Letters to the Editor
Is it time to doctor Detroit a bit?
Dear Editor:
I’ve been saying the Serenity Prayer a lot since my quixotic attempt at getting June Lake monuments erected on 395 went up in flames last summer…but there is something in June Lake which is not acceptable by any measure and that is the condition of our post office. I am hoping by this letter, which I will copy to both the owner of the building, Art Ronci and the US Postal Service, to change that.
First, I want to give a huge shout-out to our postmaster, Michael Lear. He is incredibly hard working and unfailingly friendly and helpful in all ways. He has told me that he often attempts to do some clean-up and I believe that. I also know that this is not his job and he has way too much to do, anyway. He has also told me that he has been requesting help in this area from his superior for quite a while but to no avail.
The situation started at least three (four?) years ago when for some unknown reason we lost our maintenance person. In an attempt to bridge the gap until that person was replaced I recruited some of my dear friends to help me clean windows and sweep the floor and sidewalk. But then it became apparent that there would be no real replacement and we didn’t have access to water or electricity so we/I quit.
I know it is not cool to extol the virtues of the city of Mammoth when you live in June Lake…but geez! How can you not appreciate that it is a well run city (aside from a ton of debt) with lots of things to do and (wait for it) a clean post office? The June Lake post office looks like it belongs in Detroit rather than in the gorgeous Eastern Sierra.
I’m not talking about daily service here. We just need someone to wash the windows, sweep the floor and wash it once in a blue moon, sweep the sidewalks, fix the crumbling steps and let us have a little pride, for goodness sakes!
Alice Suszynski
June Lake
Accentuate the positive
Dear Editor:
In the March 19 edition of the Mammoth Times, Wendilyn Grasseschi wrote a very good article titled: “Pets, Love and Risk: A Delicate Balance.” In this article, Ingrid Braun explained the rationale for keeping residents from returning to an evacuated area, in this case, Swall Meadows.
Previously, Ted Carleton published a story in the Sheet about his wife’s trials and tribulations in attempting to return to her home during the wild fire.
There is a great difference in the general tone of these two articles. The Mammoth Times article was positive, the Sheet article was negative – that is, negative towards law enforcement personnel.
I want to bring to your attention that Ingrid Braun is a shining ray of hope in the Mono County Sheriff’s Department in that she is attempting to introduce a measure of compassion into a hard core chain of command organization. This is no easy task for decades of procedures and thought patterns must be challenged and changed. Yet, the functions of a chain of command organization must not be abolished. The mantra must still be: “Yes Sir, no Sir.”
It is, therefore, no help to the MCSO when negative articles about law enforcement efforts are constantly published. That’s because the reading public tends to think that what they are reading is the pure unadulterated truth, when in fact, much is just the pure opinion of the writer.
I think that one of the major reasons why Sheriff Obenberger suffered such a resounding defeat in the June election was because “The Media” constantly published negative articles about the MCSO, e.g. Travertine Hot Tubs, Burning Man, the John Madrid firing, the personal story of an MCSO jailbird, etc.
Yeah, the past MCSO leadership had a lot of sword and dagger leadership traits and needed to get a thumping; but the day you turn such an organization into a church social group is the day you have no more law enforcement.
Anyway, may I suggest that The Sheet rethink its approach to the MCSO and be more positive in support of Ingrid Braun.
Russ Reese
Mono City
Local advice
Dear Editor:
With respect to your editorial that helps us to define who’s really a local, I think that it’s only fair to point out the the term “local” is really a contraction of the original term “local yokel”. I think that it’s important to keep this in mind in the course of striving to qualify for that elusive status. I noticed that you didn’t include in your list of qualifiers the purchase of a license plate frame identifying you as a “Mammoth Local”. That should be worth at least 3 months.
Having put up with the efforts of various individuals in various localities over the years to define themselves as true locals, and having seldom been able to make the grade, this subject has become something of an irritation. When I moved to Placerville, just out of college in the 70’s, I was first faced with this phenomenon. Coworkers finally convinced me that one could achieve the status when one had lived in the local area longer than 50% of the population. I think that’s fair. Or maybe you need to be born here.
In any case, I would urge fellow locals (or wannabe locals) to avoid taking their presumed status too seriously. It’s really just a pain in the ass.
Bob Davenport
Mammoth Lakes
