Annoying “Biggest stories of 2011”
Hmmm… If the Biggest Stories of 2011 were really that big, wouldn’t you already know about them??? I secretly suspect at the end of the year news-people have kicked back just a little bit too much and got into the party spirit just a little too much. Sometime between Christmas and New-Years they have a few moments of sober thought. Their thoughts are probably filled with “Oh crap, it’s almost the end of 2011 and I haven’t gathered any news! I know! I’ll just reprint all of last years big stories!, There, I’m done. I think that I will just go sit on the couch and sip some more holiday cheer.”
Who was it that said “there is nothing more stale than yesterdays news”. Yep, that’s how I feel about it too. Especially when the best that some local news services can do is bring you the latest traffic accidents, or where they had a fire last night, probably the best story last year was where Channel-3 from Eureka did a forced interview on; “Who pooped and peed on the bank?” (they never did find out). I was always told that a lawyer or a news anchor-person was never supposed to ask a question unless they already knew the answer.
Sometimes I wish they would tell us things like “Why the Eureka officials kept the fact that Wall-Mart was coming to town such a big secret.” That would interest the heck out of me. How does it happen that a town that knows everything, and can’t keep even a small secret, keep the fact that a frickin’ Wal-Mart is coming to the Bayshore Mall. You’d think that would be important for people to know! I would have to call that one of the “biggest unreported stories of 2011”.
I know, people on welfare will care little about how the economy will be affected. And who can blame them? They need to stretch their dollars as far as they can. Then there are the poor school teachers that barely make a living, they will shop there. Actually anybody that likes to get a good bargain will shop there. You will probably even find me shopping there. But I know full well that Wal-mart will kill Eureka. Talk about “Giant sucking sounds” Wal-Mart is the suckiest. Those of us in the know, know that Chinese products will always be better and cheaper, because China keeps the value of the currency below ours. And… The big one, they don’t have any environmental restrictions.
Believe me, nobody works harder than the American worker. Those that still have jobs are being worked to death. What’s up with that? Either you don’t have a job, or you work too hard. So, China doesn’t outwork us! Should there be some news service telling us why Chinese products are cheaper than ours? Shouldn’t somebody tell us why all of our jobs, and money have moved to China? Shouldn’t some news service tell us why we are losing more and more jobs every day? Shouldn’t they tell us why we can’t afford to bus our kids to school? Why we can’t support a family with a job like we used to be able to do? Why our jobs get poorer? Why can’t we just go out and find just any job? Why dosen’t the news services tell us, in depth, how America is being sucked dry, so the average person can understand it. Maybe they could even make it interesting. Clue one and two; China Manipulates the value of the money to keep dollars flowing to their shores. They don’t have environmental restrictions.
Let’s see. How many of us know that they were going to pave Garberville’s Redwood drive, but our supervisor gave the money away to fix the road between Eureka and Arcata? What??? You say. "Garberville hasn’t been paved since the trees were planted and the power lines were undergrounded." You remember when they did that don’t you? Harry Pritchard was the supervisor. You remember him don’t you? Why didn’t we know about the money give away until it was practically a done deal. I wouldn’t have even known about the money being given away if it weren’t for Mark Lovelace saying something like, “I think that we should ask the people of Garberville how they feel about this”. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to scream bloody murder in time, so OUR Dist 2 Supervisor Clif Clendenen gave out road money to throw on the “Safety Corridor” between Eureka and Arcata.
Most people don’t have the time to decide how to spend county money. They split the county into 5 supervisor districts, and then they elect 5 supervisors to watch-out for our interests. How the heck does giving Garberville street money to Eureka and Arcata represent us in-any-way! ???
I would expect the Eureka and Arcata supervisors to vote to fix the corridor, and they did. I would expect the other two supervisors to be somewhat ambivalent, because it was a toss-up benefit for them, but they voted AGAINST it. But, OUR supervisor, who has the most rural roads in the whole county, voted to give road money to the most expensive nightmare in Humboldt. Plus, it is highway 101! A state highway. The state has other means of raising money. The county doesn’t. Where is the news service that explains this to us? Who was it that said that “It is time to sharpen our pitchforks?
But, what do we get for news? A rehash of last years traffic accidents, fires and marijuana busts.
