Bakersfield.com Community Voices

LISA EVISTON: Life-saving idea: Cut the blood alcohol content limit to .05

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:00:00 PDT

The National Transportation and Safety Board recently proposed a change in acceptable blood alcohol level: The NTSB is recommending the threshold for drunken driving in the U.S. be reduced from .08 to .05 BAC, or blood alcohol content. Is it really necessary, and more importantly, will it reduce DUIs in our country?

Alcohol-impaired driving contributes to thousands of fatalities and tens of thousands of serious injuries each year. Since 2000 alone, nearly 150,000 people have lost their lives in crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers, and these crashes continue to account for over 30 percent of all traffic fatalities.

NORM HAUGHNESS: Is Snowden a traitor? Hardly

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:12:22 PDT

One of the main differences between democratic and totalitarian states is seen in their relative degree of control over citizens' communications. Control requires awareness, and awareness is best maintained by surveillance, by monitoring what people say and write to each other. Autocratic leaders feel the need -- and rightly so -- to know their subjects' gripes about the way they are ruled, so that complainers can be silenced. Democracies worthy of the name don't operate that way.

A few day ago, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former CIA technical specialist and more recently top-secret-clearance agent for the defense intelligence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, blew a big whistle. He revealed the Obama administration's continuing approval and implementation of the Bush era's grandly illegal domestic intelligence gathering. On Americans. In America.

STEVE KARCHER: Homeowners Associations can be good or really, really bad

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:12:07 PDT

Since the 1990s, the number of Bakersfield subdivisions governed by homeowners associations has skyrocketed. The Community Association Institute estimates more than one in every six Americans now lives in an association-managed community.

Associations, which are often overlays of "gated communities," also create an air of exclusivity. In theory, HOAs appear to be win-wins for law-abiding, considerate property owners who want to live in well-kept neighborhoods. In reality, such communities can be pure hell.

GARY BRAY: Edison's silt-dumping will hurt Kern River canyon for a while

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 23:00:05 PDT

I appreciated reading Lois Henry's May 12 column, "Silt chokes lower Kern and the explanation is muddy," calling attention to Southern California Edison's negative impact on the lower Kern River canyon below Democrat Hot Springs. Though this was not the first time I have observed the Edison company conducting this dumping exercise, it had the usual result -- a sterile, silt-filled draw, where a freestone stream previously ran.

That section of the Kern had been producing a pretty good smallmouth bass fishery, one that most fishermen respected by carefully releasing their catch. The gravel beds needed for spawning are gone -- buried in mud. The natural vegetation that provided habitat for invertebrates, which are necessary for a healthy stream -- eliminated.

JARRED POLLACK: Maybe these in-custody deaths are just a reflection of the community

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:11:56 PDT

Many are quick to speculate about corruption and tyranny in our community's law enforcement agencies, but has anyone ever bothered to ask whether the problem is the community itself? Police officers I know personally have described the numerous similarities between patrolling the crime-ridden areas of Bakersfield to their experiences in Iraq. A violent crime is committed and the neighborhood maintains its "no-snitch" policy. But when an officer makes the difficult but unavoidable decision to use deadly force on a known thug, the community bands together to protest the "murder and corruption" of the department. It makes me wonder why anyone would ever want to be a cop in this town.

Despite Kern County's resources and its location in one of the most industrious states in the world, we have one of the highest rates of unemployment, low educational attainment, high teen pregnancy rate and poverty. All of which are factors that are conducive to the continuation and growth of drug-related crimes and violence. We all know these are the real core issues, but no one is talking about them, unless the need is to reaffirm conspiracy-like paranoia and plug the talking points of whatever political "finger-pointing" bias. (For example, blaming the police force, blaming immigration, blaming welfare, blaming political parties, etc.).

STAFFORD BETTY: Materialism - The creed of the scientific fundamentalist

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:09:57 PDT

Sam Goldwyn famously said, "Don't confuse me with facts. I've already made up my mind." This quotation applies to many scientists who think their materialist doctrine is based on good science.

What is a materialist? It's someone who believes the only real stuff in the universe is matter. For them, the spiritual soul is a fiction. The same with life after death. The same with God. Many materialists don't believe in free will, either. Like a computer, we are controlled by whatever input reaches our brain. That means that none of us is responsible for the choices we make. Concepts like "justice" and "injustice" are pretenses needed to keep society from degenerating into savagery.

KATE EUCCE: Halting onset of 'compassion fatigue'

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:00:06 PDT

More than 65 million people, or 29 percent of the U.S. population, provide care for a chronically ill, disabled or aged family member or friend, according to the Caregiver Action Network. They are parents caring for their disabled children; men and women caring for chronically ill spouses; adult children caring for their fragile or infirm parents. They call boomers the "sandwich generation" because they often are caring for both their children and parents, while struggling with their own needs.

