Letters to the Editor for Dec. 15, 2018

From the hands of children

Something adorable happened while I was standing in line at the post office waiting to send a package. A mom came in with her two daughters, both girls had a box of candy canes. I overheard the mom tell the youngest, “Let’s start here” and they walked up next to me. When I looked over at them, the little girl, who looked to be about 4 years old, said (while bouncing up and down in excitement), “Happy Merry Christmas!” and handed me a candy cane. I said thank you and wished her a Happy Christmas. Then I watched as she and her sister went around to every customer in the post office, wished them all a Merry Christmas and gave everyone a candy cane. As they were starting to leave, I heard the little girl tell her mom, “I still have one more to give out.” Mom told her that they would find someone to give it to. As they left, I couldn’t help but chuckle as I overheard the little girl say “Happy Merry Christmas!” and give out her last candy cane. All cuteness aside, I looked around the post office and saw all the smiles. Those two little girls reminded me what this season is all about: love, family and kindness. It takes but a moment to stop and offer someone a smile and wish them a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays or Happy Whatever your equivalent holiday is. Who knows that one simple act may just turn their day around for the better, it certainly did mine. So thank you to those little girls and their mom for brightening my day.

Rubell Peterson

Carson City

Legislation is key to carbon dioxide reduction for fire prevention

Has the fire season ended?

Like last year, the wildfire “season” lasted much longer than it normally does. While forest management may help to reduce the rapid spreading of these mega-fires, longer fire seasons most likely will continue. Southern California has always suffered from the Santa Ana winds and fires, but for Northern California (Santa Rosa and Paradise), this is new.

Why have our wildfire seasons become so devastating? Fuel (trees, brush, grasses, etc.) dryness is a contributing factor. The snow elevation line has risen each year. We are suffering from a “snow drought” as indicated in the Desert Research Institute’s study of the Northern Sierra watershed released earlier this year. Less snowpack leads to dryer soil, dryer atmosphere and dryer fire fuel. The atmosphere is warming, all around the globe.

What can we do to mitigate these mega-fires? Better forest management may help. However, this only addresses a symptom. We need to stop warming the atmosphere at an accelerated rate. Less atmospheric carbon dioxide means a cooler atmosphere and healthier oceans. If we ignore this, then we better open our wallets and put on our firefighting gear!

A bipartisan group of congressional representatives understands this. On Nov. 27, Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), Francis Rooney (R-Fla.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), and John Delaney (D-Md.) introduced the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.

This legislation will help reduce the excessive carbon dioxide that we are dumping into the atmosphere. It will also apply to trading-partner nations. As this will take some time, we need to pursue this solution now. Read the press release.

https://citizensclimatelobby.org/carbon-fee-bill/?_ga=2.159341311.417605661.1543364883-887922936.1543364883

Get involved. Help us.

https://citizensclimatelobby.org/

Sincerely,

Robert Bastien

Carson City

Another states Farmer should buy property

Guy W. Farmer writes that the proposed Vintage planned unit development on the Andersen Ranch north of Kings Canyon Road should be denied by the Planning Commission so he can continue to enjoy the area’s “natural beauty and unobstructed views.”

I have a suggestion for Farmer. Enjoy it on your own dime. Buy the property if you want it to remain untouched.

It appears that Farmer has never heard of private property rights.

He would be a great candidate for membership on the board of directors of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), which is notorious for its taking of private property without just compensation by limiting its use.

I had a friend who told me that he had 44 acres on Kingsbury Grade in South Shore Lake Tahoe on which the agency would only allow him to build one home.

The bi-state TRPA Compact was signed into law by then-Govs. Paul Laxalt of Nevada and Ronald Reagan of California.

Laxalt was later quoted as saying if he’d known what a monster the agency would become, he never would have signed the compact, which created the agency.

Again, Farmer, if you want to enjoy it, buy it.

(By the way, Farmer, it is Carson City, not Carson. Carson is a town in California).

Sue Morrow

Carson City

Gratefulness

I remember reading a short story a couple of years ago around Christmastime. The story was about a widowed man who reminisced about the neighborhood Christmas parties his wife and he would put together each year for their neighbors. His wife would cook, bake, decorate and they would celebrate the season with their neighbors up until the year his wife died. He did not have it in him to continue this tradition without her. That year, the neighbors gathered together and volunteered to put on the holiday party and invited him, but he declined.

Instead, he spent his first Christmas alone and began reading his wife’s diaries. He was extremely touched to learn his wife never truly cared for the holiday parties she had expressed before, but she so very much loved the time spent with her husband after work in the garden each day.

He felt grateful and warm inside knowing his wife cherished time with him more than elaborate holiday get-togethers.

All of us have grateful memories, even if it were sitting next to a special man in a physics hall at College of Marin 45 years ago. Love abides, even from a distance.

Ann Burke

Carson City

Thank you

I would like to thank Nannette Moffett personally for her thoughtful obituary on the 12th.

Communication is not that easy now as our civilization is shamefully no longer that civil.

Her thoughts were not only touching, heartfelt, appreciative and precedent-setting but demonstrated the realization that everything alive has a mutual first cause.

Having experienced the same situation many times through my years, I see in her thoughts that there is some hope for us after all.

Thank you, Nannette, for having the courage and humility to acknowledge something that has always been there.

Pete Bachstadt

Carson City

Don’t leave Christ out of Christmas

‘Tis the season. People are neither naughty or nice. I said, with a smile on my face, “Merry Christmas” to everyone I meet. I was told that “no one says that anymore. It offends some people.” What!?!? Am I missing something here? Christ is the reason for the season. A lot of people are losing sight of what Christmas is all about. Remember why this Holy Man was placed on this earth. Christmas is loving, giving and should bring all people and all religions together in harmony. Please, don’t leave Christ out Christmas. It is His birthday.

I was told, not asked, which offends me, to say “Happy Holidays” instead.

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy Holy-days.

Phyllis Skamel

Carson City

Grateful

I am in my 80s. I had cancer. My MD told me he was concerned about my test results. He told he would make an appointment with a specialist here in Carson City. Appointment was made so I followed through with another doctor. He also did a lot more tests. I was called back to come in his office for the results. This was in June. I went in and waited for him. Soon he came in, sat down, then he told me tests were not good.

“You have cancer, and I am not going to do your surgery because you will die on the table.”

How do you think I felt? That was an unexpected blow. That was not a very nice way to tell someone that you’re going to die.

I left his office and went back to my MD. He told me he will help me find a doctor. A couple days later, I received a call from UC Davis Cancer Center in Sacramento, Calif. A well-known cancer doctor said he would like to see you. It was already alnmost the end of June. An appointment was made very quickly.

I walked into his office and went into a room waiting for him. He walked into the room, sat down by me with all the test results in his hand. And he told me, “I will help you.”

All of a suddent, I felt this warm feeling and I was at peace. I am so ready. This doctor had so much compassion for me. I felt so at ease.

The doctor and his team of five started preparing me for surgery, more tests, 30 days of radiation. On Oct. 5, 2014 (my birthday), I went into surgery. The doctor followed me as I was wheeled in. I spoke to the doctors. “I said I have so much in you. Just do your part and God will do his.” His response to me: “I will do my best.”

Hours later, I woke up. I was alive. Tears ran down my cheeks. Thank you, thank you, thank you, God, for getting me through this. Three months later, I was released from rehab center in Sacramento, just in time for Christmas.

I am OK. I am so thankful to the doctor’s team of five for helping me and also God for taking over that day in October.

Wishing you God’s love at Christmas.

Blessings,

Betty Hundrieser

Carson City