Thank God for blogs!
On the lighter side, My wife and I had a very good year in business and in health. We are very happy with everything but the state of our government. Well… it’s little disappointing that we no longer have a newspaper delivered to Garberville, but, the great side is that I didn’t have to read “Biggest stories of 2011”. And we are going to lose the school busses that bussed our children to school. I don’t even see a small upside to that, other than maybe it will wake people up to the fact that people need jobs. You can’t feed anybody, or anything, shuffling money. Even the rich need to eat.
The feds and local law enforcement raided the heck out of the marijuana fields. That raised the price of weed and the people that didn’t get busted are noticeably happy. And, our DA was soft on the ones that did get busted. I guess that might have been a twice told tale in the news.
How’s your life going? Do you have a great job? I do, so I’m not complaining there, but I see a lot of people that don’t, and that concerns me. All in all, 2012 looks like it will be a banner year, one that will be remembered, and go down in the annals of history. Wanta’ bet?
Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping what you say around in my head Ern. That 5th district supervisor you mentioned (Harry)was the first politician I met in my life and was was instantly turned off because I got the feeling of arrogance and fat cat. It seems to me at the time you praised ol' Harry. I know that may have been when you were still young and innocent and didn't know all of what was going on.
ReplyDeleteAs for the county road work I don't see where anybody has a complaint. I know the growers keep the economy going, like you said you had a good year but if there had been any tax moneys collected maybe sohum would have a bigger voice. I don't know this for sure but it is my best guess.
As for Wal-Mart, I shop there sometimes and they have a good selection to choose from. Maybe if the US Government didn't have so many laws and restrictions we would have more USA products available to us. Which brings me back to sohum, what if the laws were enforced on maryjuwana how well would the local business' be doing? Now don't get me wrong Ernie, I ain't pickin' on you but I get my dander up when there is so much illegal activity there and it is okay as long as folks get what they need to live and survive there and then say the roads aren't getting enough attention.
I was thinking the other night after some commercial on the radio was asking "what exotic location would you like to go too"? It hit me like a ton of bricks! Just go back to where I grew up. it doesn't get any more exotic than that.
Oregon
Well Oregon, I appreciate your being gentle, and I appreciate your trying “Wrap your head around” what I say. Most people have their minds made up before they even read anything. That “5th dist. Supervisor, Harry Pritchard” was actually the 2nd district Supervisor, the Garberville district, or more correctly, the Fortuna district, because that is the dog that wags our tail. Harry WAS a friend of mine, and he was a retired fireman, so we had a little bit in common. I think that he was more dry than arrogant. Plus, he was one of your relatives.
ReplyDeleteIf it weren’t for Harry, I would not have been able to build my house in Benbow. The building department was mad about the substandard subdivision in Benbow, that my property was a part of. However, it was not part of the substandard part of the subdivision, but the building department was simply sitting on my building permit because they didn’t have a good reason to deny it. They had me jump through all kinds of hoops, that I didn’t need to jump through. I had decided that I wouldn’t complain to Harry because he was a friend of mine. It got to the point that I had no other choice, so I made an appointment with him and showed him my progress with getting my permit. Harry turned a little pale, he picked up the phone and called the building department. He told them this, and not much more. “Mister Branscomb will be in your office next Tuesday. I’m not telling you what to do, other than you will give him his permit or deny it, and give him a good reason why” Click… Next Tuesday I picked up my building permit.
If it weren’t for Harry, Garberville wouldn’t have gotten pavement back when we did. Bill Brown was dead set against it because he was sure that his sporting good store would flood if the pavement was any higher. Harry was able to convince him that the pavers could taper that edge down to nothing in front of his store and it would be fine, so the Soroptimist “Town Beautification Committee” got their pavement. And, they were able to plant their trees. Harry was also instrumental in getting the overhead power, phone, and TV lines under grounded. Those were the good old days. I used to see Harry at least once a week walking up and down the Garberville streets talking to people. There is not much left to do when you get everything else done!
