As South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem learned to her sorrow recently, there is a political price to be paid if you abuse animals. Even Donald Trump won’t put up with such activity. Perhaps that is what prompted Supervisors Sue Hoek and Lisa Swarthout to write a commentary for The Union to reassure voters the supervisors have the best interests of our four-legged friends at heart. (The essay didn’t have the usual disclaimer that the views expressed were their own, but presumably the other supervisors stood with them in solidarity.) The commentary was no doubt prompted by a recent article in The Union quoting Cheryl Wicks, founder of Sammie’s Friends, regretting the selection of her successor in managing the county’s shelter operations. It’s not unusual for founders to have separation anxiety when they step away from their creation (see Howard Shultz, founder of Starbucks), but Wicks hinted at the kind of activities–euthanasia being the most sensitive one–that can inflame the pet community. Hoek and Swarthout reassured readers that everything is working as it should and that the county is partnering with the cities of Grass Valley and Nevada City to build a first-class animal shelter. Just wait another four or five years. I was struck by their source of reassurance: “The County (whoever that is) met with Sammie’s Friends Board just over a week ago and feedback has been nothing but positive.” If “The County” refers to the paper shufflers in the Rood Center, I wonder if it’s the same people who have been reassuring the supervisors that everything was fine with the Fire Safe Council until the Civil Grand Jury blew the whistle? How about the county Office of Emergency Services, which has been accused by Hoek’s predecessor of bungling funding opportunities to improve our fire safety? As is usually the case, we’ve received nothing but silence from the supervisors and bureaucrats in the Rood Center. The supervisors are expected to hold county employees responsible for their actions, but too often we get the impression they’ve been co-opted to present a unified, “everything’s fine” front to the taxpayers. Less happy talk and a little more truth telling would be a refreshing change. NOTHING CHANGES It was deja vu all over again, as the folksy philosopher Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra once observed. I was in the Bay Area recently on family business, and as is my custom, I tuned into the San Francisco TV stations to see if people I knew were still reporting the news. Up popped students at my alma mater, San Francisco State, expressing solidarity with the oppressed masses of Palestine. I immediately flashed back to the ‘60s, when protests over the Vietnam War convulsed our institutions of higher learning. While most of the action occurred after I graduated in 1965, my future wife, my brother, and friends were caught up in the turmoil. I was in the Army in Texas when I picked up a paper one day to see a picture of the entrance to the administration building at SF State, two large windows shattered. Stepping through the debris was a rabble-rousing instructor I knew from my student reporting days. I felt like I was home again. Today’s demonstrators don’t seem to have the elan of the freedom warriors of the ‘60s and ‘70s as they repurpose centers of American learning into Hamas propaganda factories. I blame this on their pampered upbringing, where everybody got a trophy, nobody heard a discouraging word, and they were shielded from hurtful feelings. While yesterday’s freedom warriors were proud to thrust their faces forward, today’s protesters are reluctant to give their names and hide behind discarded COVID masks and keffiyehs, a blatant example of cultural appropriation. (In fairness, there was no internet or doxxing in the ‘60s and ‘70s.) Vietnam protesters weren’t bashful about engaging the “corporate media.” Today, they won’t go near a reporter until they’ve memorized the appropriate buzz words. There are even reports of students complaining because food deliveries have been denied while they occupy university buildings, and that they feel unsafe because of the presence of counter protesters. What a bunch of wimps. But protesters of both eras have one thing in common: Backing the wrong horse. Ho Chi Minh and the National Liberation Front were hardly the saviors of the oppressed people of South Vietnam, and the Hamas terrorists–who consider us infidels and would never grant the rights enjoyed by American women who support their cause–view their American supporters as useful idiots in their quest to destroy Israel. Some things never change. WHO’S HITLER? Some student journalists at C.K. McClatchy High School were naive enough to believe what they were taught about the First Amendment and freedom of the press, and now they are learning the power of words. This kind of stuff happens on a regular basis, but what intrigued me was an aspect of the Sacramento Bee’s coverage of the incident. The students put together what would be called a light feature