Disgusted at theft of mobile dental van

Bah humbug to the person or persons who stole the industrial diesel generator, trailer and all, that was parked next to the Open Door Community Health Center Dental Van.

This mobile Dental Clinic was the result of a huge collaborative effort between the Community Health Center and the Building Healthy Communities Initiative. Del Norte County was selected as one of only 14 communities in California to receive funds to improve the health of our local residents. One of the biggest concerns raised was regarding the oral health of the children in our rural town.

The mobile clinic, dubbed the “Tooth Ferry,” was providing access at the schools for our local youngsters to receive much-needed dental care and education on the spot. The generator ran the entire mobile clinic, which was virtually a rolling dentist’s office.

It is going nowhere now. Whoever you are, I truly hope that you or someone you know have children who are struggling to eat, sleep or concentrate on school studies because they have dental pain. Maybe you will see that you have robbed from our most vulnerable and precious population, and return it.

Liz Carver, Crescent City

Don’t blame guns; put prayer back in school

Guns do not kill people, people kill people. Does anyone realize this can also be linked back to the devil that deceived Adam and Eve? When God created Adam and Eve his world for them would have been paradise compared to what we have now.

This also leads to the first murder. Cain killed his brother Able. However, it was not with a gun, I am sure. We did not have guns back then. Was it a stone? Therefore, when we think about banning guns, let’ also think of other ways that a person can kill another.

In the beginning of time, people were stoned to death for crimes committed. This was justified, of course, as they saw it was a way to take care of a sinner. Then we can see that knives were made at some point. Knives also can kill people.

New Year’s Day! In the business that’s been my career for almost 40 years now, the start of a new year was always a good time to catch my breath.

Traditionally, newspaper folks worked their hardest from October until the end of the year. The surge of last-quarter advertising meant long days and late nights in the ad department and rigorous schedules for the newsroom — the more advertising, the more space the newsroom had to fill.

At newspaper printing plants, warehouses overflowed with circulars that needed to be inserted on the correct day during the holiday rush. Some years a snow storm or flood somewhere in the country meant late deliveries of these materials and desperate, heroic dashes to make deadline. Employees worked all night to get the job done, then came back the next day to do it again.

I remember holding a clipboard during my daily walk-through of the newspaper’s warehouse in Grants Pass, checking off dozens of customers’ names to indicate that their advertising materials had arrived. Some of those businesses, like Fred Meyer are still going strong. Others like Montgomery Ward, Circuit City, Sprouse Reitz and G.I. Joe’s are retail history.

Not that long ago, the newspaper industry could count on robust advertising during the last quarter and employees could count on full schedules and some overtime during the busiest time of the year. Thirty percent of a retailer’s revenue would be rung up on their cash register in the last few weeks of the year.

I remember when the holiday advertising blitz started at Thanksgiving, not before it, and Thanksgiving papers were so heavy and bloated that carriers often had to make multiple trips to pick them up because they couldn’t handle them all at once.

I remember the mom of a Grants Pass bike carrier telling me her son had toppled over from the weight of his Thanksgiving papers and he and the papers fell into a ditch full of rainwater. The mom used her hair dryer to blow the papers dry before she threw them into her station wagon and helped her son finish his deliveries.

I remember when we used typewriters, not computers, to type copy, and cut paper and applied paste to create pages before the dawn of desktop publishing. We hustled and bustled and, yes, we sometimes complained that there just weren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Preventing shootings

We ended the year on a sad note with the terrible events in Newtown, Conn. Our prayers were and still are with those families.

Sadly, evil exists in the world. I wonder if our loss of moral direction in America, as in much of the world, doesn’t have a lot to do with it.

It is sad, isn’t it, you will find the Ten Commandments on the wall of the Supreme Court, but it’s not allowed in our schools! When a child in school, is sent home for wearing a religious or patriotic shirt, expressing his First Amendment rights, it is OK why?

But, a video game producer, or Hollywood movie maker, for that matter, cannot be censored for glorifying killing, it’s his right. (There is a video game  about killing kindergartners, been out for 10 years).

Video game makers, and Hollywood, have dumbed down our children, with our permission! Making them think that violence is a game, a way of life.

