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Sound Off for April 20, 2008
| Tuesday, May 27 2008 2:08 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 27 2008 2:31 PM
Reader: Thank you, THANK YOU for deciding to resume the Pet of the Week feature. Please don't limit the highlighted pets to those from just one adoption agency, but "rotate" through the many agencies if you can. Also, please consider listing all the agencies with their contact info at least (if not hours, etc.) each time you run the feature.
The printed and Web versions of the paper are an important source of information and education for your readers.
By resuming this feature, you are taking a unique step on the road to solving the pet overpopulation and euthanasia problems in our county. Your planned contribution is much appreciated.
Sincerely,
-- Liz Keogh
Jenner: Thanks for your comments. "Pet of the Week" will begin on the cover of Monday's Eye Street. We'll actually feature more than one adoptable animal each week, and we're not limiting the source of these animals to one agency.
We will be giving readers information about how to adopt these animals and how to contact the shelters.
Reader: Your recent editorial cartoon of a deceased Charlton Heston holding a gun up from his coffin was the ultimate in poor taste.
Mr. Heston was an entertainer of great proportions, a loyal American, and a true patriot. To be demeaned in that way only shows how low your paper has sunk. SHAME.
-- Gerald Willis
Reader: Charlton Heston was not only one of the best and most prolific actors of his era, but he was a loyal and dignified American whose conduct in public was always exemplary. The same cannot be said of the trashy, spoiled brats of today's tabloid subjects. The liberal press devours every detail of their worthless and sorry lives.
Your "cartoon" of Charlton Heston would have been inexcusable at any time, but is entirely inappropriate so soon after his death. Shame on you, Bakersfield Californian! Does anyone down there have any sense of propriety?
-- Margo L. Jones
Editorial Page Editor Dianne Hardisty responds: While Charlton Heston certainly was well-known for his outstanding accomplishments as an actor, his political profile was elevated when he became president of the National Rifle Association.
During one often-quoted speech, he raised a rifle over his head and declared "From my cold, dead hands!"
We believe the cartoon that was published in the Opinion section referring to this quote was fair comment. Please note that the cartoon appeared in a collection of small cartoons, rather than as a larger cartoon dominating a daily page.
Reader: It was almost amusing to read your reporter's picture of the 4th District County race as "visionary v. community outsider." I've lived in Frazier Park for 20 years, been an active citizen and take a very different view.
The incumbent supervisor, Ray Watson, has accomplished nothing for this community in six years in office. How much longer is it going to take him to implement his "vision?" How long must we listen to him take credit for projects he had little or no part in?
I don't care how "calmly" he asserts things that are not true; his demeanor does not make them true. Shouldn't his shocking April 1 performance at the Board of Supervisors meeting clarify his contempt for our community? We don't expect government to do everything for us. We do expect some honesty and some return for our tax money.
Far from being an "outsider," challenger Cliff Thompson is a seasoned public servant who is hard-working and energetic. During this campaign season, he has had local meetings open to the public, as opposed to Watson by-invitation-only gatherings of a select few unelected cronies who make decisions affecting us all. In doing so, Thompson has injected a new element into our civic life: hope.
I'll have some more, please. The 4th District needs a change. Register and vote June 3!
-- Barbara Edsall
Jenner: Actually, our reporter did not categorize the candidates that way -- that is how the candidates characterized themselves at the forum our reporter covered.
Reader: I understand that "The sky is falling" sells newspapers and that is what you are about.
But as a taxpayer and engineer I am deeply troubled that the U.S. Corps of Engineers spent and you reported on a "worst case" scenario on the possibility of the Lake Isabella dam breaking with the reservoir at 100% capacity.
On your Weather page on the back of the section, you note that the lake is at 28% (of capacity), last year was 40% and "normal" is 35%.
There is no way, short of Noah's deluge, the lake would be allowed to be at capacity. That is what gates are for, that is what climate studies are for.
Money spent for such absurd studies could be better spent on repairs or a real river in downtown. There must be a better way to sell papers.
-- Ray Reilly
Jenner: You can be deeply troubled about the Corps' focus on a worst-case scenario, but you can't seriously argue that we treated the story in an irresponsible way.
The story, headlined "How bad would a collapse be?" began on Page B1, not the front page of the paper. The only reference on the front page was a small item in the bottom left corner headlined "Dam collapse plan envisioned."
Believe me, if we were trying to sell papers on the basis of that story, we would have treated it much differently.
Reader: Everybody I know that went to the Bakersfield Speedway April 12 to watch the races was talking about how good the super street stock race was -- one of the best races they have seen lately. So, I look for the race results in The Californian -- on Sunday nothing, Monday nothing. What's up with that?
-- Tim Marberry
Jenner: We did indeed cover the races at the Speedway. Unfortunately the last race generally finishes too late to make our print edition deadlines.
When that happens, the story that appears in print won't include those results, but we'll run a complete story on Bakersfield.com.
We'll remind readers of our Sunday edition to go to our Website when our story can't include the final race, and Sports Editor Tony Lacava says we'll begin running an update in Monday's Sports section for those readers who don't have Internet access.
Reader: Whoa, Lois! Where's the other side of this story?
Lois Henry's recent column "Refinery's effect on traffic fuels frustration" could use a follow-up. Big West's refinery was there first! Does it not have any rights of tenure?
Shouldn't we be in favor of a more efficient way to refine oil into gas? Is it the refinery's fault that we've decided to put major roads around them? Industries such as Kern's oil and ag industries may not always smell wonderfully. However, they are producing needed and necessary products for our way of life.
And then -- Rosedale Highway! When the first subdivisions were built, did the county not collect transportation fees? Why must new residents and the rest of local taxpayers bear the cost of bringing this corridor up to needed standards?
The railroad crossing: Yes, most of us have spent way too much time sitting and waiting for a stalled train to move. And, yes, it's a long way around. But the railroad was there first and we are evidently not far-sighted enough to realize that it wasn't a nuisance until we loaded the road up with traffic.
Come on, Lois. Be fair. What's the other side of this story?
-- Terrie Stoller
Lois Henry responds: I mentioned Big West as the latest addition to a litany of traffic clogging up Rosedale Highway (which was there before the refinery, by the way).
My point was that the city and county have irresponsibly approved far too much retail, industry and housing for that road to accommodate the attendant cars and trucks. And they continue to do so even as their too-little-too-late solutions inch along.
The column wasn't a slam against the refinery or anyone's way of life, unless you consider stewing in your car behind a fuel tanker stuck at a train crossing a way of life.