Correspondence and commentary on current events.
At your meet-the-candidates event at Johnnie D’s on November 1, 2016, I asked you if the problems with municipal water systems as seen in Adelanto and with the Los Angeles DWP were any cause for concern. Your response was that you didn’t know what was going on in other locales — you knew what was going on in Apple Valley.
Continue reading “Time to pay attention: An open letter to Larry Cusack”
At your meet-and-greet event at Johnnie D’s on November 1, 2016, you asked if I believed Liberty Utilities was going to ask for a 14% rate increase. I said I did not. Let me return the favor: Do you believe Liberty will ask for a 14% increase, now that they have apparently asked for an increase of only 4.88%?
Thanks to Liberty Utilities, the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce, and the others who worked together to honor and thank our area’s first responders (“Community rallies in support of ‘Public Safety Heroes’,” Daily Press, July 27, 2016). Overall it was a wonderful event.
You quoted Town councilman Larry Cusack as stating, “Throughout my first term on the Town Council, we have continued to operate a conservative and balanced budget …” (“Cusack seeking re-election to Apple Valley Town Council,” Daily Press, July 4, 2016). As Inigo Montoya would say, “I don’t think that means what you think it means.”
In a previous letter, I wondered about the inclusion of a gratuitous claim that Newton T. Bass was a racist (“Racist roots of Apple Valley,” April 21), which was in response to an article by Matthew Cabe (“Hilltop House Offer Accepted,” Daily Press, April 17). I tried to make clear that was not questioning the allegation itself so much as that it did not seem germane. If Mr. Cabe had tied allegations of previous racism with the Town’s push to make a landmark out of the home of a famous local racist, that would have been one thing. Given that our mayor was once fired for making a racist remark, and given that others on the Town council have engaged repeatedly in derogatory ethnic references, it might have made an interesting story indeed. Failing that, the insertion in passing of an allegation of racism is, at best, controversial only for the sake of being controversial, not for the sake of being enlightening. Continue reading “More content out of context”
I’m mystified by the passing reference to Newton T. Bass as a racist (“Hilltop House Offer Accepted,” Daily Press, April 17, 2016), especially in the context of the article, which says that “Town officials [are] ‘estatic’ over purchase,” and that his former home would be returned to its “former glory” to become “a magnificent part of our town.” Given this, it would seem that Apple Valley has deep-seated white racism, which it now intends to memorialize and celebrate. Continue reading “Racism in Apple Valley”