Slippery slope
EDITOR: Late insertion of a second “Park Improvement Area” into the draft management plan for the summit of the Fitch Mountain Preserve was a mistake. As was evident at the public meeting on Jan. 24, no one familiar with Healdsburg’s crown jewel wishes to permit groups of 150 people to assemble on the summit for any reason, let alone weddings, fundraisers or camping trips. Though vehicles are barred except for “…permitted construction, maintenance, emergency access and property management activities” once the door is open to such large public events, exceptions and waivers will soon be required. Park Improvement Area 2 creates a slippery slope that will lead to irreversible damage to this fragile and pristine preserve. Those who agree (or disagree) are encouraged to attend the next Parks and Recreation Commission meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 8 at City Hall.
Pat Abercrombie, Healdsburg
Serenity will be lost
EDITOR: As a home owner on Fitch Mountain, I am opposed to the idea of events being held at the preserve. The serenity of the area will be lost. The access road can not handle the increase in traffic.
Gretta D’Acquisto, Healdsburg
Increase teacher pay
EDITOR: Too much money planning to be spent on sport facilities, and not enough on teacher salaries. Increase the salary level and maybe some teachers can buy a home in Healdsburg. Keep the top of Fitch clear of any development; there are other necessities that need taking care of.
Owen Dimock, Healdsburg
Content matters
EDITOR: It is imperative that the community is heard and the complaints are warranted on the new version of our local paper. This slimmed down and less content oriented paper is not a less is more scenario. It is far less and certainly concerning. This is an outlet for many people to obtain the current events of police, fire and news affiliated with what is happening in many ways in our town. Even the opinion pieces, local community members stories and business activities are gone. The weather for the week even added value to discuss and enjoy. What has been done makes very little sense.
To maintain and update a website costs more than to maintain more content in the paper weekly. I am not interested in viewing portions of my local news on the web. It is just more of the sameness and more people will simply turn off to local politics, news and community activities. The $50 per year cost seems like a lot when it is packaged to prospective readers in this manner.
Anyone that values this paper would certainly pay a fee to see the paper in its past form. Why $50? What market study was conducted and yet again who asked the community if they wouldn’t be willing to pay an extra $2 per year to see the paper remain and settle on $52 per year? Not even $1 per week to read about current events seems like a deal to me. Find the courage to do the right thing and run the paper just like any business and find the right amount of cost reduction while sourcing new revenue to provide for maintaining your customer base. What has been done will facilitate less readers and subscribers, further reducing the ability to even provide the paper in the future with those that are not pleased with this new version of really just advertisements. Content matters.
Brian Finnerty, Healdsburg
Appoint Plass
EDITOR: This letter is to agree with Peggy Decker’s letter in the Jan. 12 issue. Appoint Gary Plass and use that money for the homeless.
Billie Harrison, Healdsburg
Bound to the Trib
EDITOR: When I moved to Healdsburg 40-plus years ago it was a simpler time. The Healdsburg Tribune came out twice weekly then and didn’t have very many pages; but it was filled with local news and lots of photos. I’m a newspaper junkie so I’ve always read it front to back, usually in one sitting. Moving here from the big city where only criminals, society ladies and politicians made the papers it was a new experience to recognize the names and faces of my neighbors and my children’s classmates each week. Prune blossom tours, fashion shows, ladies aide lunches, photos from FFA and 4H events took precedence followed closely by sports, lots of sports.
For 28 years my life was closely bound to the Trib through my business the Cubbyhouse Children’s Shop. With window decorating contests and sidewalk sale events, holidays in a small town … people shopped locally then, so there wasn’t much need to advertise anywhere else.
As my life changed the Trib recorded it for me. My appointment to the Planning Commission led to 12 years of watching and participating in the inevitable changes in this small town. Vineyard Plaza Shopping Center came to town and the first “different” housing development, Fitch Mountain Villas. The old brick hotel on west Plaza was torn down. The RUDAT (Regional Urban Design Assistance Team) arrived and we lived through the Plaza of the Flags and several other hotel renditions, turned the old 50s style city hall into Oakville Grocery, and built a new city hall way over there, all duly noted in the Healdsburg Tribune.
When I decided to run for city council and lost it was recorded in the Tribune. When I ran for city council and won, there it was in the Tribune. Eight years of city council meetings, all witnessed in the Healdsburg Tribune.
The community is very lucky that the Healdsburg Tribune has managed to survive and thrive in the digital age and that we still have a local voice telling our stories. It is also a testament to Rollie Atkinson’s perseverance and love of real journalism that Sonoma West Publishers has grown from one to four town newspapers. My fondest hope is that the Healdsburg Tribune continues to put ink on paper that I can hold in my hands, photos that I can clip to hang on the refrigerator and all the news that’s fit to print in our small town. Thank you, old friend.
Carla Howell, Healdsburg
No need for change on Fitch
EDITOR: Why does the obvious and natural beauty of one’s mountain and one’s town need so much alteration? Do we actually need outside consultants to come and tell us that Fitch Mountain’s natural beauty needs to be improved? Will those improvements add to the beauty or serenity? Why must office holders so often think that they must treat their constituents to change to show their worth? What is wrong with adopting a management plan protecting the natural and historic nature of the trust they were given in the gem of a landmark such as Healdsburg? Healdsburg seems destined to be like a person with too many face lifts … little by little, just one more so called improvement. Really? One of Captain Fitch’s descendant is Ralph Fitch. He is 97 and lives in Santa Rosa. Raph visits Healdsburg with fond childhood memories that he shares with his daughter, son-in-law and us. He’d say, “Well, I still recognize Fitch Mountain.”