I do not advocate taking away their First Amendment rights. I advocate for parental control. I want parents to realize and control what is happening to our kids, what they are playing, and seeing.

I want people to speak up when someone might have a mental problem, help them get help or treatment. The murderers in Newtown, Tucson, Columbine, Fort Hood, Aurora, were/are madmen and should have been noticed and stopped.

Violating our Second Amendment rights, imposing more gun controls, will not stop a criminal or a madman.  They have no moral compass, and will always find a way to do evil. Would you outlaw knives, explosives, baseball bats, automobiles? They have all been used for violence against people, young and old, here in America and all over the world.

No new laws, rules or regulations will change the people, the people must change. Not by “executive order” or amendment to the Bill of Rights, but on their own.

Looking forward to a better year in 2013. Following our Constitution and Bill of Rights, God Bless America.

Virginia Walworth, Crescent City

I just took my nightly ride along Pebble Beach up to Point St. George and back, the muse now calling once again.

The Christmas season never fails to open up certain literary portals, this year being no different. Ubiquitously,  Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar arrived, along with O’Henry’s young newlyweds, among them, Bedsworth with his inimitable talent of converting life’s sourest lemons into lemonade.

Somewhere in the pitch dark and gale winds, just south of Fran and Terry McNamara’s cattle grate, I find myself thinking of another lawyer, weary and longing to leave something akin to Sandburg’s footprints in the sand. I think of this man named Max,  scrawling in pen, on a rainy night in Terre Haute, Ind., in 1927.

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.”

Which brings to mind a story about a young man just up the road apiece, 70 or so miles north of Brookings. Jake, I’ll call him, was just home from serving in Afghanistan and working at the family gas station and convenience store. A  young couple in a packed-up, ’71 Dodge Tradesman van pulled in.  Jake, ever friendly, struck up a conversation, asking where they were headed.

The man, near Jake’s age, said they were headed south, looking for a new place to live, saying good riddance to the town in their rear view mirror.

When Jake asked what their town was like, the young man and his wife intermittently scowled, saying the police were always hassling them to turn down their stereo  or tone down the  cussing and fighting. There was no night life. There was no place to shop and no jobs worth taking. When the driver finally tired and asked Jake what his town  was like, Jake just shook his head, shrugged and said, “Pretty much the same.”

A couple hours later, a fifth wheel with a shiny Airstream pulled up. A husband and wife, senior citizens. Jake asked them where they were going. The lady said they were retired and had just sold their home back up the road and had decided to see America while they “were young.”

Waiting for the tanks to fill, Jake asked what their hometown had been like.  The man replied, “Well, it was kinda quiet, not much to do at night, but we had good friends we kept up with, we had the ocean and the rivers for fishing and camping and  Lord, raising four kids — between helping with their homework, carting them to their school games and scouting events — heck, by day’s end we were tired enough.”

As the pump stopped, Darlene asked Jake what his hometown here was like.  Jake smiled and replied, “Pretty much the same, ma’am.”

Which brings me back to Bedsworth and what he taught me almost 30 years ago and again this year, about how most things in this life are kinda like Rohrschach tests, lemons if you will, that can end up sour as all get-out — or lemonade if you just take the time to make it.

The year is almost over.

For the longest time, it seemed to drag — probably because winter and then spring lasted so long we hardly had any summer.

But with the cold months also come those holidays that, while they chill the body, they warm the heart with family gatherings and friendly get-togethers.

I used to dread the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays because my family was so far away that we could not be together. But over the past few years, one of my daughters, and the son of another daughter, have moved to Crescent City. It is so nice not to be living here alone anymore.

Of course, it was my own fault. I fell in love with Crescent City the first time we lived here, 30 some years ago. Ten years ago, the pull was just too much, and I came back. Of the four states and many towns I’ve lived in, only one other comes close in my heart, and that is Abilene, Texas. Some of my family still live there, including my newest great-grandson Josiah.

Holidays, especially the more family-oriented ones like these, often result in depression for folks who have lost loved ones. That absence hits all the harder during Christmas. People often feel that no one else understands, and feel more and more alone.

• At the Crescent City United Methodist Church, Pastor Carol provides a grief support meeting on Wednesday evenings. All in need are welcome to attend.

