Letters
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- Written by: JoAnn Saccato
Through a collaborative process with community members, staff and the Board, Lake County is, once again, at the forefront of communities around the nation taking a stance in this national crisis.
Besides it being (as best as I know) a first for board members to each read a section of a proclamation, which, to me, emphasizes their personal commitment to the contents, my understanding is that it was the first time a proclamation included action steps, which speaks highly of the board's commitment to prioritize solutions to these issues.
As was also noted during board discussion by Tina Scott, co-sponsor of the proclamation with Eddie (E.J.) Crandall, this is the most diverse board in Lake County history – something in itself to be celebrated.
It should also be noted that to fold in and prioritize these crucial issues whilst in the midst of a pandemic and recovery from numerous large scale disasters tells me this is a board committed to upholding our nation's greatest ideals equally for everyone in our community.
Anyone who has experienced any form of violence or inequity directed toward themselves, or a group they identify with – be it through race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, ability, or ethnicity, can feel a little bit safer in Lake County knowing these types of crimes against our citizens and democracy are not taken lightly here – and for that I am deeply grateful.
I look forward to seeing Lake County continue to help move our nation further toward a culture of care and inclusion and away from the antagonistic and violent 'othering' that is proving to be so disheartening and damaging to our country. I believe this is a powerful step toward that vision.
JoAnn Saccato, MA, lives in Cobb, California.
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- Written by: Andrew Tritchler
Yes, the sidewalks were lifted but they had to be replaced anyway. How about designing the new sidewalks around the trees?
But limbs might drop, they worry. What a canard! By that logic, every large tree in Lakeport needs to be hewn, including those in Library Park.
Sacramento, the “City of Trees,” somehow manages to live under the canopy of their magnificent urban forest as does Chico and countless other cities proud of their trees.
It's a heritage we have lost. It takes a long time to grow trees like those taken from us this month. But it only takes one bad decision and a few days for people anxious to whip out the chainsaws and our trees are gone forever.
Andrew Tritchler is a retired agricultural biologist who lives in Lakeport, California.
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- Written by: Wally and Pat Cox
When we see a response to the needs of those affected by Alzheimer’s and related dementias, we pay attention. Dementia has struck our family in a profound way and has changed how we look at our future. Do we plan holidays and adventures, or do we plan doctor visits and sheltered living? Both.
We are especially pleased to see that the plan addresses the pressing need to improve how our health care system deals with Alzheimer’s.
We were very fortunate that our proactive primary care physician helped us get an early diagnosis, but the mystery of dementia leads doctors to send patients, us included, home with little more than a prescription and a pamphlet. And then we muddle our way through health care, home care, and the inevitable results of cognitive impairment.
We hope Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and Sen. Mike McGuire will both support the plan’s recommendations to expand dementia training for California’s health care providers. It would have made our journey easier.
Wally and Pat Cox live in Lakeport, California.
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- Written by: William G. Eaton
To keep things in perspective, think back to 1665 when a British civil servant named Samuel Pepys, age 32, kept a diary of his life in London.
His youth and high social status may have saved him from becoming one of the estimated 100,000 fatalities (around 20 percent of London’s population) of the disease, which was transmitted by fleas carried on rats.
Once infected, the chances of survival were minimal. Most people, as Daniel Defoe (later author of “Robinson Crusoe”) recorded “were immediately overwhelmed with violent fevers, vomiting, insufferable headaches, pains in the back.”
Coronavirus bears no comparison with the deadly bubonic plague but it’s fascinating to see the parallels between 1665 and 2020.
The first recorded plague deaths in London occurred in March but England’s war with Holland for control of the sea trade routes hogged the headlines that spring.
Pepys mentioned the plague in a casual line at the end of April and then on May 24 wrote: “To the coffee-house, where all the news is of the Dutch being gone out, and the plague growing upon us in this town; and some of the remedies against it: some saying one thing and some another.”
Despite the continued growth of the plague, Pepys remained unconcerned, dining out most evenings and “trying on his new camelott (camel or goat hair) suit, the best that ever I wore in my life” on June 1.
A few days later Pepys saw the effects of the plague for the first time in Drury Lane (a theater distinct), writing in his diary “two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and ‘Lord have mercy upon us!’ writ there which was a sad sight to me.”
His depression evaporated following a naval victory over the Dutch off the east coast and he continued his “business as normal” approach, even in August, when the Bills of Mortality (CDC reports) recorded over 6,000 burials each week (which rose to 8,000 in September).
In fact, Pepys continued to work so hard, he complained on Aug. 9, that he went to bed early because he was “disturbed with over-much business today.”
Many took precautions while others flaunted the rules. As Pepys recorded the pandemic in his diary, many Londoners, including most doctors, lawyers, and merchants, fled to the safety of the countryside. Those who remained often wore masks resembling bird beaks, stuffed with herbs, believed to nullify the virus.
Theaters and courts were closed, all sports shut down and trade with other cities at home and abroad was suspended. Scotland closed its border with England and, according to the Museum of London, “people’s lives and businesses suffered terribly because so many were shut in their homes and forced to beg or steal food and money because the plague had such an adverse effect on trade.”
“Lord!” wrote Pepys on Aug. 16. “How sad a sight it is to see the streets so empty of people.” But again, his dejection was brief. Next day he went boating on the Thames with four friends, dropping anchor near the estuary, “to supper mighty merry.”
However, Pepys wasn’t blasé about the plague. He refused to wear a new wig in case it was infected (hair was often taken from corpses) but he understood that life had to go on. Maybe reading Pepys would be more reassuring than watching today’s media.
There were no vaccines until nature came to the rescue when the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the city later that year and is credited with reducing the epidemic to a trickle just like current vaccinations are designed to do.
Eventually, the plague disappeared after a year or so but made sporadic reappearances in later years.
So, what's different about today?
Source: “Diary of the Plague Years and the Great Fire of London,” by Samuel Pepys.
William G. Eaton lives in Lakeport, California.
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