My Home Town

This is a response to an article in the Sacramento Bee complaining about the proposed gas tax in California that is to fix the roads and supports mass transit. This is written as a wildfire threatens Redding, California, my hometown. It is a rant. It is a cry in the wilderness against idiots who climate deny!

Here is a revised copy of my rant. I have read you before and appreciate your views, but you picked the wrong day to write your rant. REDDING is burning in part because they failed….the me won over we.

Also, have you been to Europe? Gasoline and Diesel there cost more than triple than in the U.S. Why?

1. They don’t have oil. Eastern Europe and Russian are the only real oil reserves.
2. Their infrastructure was destroyed by WWII so they rebuilt with trains avoiding the suburb madness of America. Hence, they are not reliant on the automobile for everything.
3. They have suffered utter devastation and don’t want to go there again, we haven’t. Americans have no idea what trial and travail is.
4. Their political systems don’t work in fear of tax increases, they pay high taxes and have better health care, better transportations; better standard of living for a higher percentage of their citizens.
5. They have embraced the dangers of climate change. They don’t deny they act!
6. They aren’t spoiled brats who vote against tax increases in this idiotic idea that me is bigger than we! They don’t bash public servants.

Redding is dying. I predicted this years ago. Did you research your article at all?

You would have seen that TWICE, not once but TWICE Redding voted down a pennies on the dollar tax increase to rebuild their police and fire departments after the ravages of the Great Recession. TWICE.

Part of that was to reinstitute the fire prevention programs that they suspended during the recession; and yes, the neighbor hood anti-crime programs as well. The fire rages and crime is at an all time high.

But TWICE they demanded to know what the tax was for, were told what it was for, and voted for me rather than we….and Redding right now is burning to the ground.

I can tell you the exact areas the fires are raging, I lived there. The undergrowth is so thick you can’t walk through it. It is an accident waiting to happen. At least some of it could have been mitigated with the fire prevention program that was left unfounded thanks to the anti-tax fools!

And now the city is looking at utter annihilation. And you sat in the shadow of Mt. Shasta and decide to subvert a tax increase!

This is what is for, to fix the roads that increase pollution (have you researched that rough roads decrease gas mileage (use more gas)? It also is for mass transit improvements to reduce carbon emissions. Have you researched anything?

Why do you always mistrust “wasteful” government? Do you realize that Cal Trans has a tough job to do with a population who are so spoiled rotten it is unreal?

Finally I was a teacher and a school administrator. I worked at Grant High to Central Valley to Elk Creek High; from poverty to poverty to poverty. I saw every damned day what tax cuts do (Prop 13)….I saw the pain the agony and most of the time couldn’t do a damn thing about it because we were broke all the time.

And I listened to the whining, the criticism that we as teachers were bad, lazy, while kids came to school hungry or bruised by the abuse they got at home. But Prop 13 cut the school nurses. It cut the child psychologists. It cut and cut and cut. The CLARK kid died years before he was shot. And Charter Schools simply segregate the children more and don’t help at all. They are a con by white supremacists to keep people of color down…it’s called segregation!

Mr. Clark died of societal neglect on an epic scale. As an African American your anti tax rant is white supremacy talking. Rich white people don’t give a shit if we all die, they don’t drive they fly.

And now we complain about a tax we need for one reason; to BEGIN to get us out of our cars. The middle class growth got us into this mess, we have to get ourselves out: take the bus, take the train, buy solar panels and write articles to destroy climate deniers!

Finally we visited Yosemite a couple weeks ago. The fire started the day after we left. We took the pictures of a magic land, a beautiful scene at every turn. And it may burn up too.

I am part Native American. I have seen what the white devils did. I see it now. And I see the Great Mystery rendering a Reckoning that mankind has never seen before. Up until now people of color were the victims. REDDING is an almost all white town. Now they are the victims. WE are the victims of ourselves!

Oh, did you think to get out of your car and marvel at the wonderful scene you saw in the shadow of Mt. Shasta? Go there today… but can’t see it because its covered in smoke!