continued from page 5 and Ms. Fennell’s requested endorsement did not get those numbers. Why did we not endorse her? Many of our members voiced concerns about her work for the last 2.5 years as the executive director of HumCPR (Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights — “Protecting Your Rural Lifestyle”) and the stand that it supports concerning our County’s General Plan Update, a stand that many members of our organization do not agree with. Concerns were also raised for where Ms. Fennell’s campaign funds are coming from. By simply following the money and looking at her contributions reported, Ms. Fennell has received campaign contributions from the same local companies and individuals who are also funding the campaigns of Rex Bohn and Karen Brooks. In accepting their donations, she has aligned herself with their political wants and desires. Most of these donations come from outside the 2nd Supervisorial District, a district which she says will always come first with her. Yet her campaign funds indicate otherwise. I urge all 2nd District voters to look at the facts before you cast your vote. Chris Beresford, Bayside
Voting Fail #2 Editor: Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap raises some very troubling concerns in her letter “Voting Fail” (Mailbox, April 26), about congressional candidate Stacey Lawson’s abysmal lack of a voting record. For this young multimillionaire, who now aspires to be our next elected representative to Congress, to have
Unearth What we call poor must be more than a little red silt collected in the lungs, a harder kind of breathing. The men in the mines listen. Their questions, the private ones they keep buried deeper than the shafts they sweat or shiver in, are answered only by their own voices, echoing back at them, the nervous laugh at a blue remark, reverberating through tunnels. Instead of a bird and it’s yellow singing, captive and sad in lamp-lit darkness, someone has brought his dog, a dirty white muzzle lying mostly in sleep. When the mutt sits up, barks at the flickering of shadows on stone walls, hacked and jagged, it’s not annoyance the men
only voted in four of the last 12 elections (on top of her having zero experience as an elected official, which is very reminiscent of Meg Whitman, another multimillionaire who aspired to be elected with no experience and an embarrassing lack of a personal voting record), should be most troubling to anyone considering casting a vote for Ms. Lawson. But it’s even worse than that. What Kaitlin failed to point out is that while Stacey couldn’t be bothered to vote in 2008, an election which included an opportunity for her to vote against Proposition 8, which outlawed marriage equality in this state, she did bother to donate $10,000 to multiple candidates in the same election cycle! So Stacey apparently feels that her money can buy votes, even when she can’t be bothered to vote herself. None of this is very promising for a would-be Congress member who we would hope will study the issues and vote for us every time. I am also concerned, as I was with Meg Whitman, about Ms. Lawson’s efforts now to try to buy your vote and mine with her heavy media blitz, which has only just begun. I’ve studied the candidates and done a reasonable analysis of the race. The candidate of the status quo is clearly Jared Huffman, and he will undoubtedly make it into the runoff in November, so the competition in this “open primary” is for second place. Of the “alternative to the status quo” candidates, I feel the most qualified is third-term [Marin] County Supervisor Susan Adams. Of the major contenders she is also the candidate with the closest ties to the North Coast and the one who I feel would best represent Humboldt County in Congress. I hope you’ll join me casting your vote on June 5 to make Adams the second name on the November ballot. Pam Cahill, Bayside
Please join me Thursday, May 10th from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. for a “Meet and Greet” Fundraiser and Silent Auction in the Colonnade Room of the historic Eureka Inn. Admission to the event is $20. Appetizers and beverages provided. Annette De Modena For 1st District Supervisor ID# 1338830 PO Box 6980 • Eureka, CA 95502 :: 336 Grotto Street • Eureka, CA 95501 Ph: 707.476.0531 :: Fax: 707.476.0541 :: www.annette4supervisor.com
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feel, but relief. They pause to gawk at the yellow teeth, to stare into the well of open mouth, to mutter, to close their eyes and watch their women. They remember the breasts beneath the blouses, hands washing fine baby hair, cradling a soft skull, fingers dipping dishes into water, pulling shreds of meat from bones, peeling skin from fruit so much sweeter in absence, palms warming to cheek, chest, ridge of hipbone, all that touching. When the dog, the last huff and grumble of the dog, goes dormant, the men turn back into their back-breaking work. One man hands a tool to another. The only human sounds breaching the damp air, ringing above the clanking and wheeling, are words. Is this what you wanted? — Kimberley Pittman-Schulz northcoastjournal.com • North Coast Journal • Thursday, May 3, 2012
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