Don MacQueen, 88, a long-time AVA subscriber and contributor, died in Eugene, Oregon, on June 28, 2014. He was a major part of Sonoma County's literary scene in the '80s and '90s, helping found the Russian River Writers' Guild, which sponsored a lively reading series, quarterly newsletters and occasional poetry collections, notably “A Stone's Throw,” a major anthology of local poetry, including several Mendocino County writers. Don helped edit Rich Benbrook's feisty quarterly “The Tomcat,” and “Tiny Lights,” Susan Bono's periodical of short fiction. He also helped with “Green Fuse,” which published political and environmental poetry, some of which appeared in the AVA. Don's terse, witty poems appeared in virtually every Sonoma County publication of those years.
Posts published in “Letters to the Editor”
I think it is outrageous that the AV Health Care Center has suspended the dispensary of medications. This is a serious deterioration of its services. What is this useless Board of Directors thinking?
Privatization of Mental Health Services failed. Proof lies in: two Grand Jury Reports, Mental Health Board Reports, Coast Hospital Mental Health Forum List of Ortner Problems, and countless human stories of Ortner’s failures in each of your districts. You can see from Exhibit A of the Ortner contract that they are in breach of contract. What else do you want to end this mental health nightmare for people? What?
I have received a report that the manager of Raley’s in Ukiah is hassling petitioners. Here is the report, followed by an explanation of the recent settlement with the County and changes in the Sheriff’s policies concerning free speech and petitioning.
I only met John Sakowicz once. It was sometime after Wall Street and the “investment bankers” had nearly bankrupted the country — and had put the big hurt on my people — and our meeting didn’t go well. It was at KZYX, of all places. I had some biz there and while I was waiting in their waiting room I realized that Sakowicz was next door in the studio wrapping up his radio show. I’d listened to his show before and, since I’ve always admired folks who have a way with numbers, I enjoyed hearing what Sakowicz had to say. Seemed he had Wall Street expertise and finely-tuned administrative skills (life as a spreadsheet) and no doubt the dude likes spouting off and I liked that, too. Also somebody had recently written a Letter to the Editor accusing Sakowicz (the damned carpetbagger) of padding his sparkling resume and that, on balance, increased my sympathy for him. The dude must be making some kind of waves, I figured, and I’ve always been partial to that sort of person. The complacent and the apathetic are too docile to suit my tastes.
I have some news for John Sackowicz, Ukiah's self-anointed "people's tribune" and windbag-about-town, as well as for the misguided former members of Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl's unit should they happen across the AVA. Bergdahl was not responsible for the deaths of ANY American soldiers in Afghanistan. George W Bush and the neocons of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) were the culprits who orchestrated that war as well as the one on Iraq (while taking not a single casualty) followed by Barack Obama. They are responsible for all of the more than 2000 US soldiers who died fighting a war in a country that had never attacked the United States nor threatened to do so. All of these criminals are still at large
Regarding the frost fan controversy, I’m curious about the decision-making process local grape growers used that produced giant, community-disrupting noise machines? For example, did they do any research at all into alternative, quieter wind machines such as Shur Cold Air Drains and the 4-blade Australian Frost Fans? And, if so, why did they choose the loudest alternative? Was an alternative of having more, but quieter fans rejected as too expensive? Was it a strictly bottom-line, community-be-damned decision?
As a Mendocino employee I would say your reporting on the contract negotiation snafu has been pretty accurate during the last few years. SEIU clearly staked out an adversarial position, first to stonewall the need for a pay cut, and now to restore it whether the County has the money or not.
According to Phil Frisbee, as reported in the Willits News, Caltrans plans to dig up 100,000 cubic yards of soil from the south end of Willits and dump it on the wetlands on the north end of town. They intend to start “as soon as site conditions allow.” This translates to: “As soon as that muddy, old wetlands dries up enough to support heavy equipment, we are going to take steps to kill it.”