Letters to the Editor October 8, 2009

I am very sad to see that we will be losing our county administrative officer, Jeannine Galatioto.

Jeannine has been the one person that I could always go to for help and information and I could always count on getting it very promptly.

But she offered so much more than that. She is a humanitarian who truly cares about the people around her and it shows. The 400 words allowed in these letters couldn’t begin to hold the words of praise that she has earned here.

I’m sure the supervisors are aware that they are going to be very hard-pressed to come up with someone to fill her shoes, and what very nice shoes those always were.

Why did Fortuna pay less for its wastewater treatment plant?

Could someone please explain to me why Fortuna paid less for its wastewater treatment plant to serve more customers than ours? The rates are too high now, and going higher.

On top of all this, the City Council is nearly deaf to the pleas not to dump the toxin, fluoride, into the water. It was meant only as a treatment to be applied once a year to the teeth as a preventive measure, never to wash over one’s internal organs several times a day. And they wonder why many people do not think that they have our best interests at heart!

Local CCPRA participant thanks those who helped her

I would like to give thanks to the friends, family and businesses that helped me through my 2009 CCPRA rodeo year.

I had friends and family travel with me. The support they gave me meant the world. I would like to say thanks for the donations I received from Lucky 7 Casino, Bear River Casino, Redwood Coast Rodeo Committee, Mike Mastaloudis, Dave and Linda Linkous, Renner, Morjons, Jonathon Seaton, Les Schwab, Todd Torguson, and Harper Ford.

I invite you to cancel your health insurance. Then wait

Single-payer. Cost-sharing. Socialized medicine. I hear these terms thrown around often enough nowadays that it makes me stop and wonder: Why are so many people opposed to a public option for healthcare? When did our health as a nation become a debate and not an imperative?

I myself have no health insurance, nor does the business I work for offer a medical plan, and let me tell you; life as a young person without means is tough enough. Have you ever been sitting, burning with fever, deciding whether it’s food or Ibuprofen today? Or lying on your couch unable to feed your children because your body is weak from lack of Insulin?

Or, like myself, in pain on a daily basis from a lipoma growing into my spine, unable to afford a tumectomy.

And to all those who would try to keep wellness a business and condemn a means of preventative and quality care, I invite you to cancel your health insurance. Then wait.

President Obama failing on a variety of vital issues

Now that the new White House and Congress have been in session nearly nine months, many now realize what they are doing for — or to — this great country. Consider the tea parties, town meetings and the recent march on Washington, D.C. of decent, good people on the streets. Few problems arose, and they left virtually no litter! Called an angry mob or not, isn’t this the America you want, or would you prefer the inauguration crowd, or even Woodstock of 1969?

Look at the “stimulus package” of nearly a trillion dollars, courtesy of our grandchildren. This merely amounts to payback for getting Obama elected, and the respective pork, when the national parks, for example, are still crumbling.

The “cap and trade” bill, many now know, is not about cooling or saving the planet at all, but a new source of revenue for an ever-bulging government disguised as saving the planet.

The health care bill is a government attempt to take over another large part of the private sector, and must be stopped. This bill if passed will force taxpayers to buy health insurance from a choice the law provides, or pay a heavy fine. And those who don’t, go to jail. It would fund abortion, a main reason America is not blessed like it once was.

President Obama’s foreign policy is atrocious. This apologizer-in-chief trots the globe promising to cut back the strength and influence of the United States, which I regard as the best thing this planet has ever gotten since Jesus Christ. He has cut the SDI missile defense system, and with the threats of Iran, North Korea and other nuke-studded foes, this action was idiotic — or was it treacherous? And now he has traveled to Copenhagen to lobby for the Olympics in his hometown while the Afghanistan war and domestic issues wait in imminent need of his attention. But then, Obama seems to still be in campaign mode — ignoring his day job — which is the exact approach of an aspiring dictator.

America is indeed in a grave struggle between good and evil. Please pray for and call your lawmakers now, for the “ox is in the ditch.” And a major turnaround in 2010 and 2012 is needed, or pulling it out will be unlikely.

Thanks to Richard Wiens for articles on local hikes

I would like to thank you, Richard Wiens, for the excellent articles about your various hikes in our beautiful area.

In many cases I relive one of my own hikes through your well-written articles and photographs. Your advice is well taken, and carrying extra water and food along the Craigs Creek Trail is very good information and something I learned some time back.

Your advice on staging two cars for the Damnation Creek Trail to Enderts Beach is something well worth noting too, as you discovered.

My only disappointment is that these wonderful articles don’t seem to be available online. Not only should they all stay permanently available on your own Web site, but we should have links to them on all Web sites promoting our area.

There are so many wonderful trails available to us us here, and all are worth discovering and repeating in different seasons, as the scenic change is dramatic and beautiful.

Please continue to write these wonderful articles, but please put them on the Web site so we can all share them with distant friends.

Editor’s note: While there is not currently a special link at triplicate.com for the hiking stories, most of them can be found by typing in the words “Walk Your World” in the search line at the top of the home page.

So sad that cypress trees have now outlived usefulness

When I moved here in 1945, the block where the courthouse is now had an old school building in it. The school was razed and later the present building was built.

The trees where huge at that time.  A friend who attended the old school told about hiding in the trees as kids and spitting on people who walked along the sidewalk.

It was about 1950, somewhere in there, that the trees were destined to be cut down and there was such a hue and cry that they were saved. They were one thing that made our town distinctive.

So sad that they now have outlived usefulness. I would hope that new cypress trees could be planted.