And despite these huge numbers, many caregivers still are trying to go it alone. They are putting the entire burden on their shoulders, burning out and often damaging their own health.

AARON STEENBERGEN: Redirect wasted government payoff money to US elder care

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:00:05 PDT

The June 2 Sunday Forum article by Audrey Chavez, "Caring for Dad wasn't supposed to involve this much heartbreak," is a painful reminder of the many ways our nation's priorities have been turned upside down. Failing in elder care is only one of them.

On the home front, her article makes it all too clear that we do not have "...safe rehabilitative homes with manageable numbers of residents (and) appropriate staff-resident ratios." Indeed, far from "the Cadillac" rehab centers, which all the elderly ought to have, too many elderly must suffer with something more closely resembling the horse and buggy. Folks, if you are not old now, you are going to be soon -- and it's later than you think. (Boomers, pay particular attention.) Shouldn't "Cadillac" rehabilitative homes be the "norm" and accorded a highly important national priority? Do your own parents and grandparents not deserve that?

JOHN STEVENS: In the end, DA and Sheriff will get to the bottom of Silva case

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:00:06 PDT

When it comes to confrontations between police officers and citizens, I've just about seen it all.

For 31 years it was my great privilege to serve the good people of Kern County as a deputy district attorney, retiring in 2005. I graduated from Cornell University Law School in 1973.

TERRY PHILLIPS: McCarthy should stop playing politics with veterans' care

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 23:00:04 PDT

It is shameful for Rep. Kevin McCarthy to criticize the backlogs and delays in processing disability claims of veterans. In fact, this congressman is part of the problem.

He pays lip service to the concerns of returning service members, but on Capitol Hill he votes against them.

TIMOTHY LEMUCCHI: BC football's due process rights violated by unjustified sanctions

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 23:00:07 PDT

Kudos to the Kern Community College District for voting to appeal the unjustified penalties imposed on the Bakersfield College football program.

However, BC President Sonya Christian -- rather than rolling over, continually stating that some sanctions are due and pleading for mercy -- needs to get back up and take on the lopsided California Community College Athletic Association sanctions against the Renegades. The sanctions strip the Renegades of all their wins during the 2011 and 2012 seasons, including their state championship, places the football program on probation for two years and suspends BC from postseason conference competition for the 2013 season.

HAROLD STAAT: 'Nam flashback -- get high and you endanger the rest of us, too

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 23:00:04 PDT

Toxicology report: Amphetamine. Methamphetamine. Assorted other illicit and illegal drugs in the system of the deceased and on his person. Victimless?

Forty-four years ago I was an Army combat field medic in Vietnam. One of the scourges not much talked about at that time was the drug abuse. There was pot, hashish and the most insidious, heroin. It could be bought in little vials the size of the first joint of your little finger for, as I recall, 2 bucks. It was rolled into cigarettes and smoked. Most of it was provided by camp followers. Whenever there was a troop movement, they weren't far behind. The problem comes when the troops are suddenly airlifted out and the supply is cut off.

CARMEN MORALES: If Kern wants to retain physicians in training, we must pay them

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 23:00:03 PDT

As a nurse practitioner at Kern Medical Center I've spent 21 years working with physicians-in-training. These doctors, many of whom came to Bakersfield specifically to train at a trauma center, work day and night to provide quality care to patients and their families.

Our physicians-in-training are on the front line of patient care at KMC. They work hard and over long hours, oftentimes for grueling 24 hour shifts. They are also tasked with training over 100 medical school students at KMC. If you are or someone you love is admitted to KMC, these physicians-in-training will be the primary doctor working with you throughout your stay.

WILL ADAMS: For a correctional officer, the workday is just another day in the war zone

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 23:00:02 PDT

I am a 25-year veteran of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at a maximum security prison. Since 2006, I have held a job in the administration building. Every afternoon, I take my stack of mail to the various mailboxes on the other side of the building.

As I was returning to my office one afternoon, I saw two young officers leaving the prison after their shifts.

AUDREY CHAVEZ: Caring for Dad wasn't supposed to involve this much heartbreak

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 22:00:05 PDT

After Dad had a heart attack and triple bypass surgery, he was discharged to a rehabilitation center. Bakersfield Family Medical Center offered three placement options. One I knew not to send him to. Another, considered "the Cadillac" of local rehab centers, had no available beds. The third would have a bed ready at 7 p.m.

It was a convalescent home; Dad had a roommate and a crank bed from the 1950s. Envision no trash can, random belongings crammed into the bedside drawer, a dirty brown bedspread and dirty sheets. I pointed this out to some employees. One said she'd get an electric bed but never returned. One brought more dirty sheets and an OK bedspread, then more sheets that were quite worn. Before I left I asked if they'd received his chart from the hospital and if they had an admission packet for me. They said no chart yet and in the morning admissions would see me. I wrote down information including my name, relationship to the patient and phone number and added a note: "Please take good care of our Poppa! Thank you" and I taped it over his bed.