in the news biz for the spring edition of the student newspaper, The Prospector. Headlined “What did you say?”, the article was described as a compilation of “some of the weirdest stuff” overheard on campus. It’s the kind of stuff you expect to hear from teenagers (“Please stop licking my armpits,” “I would definitely get suspended if I beat up the mascot”) until you get to the final item: “Hitler’s got some good ideas.” The principal, probably feeling the heat from the district office, moved to suspend the newspaper’s faculty adviser. Teachers who supervise student publications are expected to make sure nothing controversial makes it into print, but Samantha Archuleta apparently missed this one. According to McClatchy Principal Andrea Egan, Archuleta’s sins included “expressing insensitive comments toward students and staff, sharing confidential student information, failure to maintain a harassment-free class and environment” and “lack of good judgment in the execution of professional duties.” She accomplished all of that in the printing of just five words, never mind that California Education Code 48907 protects the right of student newspapers to publish anything they want, so long as the content isn’t explicitly obscene, libelous or slanderous, and doesn’t incite students to violate any laws or school regulations. Naturally, Egan and her bosses stonewalled The Bee when asked for comment. (I suggest they acquaint themselves with the true meaning of the First Amendment and Code 48907.) But The Bee’s coverage of the story–yes, C.K. McClatchy was one of the early editors of the paper–felt it necessary to include two lengthy paragraphs explaining who Adolph Hitler was and why he’s considered the personification of evil. Really? I can’t think of anybody who has been more reviled in my lifetime. While he’s been dead since 1945, Hitler’s assault on civilization continues to fascinate people. I’ll bet if I scan today all of those channels on Xfinity I never watch, I will find at least one documentary on some aspect of Adolph’s life. If The Bee’s editors have readers who don’t know who Hitler was, we’re in deeper doo-doo than I thought.
As South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem learned to her sorrow recently, there is a political price to be paid if you abuse animals. Even Donald Trump won’t put up with such activity.
Perhaps that is what prompted Supervisors Sue Hoek and Lisa Swarthout to write a commentary for The Union to reassure voters the supervisors have the best interests of our four-legged friends at heart. (The essay didn’t have the usual disclaimer that the views expressed were their own, but presumably the other supervisors stood with them in solidarity.)
The commentary was no doubt prompted by a recent article in The Union quoting Cheryl Wicks, founder of Sammie’s Friends, regretting the selection of her successor in managing the county’s shelter operations.
It’s not unusual for founders to have separation anxiety when they step away from their creation (see Howard Shultz, founder of Starbucks), but Wicks hinted at the kind of activities–euthanasia being the most sensitive one–that can inflame the pet community.
Hoek and Swarthout reassured readers that everything is working as it should and that the county is partnering with the cities of Grass Valley and Nevada City to build a first-class animal shelter. Just wait another four or five years.
I was struck by their source of reassurance: “The County (whoever that is) met with Sammie’s Friends Board just over a week ago and feedback has been nothing but positive.”
If “The County” refers to the paper shufflers in the Rood Center, I wonder if it’s the same people who have been reassuring the supervisors that everything was fine with the Fire Safe Council until the Civil Grand Jury blew the whistle? How about the county Office of Emergency Services, which has been accused by Hoek’s predecessor of bungling funding opportunities to improve our fire safety?
As is usually the case, we’ve received nothing but silence from the supervisors and bureaucrats in the Rood Center. The supervisors are expected to hold county employees responsible for their actions, but too often we get the impression they’ve been co-opted to present a unified, “everything’s fine” front to the taxpayers.
Less happy talk and a little more truth telling would be a refreshing change.
It was deja vu all over again, as the folksy philosopher Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra once observed.
I was in the Bay Area recently on family business, and as is my custom, I tuned into the San Francisco TV stations to see if people I knew were still reporting the news. Up popped students at my alma mater, San Francisco State, expressing solidarity with the oppressed masses of Palestine.
I immediately flashed back to the ‘60s, when protests over the Vietnam War convulsed our institutions of higher learning. While most of the action occurred after I graduated in 1965, my future wife, my brother, and friends were caught up in the turmoil.
