Letters to the editor for the week of 3/18/20
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]
Thankful for the CHP
This past week I joined many other Meadow Valley residents who over the years have skidded on ice on Bucks Lake Road and lost control of their vehicle. I’ve told many others to slow down on that road in cold weather but this time it was my turn to misjudge conditions.
I would like to thank the Highway Patrol officers who responded to the incident. In my somewhat shaken condition I neglected to get their names. Both were professional, respectful and otherwise polite. The officer who initially responded was especially helpful with the follow up actions I would need to make.
Several years ago, a few perhaps overzealous Highway Patrolmen gave some of our Plumas County residents an opinion that their force was being heavy-handed. I’ve heard no such complaints recently and certainly my experience was quite the opposite.
Local law enforcement inevitably gets spread a bit thin in the large geographic area of Plumas County. We are privileged to have the patrols and the support of this state agency.
David Brown
Meadow Valley
Why?
I wish I had not clicked on and read the short article on the mountain lion near the school in Quincy. Why shoot to kill a animal for simply being a animal in its environment? I am not from this area but I am very familiar with seeing big cats, bears, fox, coyotes on a very regular basis. Before the Camp Fire back at home we had bears and cats regularly travel through our property and never did we think to shoot to kill these beautiful animals. We are in their territory not other way around.
Katina Portlock
Chester
No man left behind
The military concept that “no man is left behind” has an often checkered past of enforcement.
Today, we consider it a sacred pledge.
Our military personnel will crawl through mine fields, face enemy fire, swim alligator infested waters and risk life and limb to bring home a fellow soldier, dead or alive.
Those who volunteer to serve in our military and their families rely on our military personnel, from lowest to highest rank, to honor that pledge.
So let me ask, what is the difference between leaving a dead or dying soldier in the hills in Afghanistan or leaving him or her on the streets of San Francisco or Los Angeles?
There is no lack of compassion for non-military people, but we made a pledge to save those who sacrificed to save us.
The US military should establish rescue units in every city across the country to go into the homeless communities and rescue our service members.
Every veteran should be claimed from the streets, put in proper care situations and treated with the respect and compassion they deserve.
They are no less worthy than the battlefield casualty.
The US government and military gave their word.
With the coronavirus on the march, it is time for them to honor that pledge and no longer leave behind our service men and women on the streets.
We owe them.
Lynn Desjardin
Portola
Mindless invader
Viruses, strictly speaking, are not alive. They are tiny sets of genes bundled within protein cells, with one singular function — to replicate. Lacking cells or other common features of living organisms, viruses are parasitic zombies. They infect living cells, hijack the genetic machinery and mass-produce replicas of themselves.
With Covid-19 some people have no symptoms, but can transmit the virus to others. A majority suffer only mild respiratory distress. Others become severely sick, with flu-like aches and high fever and pneumonia. Deaths occur when the infections trigger an out-of-control immune response, creating a “cytokine storm” that inflames and shuts down the lungs. We face a mindless invader thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand — one that knows no national boundaries … now where did I put Grandma’s recipe for chicken soup?
Duane Vander Veen
Graeagle
Pretense of energy conservation
Climate change is almost always unpredictable. However, its cause in this instance is man-made global warming. Climate change is real and sea level rise is already in progress. Of course, all of that should have been foreseen many generations ago. Unfortunately, there were very few who were paying attention.
Now that the symptoms of global warming are no longer deniable, we simply deny the causes. We pretend that electricity is somehow independent of the energy source that generates it. While our energy expenditure continues to increase, we pretend that wishful thinking, prayers and simplistic solutions will allow us to avoid any actual reduction in our usage. We talk of alternative energy sources and turned off light bulbs, while flying to Europe or driving our oversized trucks and SUVs.
We possess neither sufficient interest or sufficient courage to slow the massive production and promotion of fossil fuels. We pretend that the oncoming confrontation with reality will, once again, be someone else’s problem-perhaps our children, or our children’s children. We could cut our nation’s energy use in half overnight, with far less cost in dollars and social disruption than will be the case in our inevitable future confrontation with overpopulation and the symptoms of climate change.
However, for a species that refuses to regulate its own numbers, waiting for Armageddon will allow those of us alive today to avoid the expenditure of our personal time and energy. Finding additional energy sources is not the answer. We need to stop our excessive energy use if we are even to delay that confrontation.
Wallace B. Eshleman
Quincy
Don’t be hasty
The 49ers found out the hard way that an NFL game lasts a full 60 minutes of football time. Some presidential candidates will have been on the campaign trail for a full five years, as of mid-June, some longer. The rough part of the deal is that the next five months, from June to November, is when the campaign really gets intense.
Many crazy things can happen between now and November; it would be foolish for anyone to assume that they know how this one will turn out.
Gene Nielsen
Crescent Mills
A spectacle
It will be Biden Vs Trump in November. Democrat candidates Elizabeth Warren, Mike Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar were “encouraged” to leave the race. Prior to the Tuesday primary, the “old guard” of the DNC stepped in and said we must defeat the crazy Communist! They chose their “best” candidate, Joe Biden, as their representative. After 25 starting candidates from all lifestyles, it came down to Old Joe.
Biden’s strength at the polls came from seniors, black voters and political moderates. Communist, Bernie Sanders held on with millennials, illegals and Castro groupies.
Biden’s campaign’s momentum was particularly apparent among late-deciding voters, who he won by at least 40 percentage points in each state. Importantly for Biden, roughly one-quarter or more voters in each state said they had just recently made up their minds since Super Tuesday.  Twenty-five percent of the voters made their decision the day of the election. That is not exactly, what you would call “brand loyalty” or a vote of confidence for Biden.
This is the second time the Democrats have pulled off a successful coup against Bernie Sanders. Democrats did cut their losses, they alienated the 18 to 30-year old Socialists and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, popularly known as AOC. Who needs them, right?
I say call off the Democrat and Republican Conventions (avoid spreading the Chinese virus), start the debates. One moderator and two old men can wrestle with identical questions on stage. What a spectacle.
You realize we could call these the “Denture and Depends””debates. The winner will be the candidate with the lowest blood pressure and heart rate after two hours. If there is a tie, the victor will be the candidate that remembers where he parked his car. Who will be Biden’s VP?
Trent Saxton
Lake Davis