Ivan Leister, Healdsburg
Skeptical about changes
EDITOR: As a retired technology project manager, I do understand the value of an online presence for the Tribune. However, other publications offer the same content in print and online, not one or the other. The reader can choose their media. I am not convinced that the limited content print version will continue to attract enough readers to sustain the needed advertisers.
Denise Matlow, Healdsburg
Won’t read it online
EDITOR: I also would like it if you could keep the paper going. I will never read it online.
Jody Wilson, Healdsburg
Mort retiring
EDITOR: Life is made up of adventures, and as I sit and contemplate the past 30-plus years as a teacher at Healdsburg High School, I can’t help but smile. Most of my students have always felt I was never going to retire, but that day has arrived, and I’d like to thank them, the parents and my peers who made the adventure exciting, eventful and never boring. In addition, to those who supported the drama program, we couldn’t have produced almost 150 shows in 30 years without your help. Although I’m giddy with excitement about the future, it’s with a bit of sadness that I leave HHS. Seriously, thank you.
Brent Mortensen
Healdsburg Hospital supporter
EDITOR: New Year’s morning I had a bad fall and landed in our hospital for nine days. I am sorry to say that although we have lived just outside Healdsburg for 43 years I hadn’t paid much attention to the role the hospital plays in our community. As a patient, and not an easy one – I seemed to always be pressing that red button – I watched the nurses and aides do their jobs, amazed at how grounded they were in meeting so many particular needs. I still remember their kind but firm voices, their great earthy patience in difficult situations, the confidence I felt in their touch. I suspect they also had several jokes about how each patient thinks they are their only one. I was there during the storm when some employees were stalled for two hours on Highway 101. It brought to mind Hurricane Katrina and how much we rely on the medical world during catastrophes. Thank you. I am now a full-on supporter of our Healdsburg Hospital.
Susan Preston, Healdsburg
Collapse of a great nation
EDITOR: Not long ago and not so far away, there was a great nation. It had a rich ancient culture, its economy and industry were strong and its people were highly skilled and industrious.
It suffered from a foolish leader, who entered the nation into a great conflict that could never be won. He deceived the public and betrayed the soldiers, pursuing a fantasy of dominance. All the costs of this conflict were borrowed, so only the soldiers would face the horrors of the catastrophe and the poor would suffer privation. Despite the skill and courage of the soldiers, the nation was defeated in this conflict of fantasy, while the real perils grew stronger.
Ignoring the mounting debt and public suffering, the princes of finance destroyed the economy with financial manipulations and fraud. The middle folks joined the poor in their destitution, losing their livelihoods, homes and life savings. New leaders tried reforms and a responsible way forward, but they were held back in their efforts by those who had supported the conflict of fantasy and the financial fraud. Then, the entire world entered a great depression and this nation was further devastated.
Then a new leader appeared, promising to make the nation great again. With endless ranting he said the conflict was not lost, but abandoned by the cowardly politicians. We are threatened by enemies within our nation. They must all be arrested and sent away to camps. Only I can save you.
Many people were alarmed at the words of this man, but he employed propaganda in the press and used the new technology, radio, to great effect to sow fear and hysteria among the public. In their suffering, many people believed the lies and this new leader was elected. Once in control he suppressed all dissent, arrested millions to await a final solution, and entered the nation into another conflict of fantasy, far deadlier than the first, betraying the soldiers and the public. This conflict was also lost and the nation was devastated again, far worse than after the first.
In another time, on the other side of the world there was another great nation who also had a foolish leader. It suffered a grievous attack and the leader ordered the soldiers to destroy the enemy. With great skill and courage they fought, but too quickly were ordered away to another land into a new conflict of fantasy. Propaganda was employed to sow fear and hysteria. After many years they withdrew, but the real enemy became stronger and spread to many nearby nations. The conflict was seen by all the world as the fantasy that it was.
New princes of finance appeared and used new manipulations and fraud to enrich themselves and the people suffered greatly. A new depression spread around the world and added to the people’s impoverishment.
A new man arrived, also promising to make the nation great again. Using propaganda and new technology, the internet, he spread lies and accusations across the land. We are threatened by enemies within our nation, he said, and all must be arrested and sent away. Only I can save you.
Many people were repelled by his hysterical ranting, but many, in their suffering, supported him and he was elected. The future of this great nation cannot be predicted.
It is not very hard to see the parallels between these great nations. Kaiser Wilhelm betrayed his nation by starting World War I just as George Bush betrayed our troops by sending them to Iraq to pursue his conflict of fantasy. The financial ruin and hyper-inflation in Germany, followed by the Great Depression is a parallel to the global financial crisis and the Great Recession under George W. Bush.
Reasonable leaders in Germany in the mid-20s tried reforms just as President Obama did in America, but were both beaten down by hysteria and propaganda from the right wing; those who had called so strongly for the War in Iraq and the deregulation of Wall Street. Donald Trump is no Hitler, but the two sound and act so very alike.
We need to preserve our great nation for our children. We must resist every outrageous action Trump calls for. Passive acceptance is always a mistake with “leaders” like these.
Michael Miller, Healdsburg
