MAILBOX
Terry Torgerson
Waiting for the Next Ax Editor: When Humboldt State University’s Administration and its enabling Board of Trustees killed the football program and all local programming on the campus radio station, they thereby removed those economic and cultural benefits from our North Coast community (“‘Their Success is our Success,’” Oct. 8). Adding insult to injury, they scorned our opposition to these diminishments. With her job well done, the president of HSU rode off into the sunset with a six-figure retirement. The trustees ushered a man from out of state in to be the new president. Upon his arrival, he said all the right things. But comes the time of COVID when students were returning to campus from the farmore plague-infested southlands, this new president responded to Humboldt County’s public health official with indifference and rudeness that displayed autocratic contempt for our local concerns similar to his predecessor’s. Adding further insult to the injuries of program cancellations and COVID, HSU’s football facilities have been put back in use by a state university football team from the southlands where plague fears prevent them from practicing. Once again, this relocation of students from more infested areas proceeded without involvement of our local public health office.
This sequence of HSU events degrading the Humboldt ambience begins only after the April 15, 2017, still “unsolved” murder of Josiah Lawson. Thus, it is reasonable to propose the California State University system’s Board of Trustees — and its vast majority of southlanders — consider Humboldt home to “redneck injustice” and, therefore, unworthy of a football team to support and a local radio station to keep us informed. We are, however, in their eyes, deserving of collective punishment, disrespect and COVID. So don’t be surprised when the next lash of the whip arrives when the economic stresses of the plague enable the trustees’ closure of HSU. Alexander Ricca, Blue Lake
Vote! Editor: As an Arcata property owner and one who uses the Arcata open spaces on a daily basis, a $37 per year parcel tax is a modest amount to fund the city’s wonderful parks, trails and open spaces that enhance the local economy, property values and quality of life. These funds will be used to expand programs that help protect and restore fish and wildlife habitat, protect water quality, provide for parks and Continued on page 6 »
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NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020 • northcoastjournal.com