I know the growers don’t pay any taxes, but they support the local economy, and it pays taxes, so in long run it feeds the county coffers. Actually the country collects far more in taxes because of the grower economy than it would without it. Some research has been done lately, and it is a possibility that Humboldt would totally collapse without dope growers. I know it is sad, but that’s the way it is. I would imagine that when the Donner party found out that a bunch of their relatives had just died. I was a real mixed blessing. Their relatives were dead, but they now they had enough food to make it to spring. In the gentlest possible way I’m going to ask you to “stretch your head around that”. My whole existence depends on dope sales. I don’t have any more choice than the Donner party. I don’t have any more chance of getting out of Garberville than the Donner Party had to get out of Donner Pass.
Garberville, has changed, no doubt. Whoever said “you can never go home again” is certainly right. Less than 10% of the people around here even realize that there were people here before 1970.
I didn't say I knew what I was talking about Ernie, that is just my perspective. I guess it is a bitter pill I will never swallow.
ReplyDeleteAnyway you old fart, why don't you retire and run for county supervisor and wipe out the weed corruption.
Just sayin'
oregon
First, I would never do anything to "wipe out the weed" but I would work hard to creat industry that would suplant it, similar to how the growers suplanted the timber industry.
ReplyDeleteThat's my big problem with Obama, he hasn't given America any good jobs, but he gave us health care before we could afford it. You can buy a Cadilac on credit, but at some point you will need a job to pay for it. Now health care will be thrown out as soon as the republicans get back in, as surely as your Cadilac is going to be reposessed.
dang, i didn't know oregon could write for that long. pretty good for a country boy. but i've been thinkin the same thing. maybe going back 100 years or more to where my peeps are from and learning the stories. i've always been accused of being on the city side of the family but the first job i got out of college was on uncle delbert's ranch digging post holes in 105 degree heat. and the first 20 years of my life were spent playing and working on family cattle ranches. so after working a union job for the next more than 40 years, i've been catching up on the family cowboy history this past year.
ReplyDeletei know my grandfather's family had been raising herefords back in england before he landed in spyrock around 1910, and i know the simmerley's had a ranch in marysville selling beef to the miners in 1849 to 1870 when they moved to covelo and my great grandpa john moved to spyrock in the early 90's after a heavy winter that wiped them out as it did so many other people in other stories i've read about that time. but what i didn't figure out was who was my great grandma living with until they got married in 1886.
she was 7 when her parents were killed in 1872 in cahto near laytonville. but her older sister sarah was 20 years old. old enough to take care her six younger brothers and sisters except the baby who was adopted by the applegates. when sarah was 21 on may 11, 1873 she married milo patton. so i imagine that my great grandmother lived with them until she got married to john in 1886. the witnesses to the marriage were sarah patton and a mrs. j. h. patton. i have a picture of a james patton which i believe is the half brother to milo. i don't know when milo went to work for george white. but he did move out of covelo after 1886 to work on one of white's ranches in alderpoint. so i recently contacted a descendent of milo patton, his great great granddaughter. and she didn't know much about sarah's family and nothing about the simmerleys but she did know about the murphys and she said that ishi ate dinner with them when saxon pope came up to hunt a bear with a bow and arrow. except ishi took his plate and ate outside.
and then late last year i went to the sacramento library for a couple of hours and read what i could of frank asbill's last of the west. which talks about the pattons and it turns out that i'm related to frank through the duncans who frank mentions in the book as being good cowboys as well as the pattons. so i'm reading a book now called empire of the summer moon about the comanches and quanah parker in texas and you know texans they claim to have the meanest indians. well, i liked frank asbills writing way better than this texas guy. and he even seems to be more pc as well as you actually think there is some truth to what he is saying. anyway, it sounds like texas doesn't have nothin on that little cow town called covelo.
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are really princesses who are waiting
ReplyDeleteto see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that
frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our
love. ~Rainer Maria Rilke~
Spy, no dragons here, just some regrets.
ReplyDeleteSephira,
Oregon
you are totally cool, oregon.
ReplyDeleteOregon is probably talking about Sephira, the beautiful Irish redhead sister Violin and singing duo.
ReplyDeleteSpy
Thanks for your contributions, I'm totally following you. For those who aren't, Spy is talking about his family that was killed by Indians, that his family subsequently married into.