I was in the Army in Texas when I picked up a paper one day to see a picture of the entrance to the administration building at SF State, two large windows shattered. Stepping through the debris was a rabble-rousing instructor I knew from my student reporting days. I felt like I was home again.
Today’s demonstrators don’t seem to have the elan of the freedom warriors of the ‘60s and ‘70s as they repurpose centers of American learning into Hamas propaganda factories. I blame this on their pampered upbringing, where everybody got a trophy, nobody heard a discouraging word, and they were shielded from hurtful feelings.
While yesterday’s freedom warriors were proud to thrust their faces forward, today’s protesters are reluctant to give their names and hide behind discarded COVID masks and keffiyehs, a blatant example of cultural appropriation. (In fairness, there was no internet or doxxing in the ‘60s and ‘70s.)
Vietnam protesters weren’t bashful about engaging the “corporate media.” Today, they won’t go near a reporter until they’ve memorized the appropriate buzz words. There are even reports of students complaining because food deliveries have been denied while they occupy university buildings, and that they feel unsafe because of the presence of counter protesters. What a bunch of wimps.
But protesters of both eras have one thing in common: Backing the wrong horse. Ho Chi Minh and the National Liberation Front were hardly the saviors of the oppressed people of South Vietnam, and the Hamas terrorists–who consider us infidels and would never grant the rights enjoyed by American women who support their cause–view their American supporters as useful idiots in their quest to destroy Israel.
Some things never change.
Some student journalists at C.K. McClatchy High School were naive enough to believe what they were taught about the First Amendment and freedom of the press, and now they are learning the power of words.
This kind of stuff happens on a regular basis, but what intrigued me was an aspect of the Sacramento Bee’s coverage of the incident.
The students put together what would be called a light feature in the news biz for the spring edition of the student newspaper, The Prospector. Headlined “What did you say?”, the article was described as a compilation of “some of the weirdest stuff” overheard on campus.
It’s the kind of stuff you expect to hear from teenagers (“Please stop licking my armpits,” “I would definitely get suspended if I beat up the mascot”) until you get to the final item: “Hitler’s got some good ideas.”
The principal, probably feeling the heat from the district office, moved to suspend the newspaper’s faculty adviser. Teachers who supervise student publications are expected to make sure nothing controversial makes it into print, but Samantha Archuleta apparently missed this one.
According to McClatchy Principal Andrea Egan, Archuleta’s sins included “expressing insensitive comments toward students and staff, sharing confidential student information, failure to maintain a harassment-free class and environment” and “lack of good judgment in the execution of professional duties.”
She accomplished all of that in the printing of just five words, never mind that California Education Code 48907 protects the right of student newspapers to publish anything they want, so long as the content isn’t explicitly obscene, libelous or slanderous, and doesn’t incite students to violate any laws or school regulations.
Naturally, Egan and her bosses stonewalled The Bee when asked for comment. (I suggest they acquaint themselves with the true meaning of the First Amendment and Code 48907.)
But The Bee’s coverage of the story–yes, C.K. McClatchy was one of the early editors of the paper–felt it necessary to include two lengthy paragraphs explaining who Adolph Hitler was and why he’s considered the personification of evil.
Really? I can’t think of anybody who has been more reviled in my lifetime. While he’s been dead since 1945, Hitler’s assault on civilization continues to fascinate people. I’ll bet if I scan today all of those channels on Xfinity I never watch, I will find at least one documentary on some aspect of Adolph’s life.
If The Bee’s editors have readers who don’t know who Hitler was, we’re in deeper doo-doo than I thought.
Observations from the center stripe: Value edition
THE NEVADA City Council is considering paying itself $16 an hour, less than they could make flipping burgers in Brunswick Basin…THE BIDEN-Trump tariff war guarantees higher prices for American consumers…TESLA’S RETREAT from building charging stations won’t instill confidence in people who are reluctant to buy EVs because of charging anxiety…IF YOU remove the name, many of things said by Donald Trump would fit right in with the delusional fantasies reported every day in Police Blotter…
