Letters To The Editor – December 26, 2011
The loss of Bryan Osper
Bryan Osper’s death leaves a huge hole in the heart of Arcata. An old guy like myself can spend a lot of time bemoaning how things are not what they used to be. For me, meeting Bryan was an antidote to all that.
Bryan was every bit the Jerry Martien, the Marla Joy, the Joan Schirle, the Tim McKay, the Jim McVicker, the (you supply the name) that lifts us as a community.He was a consummate artist. He wasn’t just a musician, he was music.
Bryan’s talent was undeniable, but more important, his dedication was total. His relentless work came from his obvious joy. He was humble enough to play with anyone and to learn from everyone.
Bryan had an openness – beyond style or genre, beyond competition and false ambition. He had the sensitivity to honor every musician he played with.
And, no matter what kind of instrument or music he was playing, he gave each tune its own room to breathe.
For me, for some reason, Bryan was a reaffirmation of hope and beauty in a world that doesn’t always nurture those virtues. An affirmation that, yes, the idea of integrity hasn’t been lost on a younger generation.
I have to be content now that I was one of the lucky ones to have heard that sweet voice and stood enraptured watching music flow through his fingers. His slightly self-effacing smile will linger in Arcata for a long time.
And to Bryan’s parents and Eugene and Niko – thank you.
Alan Sanborn
Arcata
Thanksgiving thanks
Thank you so much for your coverage of the Community Thanksgiving Meal in yesterday’s paper. You really captured the entire event with the great pictures and text.
This kind of coverage will help us to get more people aware of the meal and hopefully get more volunteers next year as well.
I’m wondering if anyone will specifically volunteer to do dishwashing next year!!!
Thanks again,
Alicia Abell, Chair
Community Thanksgiving Meal, Arcata
Too good to be true
I am a Humboldt County artist. Getting wider exposure for my work is difficult so I rely on a website. I recently received an email from someone who visited my website and wanted to purchase a sculpture. We exchanged numerous emails and I suspected this was probably a scam.
Here is how the scam works:
An email arrives exhibiting very poor grammar and sentence structure. Wanting to believe the sale is the real deal, I thought perhaps English wasn’t his first language? The “scammer” requested a price, said he will take it and would send a cashier’s check for the purchase of the art plus enough to cover shipping. He wrote he will arrange for shipping. He instructs me to take the extra amount he sends to pay the shipper who will contact me. The shipper will let me know where to send payment.
I corresponded with him for weeks hoping it was a real sale ($1,500 sale is a nice ego stroke!) but I had a nagging suspicion that this was too good to be true. It was. The cashier’s check arrived yesterday. It was sort of official looking but the dollar amount didn’t make any sense ($3,900!).
On closer inspection the check appeared altered, the mailing envelope came with no return address or postal mark and bore a British stamp plus a par avion sticker (trying to make it look like it was foreign).
I took the check to the issuing bank (in this case Wells Fargo) who is sending it to their fraud department. I spoke to a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy who advised… since I hadn’t sent either the art or money that I wasn’t technically a victim. She said the scam style was classic. I asked what I could do to catch the scammer? She said the perpetrator rarely gets caught. She suggested I spread the word so others might not get taken.
I plan to e-mail The Scammer and tell him the cops are after him. Shame on him!
If something sounds too good to be true it probably is…
Barbara Dolan-Wilkinson
McKinleyville
Cool it, Krishna
The recent online article by S. Adelman titled “Krishna vs. the hicks” smacks of insitutional racism, classissm and oppression. To computer one of the most liberal collegiate campuses and the peoples that come to study at it to “hicks” could be no further from the truth.
Mr. Adelman, please stop using your privilege in this society to launch bombs at your publicly appointed school administrators. You would think your article would be welcome in the American South, or even in Israel, but not in Humboldt County.
I’m sorry, but there are many community oriented, public spaces that your organization can use; and guess what, out there, you don’t need and executive staff. Stop grandstanding and get back to your roots. Know your history.
Remember as the late Howard Zinn, Boston born, bombadier, historian, activist, argued, “you can’t be neutral on a moving train. Take your academic elite discursive sleights somewhere else.
I welcome yours, and anyone elses for that matter, response in the public sphere on issues of classism, racism, and institutionalized patriarchy; round one is now closed.
Tobin W. Steiskal
Fortuna
Every little breeze seems to whisper gadebitolozucuhu
Hi! I will be very pleased if you answer me:)
I am very young unmarried girl want to meet alone with just a single man.
