Letters to the Editor for the week of 12/24/19
Guidelines for letters
All letters must contain an address and phone number. Only one letter per week per person will be published; only one letter per person per month regarding the same topic will be published. Feather Publishing does not print third-party, anonymous or open letters. Letters must not exceed 300 words. Writers responding to previously published letters may not mention the author by name. The deadline is Friday at noon; deadlines may change due to holidays. Letters may be submitted at any of Feather Publishing’s offices, sent via fax to 283-3952 or emailed to [email protected]
Cheers to the Quincy Community
Plumas County is a great place to live. We were reminded of this with three current events in the community: the Main Street “Sparkle” sponsored by local businesses, the theater play “A Christmas Carol,” and the annual (50th Anniversary) courthouse Community Christmas Sing. The local theater plays, sponsored periodically by the West End Theater, Town Hall Theater, the college and local schools and businesses, are quite amazing with the wide variety of talent shown by our friends and neighbors. For just local citizens, they show a wide range of talent and creativity, as well as a lot of hard work, in producing and acting in the plays.
As for the annual Community Christmas Sing, sponsored by the Soroptimists and represented by local churches and individuals, it is a wonderful introduction to the holiday season and just great to see folks from all parts of community come together and kick off the Christmas season with cheer, music and solid rounds of Christmas carols. It does wonders to put us in the holiday spirit and it is just nice to see all our neighbors singing together.
I travel for work a great deal, both in the U.S. and abroad and the best part of every trip is coming home to Plumas County. Sure, we have our problems and political differences, lack of employment, cold in the winter, fires and floods, etc., but every place has issues and problems. Plumas County just has a lot of great, talented and warm-hearted people, it is not congested, polluted or over-developed and so it is a beautiful place to live.
Thanks to all the wonderful people in the county that make this a great place to live.
Happy Holidays,
Jeanette Brauner and
Gordon Keller
Taylorsville
A lot of FRC
Our local paper has had more articles about Feather River College in the past six months than I remember reading in the last several years. While I agree thatFRC is an important resource to Plumas County and it’s much appreciated (congratulations to our Women’s Volleyball State Champs by the way) the recent article about accreditation seemed to be more information than most readers really need to know. In fact, it appeared to be a slightly disguised attempt to discredit Dr. Trent Saxton, one of the FRC elected trustees, for asking questions during a board meeting open to the public. That is what he was elected to do and he should be encouraged to continue asking questions about how FRC operates, not berated in the local paper for doing so.
Local schools are overseen by local boards of trustees to ensure local transparency and control; Feather River College is no exception. If a hired administrator begins to publicly try to divest himself of one of our community representatives for any reason … much less for asking questions in order to do his job, it raises some real questions. What is wrong with the administrator and what is he afraid the trustee is going to find out? That’s the question we should all begin asking our trustees. Meanwhile, as one letter writer said last week, keep asking your questions Trustee Saxton. Perhaps your colleagues will join you. Let’s hope so.
Jerry Williams
Portola
Merry impeachment
The founders of our country fought and died seeking freedom and independence from the tyrannical and abusive King of Great Britain. The framers of our Constitution sought to prevent/remove a president from being abusive and treasonous so they included impeachment in the Constitution. The Constitution was written before any laws were even on the books, thus the included clause ‘treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors’.
The framers didn’t want foreign influence in any aspect of our nation especially the presidency and elections. They also had great concerns that a president could be bribed or in turn bribe a foreign nation to perform acts that benefited him or the other nation.
After all, it was their (our) country. It’s not a political process or a process to overturn an election; rather it is a process to protect our democracy from destruction by traitorous and/or authoritarian presidents who sought to harm our democracy. They also didn’t want a president who would enrich himself thus the Emoluments Clause.
The Mueller Report detailed how candidate Trump ask for and receive Russian influence in the 2016 election. As president, Trump disgustingly extorted (bribed) the Ukrainian president to announce an investigation into Trump’s 2020 election foe, Joe Biden, and in return Trump would release the already approved congressionally military aid that would be used to fight a mutual adversary — Russia.
Trump actually confessed his crimes in public on camera by 1) asking Russia to find Clinton’s email, 2) asking China to investigate the Biden’s, and 3) asking Ukraine to investigate the Biden’s. It’s a pattern and practice of this corrupt American president.
Trump could prove his innocence he claims by providing the lawfully subpoenaed documents requested and to allow witnesses to be called, but Trump refuses to do so. An innocent person doesn’t do this. And, how can you trust a president who lies — 15,000 times since inauguration.
Thankfully, Trump has been officially impeached. Have a very Merry Impeachment.
Mark Mihevc
Graeagle
On ancestry
Lunch with a delightful Maidu friend. We were searching for names other than Indian or Native American. I’ve been to India and this is not it. I believe she and I settled on tribal names. I have been fortunate to have had many hundreds of good friends over the years. Most are long gone, but I remember the friends, even when I sometimes forget their names. Their ancestors were Yurok, Maidu, Miwok, African, European, Asian, Catholic, Jewish and Islamic, but to me they were just friends.
I do understand the fascination of genealogy. My mother’s grandfather (Booth) hired a genealogist. His male ancestry is listed in order back to 16th Century England. Robert Booth arrived in New England in 1642. My dad’s name came from a clan in Bern, Switzerland. They became Lutherans during the reformation, moved to Holland, and then to America as part of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Beyond that, I don’t even know the maiden name of my great-grandmother.
Nevertheless, I am obviously a direct ‘blood relative’ of Robert Booth and the Swiss clan. Mathematically, those relatives living ten generations ago would number about two thousand. Relationships between cousins would reduce that number. I haven’t the foggiest clue to the identities of the other direct blood relatives who were living at that time. So, for me at any rate, once beyond those ancestors with whom I have had a personal or even indirect, contact, all others will remain in the mists of time. Genealogy would seem to be a rather selective occupation. Having been born here, I can assume that I’m both a Native American and a European American. Thankfully, in all my years of travel, I’ve never been referred to as either one.
Wallace B. Eshleman
Quincy