Express Mail
I am a letter carrier and NALC shop steward in Sonoma. I just wanted to contact you about your article this week, because there are so many people getting it wrong (“A First-Class Institution,” Feb. 20). It is refreshing to see that someone gets it and, indeed, reported it correctly. Thank you so much for this article. I am reposting it everywhere! If I wasn’t an avid reader before, you guys got me hooked now.
Thanks again for fighting the fight for the little guys. It means so much.
Sonoma
To Hell with the NRA
Having had a few years membership in the NRA, I finally decided to just say no to the BS and quit them (“American Psychos,” Dec. 26). All they want is more money. I asked them why didn’t they ask Bush and Cheney for a few million after they walked out with over $11 billion in war profits from their watch.
I do own a collection of semiautomatic rifles and WWII combat rifles that are not for hunting. I like to go out and burn off a few clips, and I do keep the weapons for self-protection. I hunted a lot as a boy until a tour in Vietnam, which caused me to swear to never take another life, be it animal or human, unless it was to save a life—mine or another’s.
I served as a federal law enforcement officer for some years and never fired my arms once while on duty. I was with a fellow officer who shot an unarmed man carrying a surveyors stake he was carving on to make a play sword for his little boy. Officially, on record, the guy charged the trigger-happy officer with a sword. The shooter was exonerated from any charges as it was a clean shooting, even though the victim was not wanted on any warrant.
I’ll wager money most hunters aren’t members of the NRA. We all cannot be John Wayne or Rambo. But some of us did serve our country, and experienced what a firearm can do to another human being. I still have nightmares about it. To blame Obama for all the firearms sold to Mexico is a joke. It is a no-brainer that firearms dealers on the borders of Texas and Arizona are the real blame. But, hey, don’t go there—it’s all about American free enterprise, right?
Covelo
Something Rotten
Regarding the redwood trees along Highway 101 cut down and sold by Ghilotti Construction for a profit (“Deadwood Hwy.,” Jan. 30), just because something is legal doesn’t make it right. Legality is a cop-out for when something smells bad and feels wrong. If it looks bad and smells bad, then there is something in there that’s rotten. Trust your nose.
Those trees belonged to the public, period. What their value is relative to the size of the project does not diminish their importance, nor does it diminish the stench, public or private.
Via online
Duhhh!
Re: Daniel Garcia’s reply to my recent letter (“Cool Down, Man,” Feb. 13), those who try to argue against truth always resort to cheap tactics. They make up “facts” and they hurl personal insults. Thus does Mr. Garcia, in emulation of the moronic name calling that Limbaugh, Hannity, et al., like to spew at Obama.
Of course I voted for Obama over Romney—duhhh!—but that doesn’t mean I’ll give him or any other big-time decider a pass for persisting in a covetous, murderous, ruinous agenda that benefits only the profiteers of the war machine.
Too bad the last, most important sentence of my letter was chopped for space: “As long as we pursue client ways elsewhere, we can count on incurring more of the same on home soil.” Via retaliation or karma. It’s inevitable. World History 101 says it all.
Mr. Garcia might do well to read “The Force,” in the Jan. 28 New Yorker. Or he might gain some perspective the way I did, by serving four years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Nothing beats a scarlet and gold hanky for wiping the Gerber off one’s face.
Sebastopol
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