To create a relationship more than friendship. About myself, I tell you all that interest you …
Write me I’ll wait for your letter.
gadebitolozucuhu
The Internet
Holiday handicapped neglect
Yesterday, December 15, a handicapped employee of Wing Inflatables was on his way home from Wing when is wheelchair battery locked and stopped the wheelchair in the crosswalk at Fifth and H streets.
Because the chair came to an abrupt stop our employee, Earl Haga, was thrust forward and slumped in his chair unable to sit back up. We are not sure how long he sat there but we do know that several cars drove around him without stopping to help.
Earl was finally able to reach his cell phone and call to Wing for assistance. Another of our employees ran to Fifth and H and was able to get Earl on his way.
All of us at Wing were heartbroken that our employee and friend was left in this situation for any length of time.
Shame on all those who drove by him and probably assumed he was drunk or drugged or just passed out in his chair. Cheers to our employee Donald Snowton, who came to Earl’s aid.
Reminder to all those who drove by: things are not always as they seem.
Sincerely,
Addie Segura, Director of Materials
Wing Inflatables, Inc.
Arcata
What’s wrong with everybody?
What’s wrong with everybody ?
I’ve never seen such a gaggle of tax-money sucking boneheads running for president, – with Ron Paul standing head and shoulders above them all as the only one who actually knows what he’s doing and what our country and Constitution are all about and has a record in Congress of realistically and absolutely supporting our country and U.S. Constitution and national independence and getting us out of no-win foreign and war entanglements that are dragging America down into an abyss of no return.
The obvious solution is to put people like Ron Paul in office, and band together as true Americans into everyday patriotic action organizations like The John Birch Society (JBS.org) and work 365 days a year regularly for the preservation of our country and Christian Western Civilization NOW, while we still can, and restore the economy to boot.
GET ACTIVE !
Sincerely,
Ed Nemechek
Landers
Police state behavior
To the great democratically principled Arcata:
Let me get this straight: in this country, this state, this town, you can come into my home under false pretenses with a SWAT team, place me, my loved ones, visiting family, dinner guests, on the floor in handcuffs because a passing jogger smells cannabis and there is possible increased electrical usage seen on my meter by Officer Herr Hoffman? And this police state behavior has no consequences? Does your hypocrisy have no end?
Just imagine during the holidays when you are doubling up on that Vicodin, or mixing it with far too many slurps of that excellent Merlot, or you Moms who sneak your kids Ritalin to get through the day, or when Xanax or trazadone doesn’t bring rest and you fortify your legal opiates with alcohol to get to sleep, just imagine if there was SWAT team alerted, because they could smell your behavior in the air and they didn’t like it one bit, besides being against doctor’s orders. Imagine if they could enter your home, throw you to the ground, put you in handcuffs, intimidate you, possibly cost you a fortune in legal bills, because they didn’t like the smell of your medical behavior. Oh yeah, the other incriminating evidence warranting that SWAT team: your increased PG&E bill. Not that YOU pay it and it’s YOUR bill, just like your mortgage or your credit card. Nope, its increase can now warrant a search of your home. So don’t hang those Christmas lights, don’t use that CPAP at night for apnea, don’t use the extra oxygen recommended after surgery, and most definitely don’t increase your heat usage during the winter months. This could warrant swift police intervention. That foul smell of cannabis, we must protect ourselves! The smell of feces and methane from the bay when the tide is out and the cowfields have baked in the sun, the smell of flesh burning during a barbecue, the bronchial irritants put in the air by mills and natural allergens, allergy causing wood burning in our fireplaces– these are acceptable. But the smell of a few burning leaves of cannabis is a threat to society. Privacy must be forfeited, the SWAT team alerted. Right here in River City.
