (Feature, March 8):

And who do you think let’s you print this? The U.S. Military should be your first answer.

Steven Davis

via Facebook

Excessive prosecutorial fervor

Re: “A political YOLO” by Michael Mott (Beats, February 1):

The reason we got to this point is politicians using voters’ fear of being victimized to get them to vote for them. Republicans are the most guilty. Our district attorney in Yolo County put four 14-year-old Mexican American kids in prison for 10 years, using enhanced sentencing, for a crime that in other counties would get them no incarceration, or maybe six months in a juvenile facility. These four young men’s lives have been destroyed. The case involves an Amtrak train that these kids threw rocks at while rolling through West Sacramento. Finally we have a choice in Yolo County. It is time to vote Reisig out.

Tim McKinnon

West Sacramento

via newsreview.com

Art vs. commerce

Re: “Moving art” by John Flynn (Scorekeeper, March 15):

Thank you for your thumb’s-down on the local-artist-wrapped design on light rail cars. Apparently SN&R is content with the calico-cat advertising offal that adorns many RT light rail trains. Didn’t hear a peep from you on that. RT, keep up that revenue generation no matter how ugly your trains are. Just goes to say: If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

George McAlister

Orangevale

Swimming and singing

Re “A marathon life” by Skye Cabrera (15 Minutes, March 8):

Swimming from Cuba to Florida at the age of 64 is a remarkable feat, and I would say it qualifies Diana Nyad as an inspirational figure. But in her interview, she said one thing that makes no sense.

Nyad related that in the course of her swim, she sang Kris Kristofferson’s “Me & Bobby McGee,” made famous by the great Janis Joplin, a thousand times, singing “the entire song, from the first note to the last note,” and used it to clock herself: “Nine hours and 45 minutes. That’s how long it [took] me …’”

That’s a total of 585 minutes, which translates to 35.1 seconds [per song]. Janis Joplin’s version of the song ran about four and a half minutes.

I reached out to Ms. Nyad herself about this, and she was kind enough to reply and explain: “I sing that first stanza (Janis’s voice reverberating in my ears) and then I skip right to the La La La di La’s,” she said. “Oral accounts are always fraught with word slips… I had no idea I said I sang ’the entire song’ … will not make that mistake again.”

Of course, Ms. Nyad’s amazing accomplishment still stands as an inspiration to us all.

David Urman

Sacramento

via sactoletters@newsreview.com

Correction

Due to an editor’s error, a March 8 review of playwright E.M. Hodge’s Fragile Things misreported that Hodge served in the US Navy. We regret the mistake.