Fix the restrooms, Soper Reese
At the recent crowning of the new Lake County Poet Laureate at Soper Reese, I had to use the men’s restroom. Before I begin the body of this letter, I hope I’m not under any misconceptions when I assume that most female readers have not used a men’s urinal, and, therefore, these readers need a brief tutorial.
Most men’s public urinals are about two and a half-feet apart with a 2×3 foot splash and privacy shield between each urinal. At Soper Reese, the two urinals do not have a splash shield and are about 8” apart, which means that users must almost be entwined! Ladies and gentlemen, please believe me when I say that a public urinal is not the place to make new friends!
I urge the owners of Soper-Reese to bring their facilities up-to-date, which would include replacing the old shower curtain with a new shower curtain that locks to provide privacy for the commode! It must be very disconcerting for users when a new patron throws back the curtain and says, “Oh, didn’t know it was in use!”
Charles Moton, Lucerne
Police Killings
The occurrence of unarmed or poorly armed individuals being killed by police officers has received considerable coverage in the press recently. In at least two of these cases the victims were children. Several proposals have been made to reduce such unfortunate events, including equipping the officers with stun guns or Tasers. Unfortunately, in some cases firing Tasers, bean bags or rubber bullets at individuals who were perceived to be threatening did not subdue them, and they were then shot, and often killed.
In a previous letter to The Record Bee (0418/15), I suggested that if the police were equipped with guns that could fire cartridges containing small pellets (as in shotgun shells) they could inflict severe pain to uncooperative or threatening subjects while causing minor injury. As a follow up, I would add to my previous proposal and suggest that when a menacing person is not subdued by other deterrents (Taser shots, bean bags or rubber bullets) the officers should then fire the pellets at the individuals’ legs and feet. If this assault is not effective at subduing the subject, the officers should fire a second round of pellets at his/her upper body.
That would cause severe pain and injury, but probably would not be lethal.
Charles Nicoll, Lucerne
Eating sustainably
With the 47th annual observance of Earth Day just around the corner, this is a great time to explore more effective ways of slowing climate change and conserving Earth’s natural resources for future generations.
A 2010 UN report charged animal agriculture with 19% of man-made greenhouse gases — more than all transport — and recommended a global shift to a vegan diet. A subsequent World Watch study placed that contribution closer to 50 percent. Meat and dairy production also dumps more water pollutants than all other human activities combined. It is the driving force in global deforestation and wildlife habitat destruction.
Last fall, England’s prestigious Chatham House declared that reducing meat consumption is critical to achieving global climate goals. A report from Oxford University found that global adoption of a vegan diet would reduce greenhouse emissions by two thirds. The 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has recommended reduced meat consumption and an environmentaslly sustainable diet.
Just as we replace fossil fuels by wind, solar, and other sustainable energy sources, we must replace animal foods with the more sustainable vegetables, fruits, and grains.
Being mindful of this can help us make better choices at the supermarket.
Uribe Jankovitch, Ukiah
Fish die off
Last year we had a fish die off. No known cause was ever established. Did anyone every consider that it might have been from the overuse of the herbicide in the attempt to abate hydrilla in those two areas?
Thomas Nickel, Lakeport
Memory and imagination
The strict delineation of sections of remembered impressions is not in the things remembered, but in the remembering mind. We divide the mental impressions to impose order on the matters impressed on our memory according as we choose to imagine their differences. Thus long and short term memories are not two kinds of memory, as this intimates. They are simply or memory divided by us into long and short. We like to impose several permanent characteristics on a single conceptual entity, suggesting in it a measure of discovery, a modicum of importance. And this bent has cost us, through the long years of our earthly dominance, immeasurable time and treasure, giving all our mere imaginings the stout construction necessary to support this imaginary fact.
The same with petty love vis-a-vis true love. Petty love is true enough to jingle the wedding bells, other things being equal. Love is love, whatever we choose to call it; and our intelligence is wholly and singly imagination, though we, with this very imagination, divide it into a hundred intricate entities and assign them each a different name and function.
Dean Sparks, Lucerne