As all police and medical personnel know, the threat from cannabis is anecdotal. You cannot ingest enough cannabis to kill you; you will just go to sleep, and the next day your liver will be fine. Ingested cannabis is rarely toxic to the human system, something one cannot say about most prescription meds. (Caution: long-term smoking of any substance could increase risk of respiratory disease). Those same medical and police professionals, if they are being honest about the statistics, will tell you that it is the abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs that causes far more violence and crime in our society than the use of medical cannabis. Read your own police log, Arcata. Most of the domestic abuse, most of the brawling, most of the vehicular accidents chronicled there have abuse of alcohol in the mix. Still to be proven, the assertion that THC could increase the effects of alcohol in the system or other sedatives, or could it be vice versa? (My advice, use alcohol minimally and with food and do not abuse prescription meds.) Also, the latest scare being used against legalization is that the increased THC levels in today’s cannabis causes psychotic breaks in teens. Actually, misuse of any drug can trigger schizophrenia (a latent virus and chemical imbalance) and bipolar disorder (a chemical imbalance) if the disease is there to be triggered. It is the later teenage years that both these diseases would normally become evident and progressively debilitating if not diagnosed and treated, and experimentation with drugs (part of many a teenager’s behavior) can seemingly be a trigger, although so can anesthesia during surgery and head injuries received during athletics. Psychotic breaks are usually a part of a much larger disease process, especially when presenting in late teenage years. As for our local police force on steroids and their aggressiveness bolstered by all that supplemental federal drug money in their budgets: if compliance with state law was really the issue, and they weren’t really targeting medical patients, then why not tone it way down, not come on like stormtroopers, but instead perhaps present themselves as regulation compliance officers? Why not inform the targeted resident that complaints have been filed and request a voluntary inspection for compliance? Wouldn’t those who are legal have a tendency to comply and remain legal, and those who are not, vacate? And isn’t that the idea, the mission? Or is it really to turn as many people as possible into criminals because cannabis is involved?
Hypocrisy is alive and well in Arcata. Spies are everywhere and you are being watched. Achtung!
Mary Granoff, RN
Arcata
Why is Thompson backing Huffman? Why?
Mike Thompson seems to be going all out for Jared Huffman. He not only announced his support of Huffman to the media but has now written a long letter to the T-S in support. Why?
Why has he rounded up others to support Huffman and why is he pushing so hard? It’s not usual to see someone who is still in office do that. So what’s in it for him? Professional politicians are not likely to act in that manner without a quid pro quo in mind.
Thompson is faced with running on new turf next year, more conservative turf than he’s used to facing.
Huffman is, by far, the most conservative Demo running in the Congressional race. He is what I would call “Republican light.” In these increasingly critical times, he has little to offer. But he could be a great help to Thompson in his upcoming race; he has political “ins” and the right image.
I’m tired of the “I’ll scratch yours if you’ll scratch mine” political games. This country is facing radical problems and we need radical answers, not more professional politicians doing the same old things that got us where we are.
People are losing their homes. The growing number of poor face cutbacks in medical care, one in five children are hungry, education is cut to the bone, the jobless rate is horrific and the rich are getting richer. We need a fighter with knowledgeable answers and the guts to say it like it is.
Sylvia De Rooy
Westhaven
cimygedaxicycixe’s good to go
Hi my charming. I badly want to meet you and know you closer.
I want a man for a relationship. If you are interested in me, I will be pleased to begin a dialogue with you.
I hope that you will answer me. I’ll tell you more about yourself. I’ll wait for your answer.
cimygedaxicycixe
The Internet
YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN PAID!!!
This is the only way I could contact you for now,I want you to be very careful about this and keep this secret with you until I make out space for us to see. You have no need of knowing who I am or where I am from.I know this may sound very surprising to you but it’s the situation.
I have been paid some ransom in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer.It’s someone I believe you call a friend, I have followed you closely for a while now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusations he leveled against you.
Do not contact the police or try to send a copy of this to them,because if you do, I will know,and I might be pushed to do what I have been paid to do.Besides, this is the ist time I turn out to be a betrayer in my job.I took pity on you,that is why I have made up my mind to help you if you are willing to help yourself.
Now listen,I will arrange for us to see face to face,but before that, I need $9,000. I will come to your home or you determine where you wish we meet;I repeat, do not arrange for the cops and if you play hard to get, it will be extended to your family.Do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation, my employer is in my control now.
Payment details will be provided for you to make a part payment of $2000 first,which will serve as grantee that you are ready to you co-operate,then i will post a copy of the video tape that contains his request for me to terminate you which will be enough evidence for you to take any legal action against him before he employs another person for the job. You will pay the balance of $7000 once you receive the tape.
Warning; do not contact the police, make sure you stay indoors once it is 7.30pm until this whole thing is sorted out,if you neglect any of these warnings, you will have yourself to blame. You do not have much time, so get back to me immediately
Note:I will advise you keep this to yourself alone, not even a friend or a family member should know about it because it could be one of them.
THE GREAT ASSASSIN GROUP OF EXHIBITION……………
The Internet
Note: Do your worst, you fiend, and suffer the wrath of cimygedaxicycixe. – Ed.