• The Seventh-day Adventist Church on Northcrest is again presenting the seminar, “Depression — The Way Out.”

The public is invited to the free introductory DVD presentation at 7 p.m. on Jan. 8. This session will be an overview of the nine-week program (meeting once weekly), so you can decide if this might be something you would find helpful. The initial session will provide a lot of helpful information.

From the pages of the Del Norte Triplicate, December 1942.

Gas rationing came to Del Norte County quietly and efficiently at midnight last Sunday with very little extra business being done by gas stations, showing no attempt at last-minute buying.

Boat owners and fishermen and other non-vehicle users were not delayed in their work due to the rationing board; truck operators were given every possible aid; agricultural users of gasoline and tires were extended the understanding cooperation of the board. 

There has been a record crowd of applicants for supplementary rations and all work was being handled as speedily as could be hoped for. 

Red Cross kit bag quota

The local Red Cross chapter has accepted a quota of fifty kit bags to be delivered by the end of January 1943.

These bags are for distribution to soldiers and Marines embarking for foreign duty. They contain a filled soap box, shoe polishing cloth, pencil, envelopes and paper, gum, shoelaces, razor blades, pocket size book, a sewing case, containing five sizes of buttons, olive drab thread, and needles, a pack of cigarettes and deck of playing cards.

The chapter thanks the Del Norte Wool Growers Association for its gift of $5 toward these kit bags. 

School to close its Klamath campus 

As chairman of the Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods (KRECR) School Council, I’m writing to explain our serious financial situation, our response to it, and to highlight our commitment to educational excellence.

KRECR is a small charter school. For the past six years, we have served around 40 students a year. Knowing there was broader interest in our educational model, this year we opened a larger campus in Crescent City. Many families enrolled their children, boosting our enrollment to 126. 

We have learned through experience-won knowledge that the four components to a thriving school are community, social/emotional, teaching/learning and administration/financial. We now recognize that we have focused our talent and energy on building a positive school environment that meets students’ needs to the detriment of our financial operations.

This year, I’m happy to say we have straightened out our books. With clarity comes reality. We discovered we had made a serious accounting error and mixed restricted and unrestricted funds in response to cash flow challenges.

Accountability and sustainability are integral components of cash flow. Cash flow challenges are indicative of every school, especially in these dire financial times. This error failed to accurately reveal our operating shortfall. As such, KRECR is facing a deficit of $163,380 this school year. This may seem daunting, but we remain steadfast in our commitment to students, parents and/or guardians and are taking decisive action to address this serious fiscal challenge. We do have the ability to respond to this concern.

Sutter Health motivated by money, nothing more

Just when my friends and I were starting to breathe a sigh of relief, Sutter Health is back in the picture. It is not only back in the picture but it is still pushing to regionalize the hospital and turn it into “Critical Access.” It reminds me of the schoolyard bully who just won’t go away. It is very clear that Sutter Health is not thinking of our community and many of our doctors. The compelling reason for its persistence and determination is very simply the money involved and nothing more. It is certainly not concerned for us.

The community and most of our doctors do not want our hospital to be regionalized. Why, then, are our voices not being heard? We had heard that Asante Health System was very interested in our hospital and that sounded like very good news. We would not lose our hospital beds but gain the likelihood of more doctors and more equipment. Asante also has a very good reputation.

Rick and I in Lahaina, Maui, in November. Del Norte Triplicate

Sometimes we find ourselves in comfortable situations, reluctant to make a move or rock the boat. How many times have you heard someone say, “Why mess with a good thing?”

I first met Rick in the summer of 1998. He came calling at the newspaper in Grants Pass where I was marketing director. I was summoned to the lobby to “speak to a gentleman in a suit who is requesting free advertising.”

Seeking practical solutions for homeless

This time of year, every year, we hear a lot about homelessness, both pros and cons. Both sides make some good arguments, but neither side has made any headway in solving this issue.

Perhaps the focus on homelessness needs to be narrowed just a bit. While it’s true that there are hard-core homeless folks out there that have absolutely no interest in becoming employed and housed, there is a segment that would jump at the chance.

There are those in our community that, through no fault of their own have found themselves homeless. Loss of jobs due to the economy, illness or simply being under-employed may have contributed to their situation.