Ishi was the last Wild Indian. He hid in the Sierra foothills alone for years, he finally came out of the hills expecting to be killed, but he was adopted by Kroeber the anthropologist.
Saphira the dragon. I misspelled the name to make it more difficult to figure out what I was talking about,,,
ReplyDeleteAs usual.
Oregon
One solution to Wal-Mart for those who wish to buy American products is to Google American made. You can find anything you want American made from Peacoats to nails.
ReplyDeleteOregon
Now health care will be thrown out as soon as the republicans get back in.
ReplyDeleteReally Ern? Do you think they have a chance? No fight, just curious.
Good question Bunny.
ReplyDeleteObama is not too popular right now. 41% strongly disapprove of his performance as President, while only 24% strongly approve.
On a lighter note, Obama is tied with Romney at 42% for chances of being elected. Midterm elections always go against the Party of the President. That's where all the Republicans came from last election.
It is possible in 2013 that we will have total Republican control. At this point it's pretty much a toss-up. If the Republicans get in, health care WILL change.
Don't think that it won't happen, if California can throw the schools under the bus for lack of funding, what would make anybody think that they wouldn’t throw National Health Care out for the same reasons.
Yeah, and then we'll see some serious occupying.
ReplyDeleteBunny, if you will hold one end of an Occupy Banner, I will hold the other.
ReplyDeleteAs unpopular as the "Occupiers" are right now, it is certain that they will be a chapter in American history.
"Find peace in who and what you are."
ReplyDelete— Saphira
"It is our destiny to attempt the impossible, to accomplish great deeds regardless of fear."
— Saphira
i got my quote from my friend wooly who uses it on everything he says. wooly is a member of the wooly mammmoths, a minnesota group sort of like the elks.
so saphira is a good match
another story i found this weekend is about edith van allen murphey who i thought was one of my murphy relatives through my great aunt sarah pattons daughter who married tom murphy. i thought they did have a daughter named edith so i ordered her book about the uses of native american plants and her biography. she turned out to be an amazing person. she was the one who recorded lucy young in covelo before lucy died and wrote down lucy's story that has appeared on this blog several times. she then spent the next 10 years going around to different reservations in the west from the canadian border to mexico recording from the elders how the indians used different plants and recording them in triplicate for the u s government who was financing her because she was also identifying poisonous plants that were killing cattle that were being raised on indian reservations to feed the soldiers during world war 2. so she wrote a book called a handbook of poisonous plants for stockmen that would fit in the back pocket of their jeans. although she wasn't my murphy, she was married to a redwine when she lived in covelo. redwine was the name of the mail station in spyrock before they changed it to spyrock. i have postcards from my grandma that were addressed to redwine, ca. named after the redwine family who first lived there. so there is a good chance my grandparents knew this edith murphey because they knew about poisonous plants and their pastures were pretty much weed free. my uncle delbert would always tell me when he saw a poisonous plant like loco weed. but he used to have some outside the fence where no animals could reach it. this lady lived an amazing life and recorded the uses and indian name of hundreds of plants. she even wrote some poems about how certain grasses that were overgrazed prior to the great plains drought and dust bowl had kept the plains abundant by acting as a buffer to keep the moisture in the soil. which my friend jim channon, the men who stare at goats dude, calls permaculture in his attempt to recreate paradise back on mother earth. the indians called her the seed seeker
ReplyDeleteErnie... It couldn't have been the "safety corridor", that's Cal Trans... it must have been Old Arcata Rd.
ReplyDeleteLots less traffic than Redwood Drive, for sure. Now I'll go back and read the rest of your post.
Ernie, thanks for putting all these ducks in a row here. You're right, these are the under-reported Biggest Stories of 2011, or at least the ones that don't have answers.
ReplyDeleteSpy and Oregon, I always enjoy your family and area history, it's not found anywhere else and I always wonder how times and things were back when and then, walking through the woods and hills lost in thought.
No, Ernie's right about the safety corridor. Clif the apple farmer sent our STIP money to Caltrans for corridor improvement.
ReplyDeleteWhat? I'm right again? I'm getting so tired of that!
ReplyDeleteOn an even sorrier note, I'm getting tired of being sold down the river by our very own representatives. Our town pavement is crumbling. It makes our town look like and unkept house.