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Finding a System for All
Editor:
As a retired Humboldt State University accounting and sustainable business professor, I have explored economic theory and one thing is clear to me — our current model of capitalism isn’t working for all, nor is it helping the planet. Capitalism is just one way in which humans exchange resources and get their needs met (Mailbox, May 20). We have engaged in such exchanges for thousands of years and it’s only in more recent years that extreme and extractive capitalism has ruled.
Numerous economists are exploring and developing di erent models where human needs are met in a way that honors life and acknowledges natural limits. Marxism, socialism and capitalism are just the three we hear the most about. Here on the north coast, one group working to create better systems at a local level is Cooperation Humboldt. If you’re interested in learning how economic systems can serve all people rather than only the few who own the capital, here are a few resources:
E. F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
M. Anielski, The Economics of Happiness
C. Eisenstein, Sacred Economics;
Various works by V. Shiva, D. Korten and J. Perkins. Shiva and Perkins, in particular, describe how indigenous communities thrived until capitalism came in and decimated local economies.
Cooperation Humboldt o ers many ways to learn more and get involved locally. You can learn more on their website at www.cooperationhumboldt.org. Kate Lancaster, Arcata
End The Filibuster
Editor:
The fi libuster, an antiquated procedure used to prevent a bill from being brought to a vote, is preventing the U.S. Congress from being an e ective third branch of government and should be ended in the Senate.
Regardless of your political leanings, we should all want a strong and functional Congress. We have three branches of government for a reason and when one is derelict the other two will expand to fi ll that space. We have seen that with an increasingly authoritative executive branch and we should all be concerned.
The role of Congress is to vote on and pass laws. Rules that prevent it from voting on legislation encourage polarization, as each party can promise to enact extreme legislation that they know will never be brought to a vote, much less become law. Productive governance is replaced by posturing and we are the ones who su er. Sen. Diane Feinstein has expressed support for legislation on gun control, immigration and health care, and has urged Congress to act but refuses to make the change necessary to allow bills to be voted on and become law. She refuses to support changing or removing the fi libuster rules. I encourage you to contact her o ce at (415) 393-0707 to express your views. Sky McKinley, McKinleyville
Editor:
Thank you for personalizing the tragic local loss of the pandemic by listing victims in your May 20th issue (“In Memorium”).
At the same time, we were shocked and dismayed that on page 4 an advertisement exhorting “Eureka” to “Make it Luckies (Strikes)!” appears in that same issue.
The long epidemic of disease and death caused by the use of tobacco would be enough to have fi lled up pages of many papers across the country in the years before, during and long after the current pandemic. The ad’s bland, innocuous and ultimately gratuitous warning that “Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide,” conveniently combined with a link for free “Mobile Coupons,” is the fi nal slap in the face to those who have witnessed (or experienced) tobacco’s gruesome lethality.
Surely there are alternate sources of advertising income for your otherwise fi ne publication that are not inherently intent on literally killing o your readership!
Daniel Escajeda, Mckinleyville
Write a Letter!
Please make your letter no more than 300 words and include your full name, place of residence and phone number (we won’t print your number). Send it to letters@northcoastjournal.com. Due to the Memorial Day holiday, the deadline to have a letter considered for the upcoming edition is 10 a.m. Friday.
Corrections
The story headlined “In Memoriam” in the May 20, 2021 edition of the North Coast Journal included an incorrect age for Charles Irwin Davis, who was 88 years old. Additionally, a story headlined “Trouble at Kneeland Glen” in the same edition misidentifi ed Dan Ehresman’s role at the North Coast Regional Land Trust and included an incorrect weight for Tootsie the dog. Ehresman is the land trust’s executive director and Tootsie weighs approximately 25 pounds. The Journal regrets the errors. ●
Terry Torgerson
MEDICARE QUESTIONS?
HICAP Counselors can help
NO CONTACT PHONE APPOINTMENTS AVAILABLE
434 7th Street Eureka
HICAP is the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program, a program of the Area One Agency on Aging. Registered HICAP volunteer counselors help senior and disabled Medicare beneficiaries understand their Medicare and health insurance benefits and choices. Have you heard about the California Birthday Rule when it come to your Medicare supplement plan, also known as a Medigap plan that bridges the 20% that Medicare doesn’t cover? You can review and change for up to sixty days after your birthdate. Having a mymedicare.gov account makes understanding Medicare easier, call HICAP to learn how to set yours up.
“The production of this document was supported, in part, by grant number CFDA 93.924 from the US Administration for Community Living (ACL), DHHS, Washington, DC. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official Administration of Community Living policy.” Its contents are solely the responsibility of A1AA/HICAP and do not necessarily represent the official views of ACL.”
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