MAILBOX Continued from page 7
Night Poems
that tells us not to lie. If he was able to do that, his own life would This is Old Mexico, land of rattle-snakes. now be much better Drifting high in the night sky, and the health of our An airplane’s light illuminates the clouds. nation would be greatly The darkness is more easily seen with light. better. But due to his On the low hillsides, the city sighs. reliance on lies and inPalm trees hover ridiculously and majestically. citing the Capitol riot, Birds of Paradise guard the sidewalks he is leaving the White Amidst disembodied laughter. House in disgrace. If Trump was able A stranger in their neighborhood, to humble himself, I am eyed suspiciously by after-dinner dog-walkers. to admit that he lied I am casing the night for poems to us, and to ask for To break into my heart. forgiveness, many of — Fhyre Phoenix his followers would forgive him. Even a few Democrats would forgive him. That could heal a lot of pain and division and put him Mussolini, Hitler and Trump. in a better position. What is possible is Their inundating bellicosity and often not probable. Sadly, some of what fetishized masculinity appeal to certain we hope and pray for is from Fantasy Land. demographics because those demographDave Tschoepe, McKinleyville ics are — whether they know it or not — familiar with abuse, familiar enough, Editor: in transactional terms, to be comfortable In last week’s editorial, the NCJ stated with the abusers in charge. that the “roots” of the Trumpian insurrecAlex Ricca, Blue Lake tion of Jan. 6 “stretch back to birtherism and disinformation, if not much further.” Editor: With this letter I hope to sketch how I disagree with the authors that Trump deep these “roots” go. isn’t the cause of current “lies and disinIn terms of American history, our roots formation” because birtherism and death include white supremacy, property rights panels preceded him. But, these are still and other delusions of self-aggrandizeTrump — the early days. In NYC he got ment that stretch back through the 80 used to being a celebrity due to lambastyears of segregation and other Jim Crow ing the Central Park 5, his TV show and policies against Black Americans and, his splashy real estate deals. He increased before that, through 235 years of outright his megaphone and had fun challenging enslavement of Black people. Obama’s U.S. birth and the legitimacy of In terms of global history, we witness the Affordable Care Act. He luxuriated in quite similar and parallel psycho-political the attention and, like other New Yorkers, phenomena in our contemporary Trumput the show on the road nationally. But, pian regime and the Hitler and Mussolini he peaked too soon and we saw the grift. fascist movements of the early 20th This was all Trump and now he can join his century. Before that, a 3-millennia long and fellows in Florida. Fore. unbroken line of conquerors, kings, emperSusan Franke, McKinleyville ors, czars and organized religions insured might made right. Even this cursory sketch begs the quesEditor: tion: What explains the global appeal and On Jan. 12, Lisa Montgomery was durability of despotic one-man rule? executed on Trump’s order. She had a life The answer lies in the characterlogical of unrelenting hell, of sexual and physiaspects male and female humans develop cal abuse from early childhood on. Her within repressive and controlling environmother gave her to men to do what they ments, such as abusive parents, punishing pleased. She was forced to marry a half schools, inhumane prisons, reactionary brother who forced her to have a hysterregimes, patriarchy. ectomy. The only way she could survive Since Freud, psychoanalysis has revealed her life was to shield herself with insanity. that might making right on any scale, in She strangled a pregnant woman and cut any uniform, generates neuroses and many her baby out of her and took the baby. other psycho-zone pathologies. MegaloThe baby was taken away and she was put mania, narcissism and sadism are characin prison and was sentenced to die. She terlogical facets common to and manifest should have been put in a mental hospiamong authoritarian control-freaks such as
Unforgivable
tal. She had to be transferred to a men’s prison to be killed. She could not tolerate being in a room with a man, she would go crazy and the prison had nothing but men. A court ruled that she was incapable of understanding she was to be executed, but Trump pushed it to his U.S. Supreme Court and it ruled she was to die. Her death was as horrible as her life as she died surrounded by men. A long time ago I saw a bumper sticker that said something like, “We kill people so we will learn not to kill.” I will never forget or forgive this execution and can only hope there will be an end to executions forever. Sylvia De Rooy, Indianola
Where are the Vaccines? Editor: Now that the state has issued guidance that all people over 65 should be able to receive their vaccination, I fail to understand why Humboldt County is not following this guidance. We are not advocating for local control as far as the tier system goes and I have seen the importance of a unified response touted in the media availabilities, so why should we deviate from this stance now? We need mass vaccination sites set up. We need our major healthcare systems, Open Door and St. Joeseph, contacting eligible patients and setting up appointments. If we do not have the resources we need, we should be in contact with the state and not resting until the things we need are in place. This is not a time to be “inviting” people to set up their appointments it is a time for making sure that our most vulnerable are protected. Healthcare workers have had weeks, nearly a month, to get that set up. It is time to follow the guidance of our state officials. West Virginia, one of the poorest and most rural states in our country, has had a huge success in getting over 70 percent of available vaccines distributed and the other 30 percent are allocated to those in need. I believe that if they can do it, so can we. I believe that Public Health needs to be more transparent with the public as to why we are not following the state and federal guidance on this matter. I believe that if we have the resources and ability to get our healthcare workers vaccinated, we can also get our elders vaccinated. This is not a time for excuses. This is a time for action before our hospitals become overwhelmed and we lose even more of our loved ones. Anna Tupper Eureka
that show where a radio personality delivers quick local stories
HUMBOLDTLASTWEEK.COM
Continued on next page » northcoastjournal.com • Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021 • NORTH COAST JOURNAL
9
