Random Letters: 8-5-21

A Willful Ignorance of Impending Doom

As we witness the grim outcome of the collapse of the Surfside condo building and its 160+ deaths, we understand the willingness to play down warnings that preceded the catastrophe. It is sad, indeed.

I cannot help but reckon back to the unfathomable “acknowledged” danger posed to “thousands” of residents in the Los Angeles harbor area from over 25 million gallons of highly explosive butane and propane gases that continues to be stored in their literal backyard for almost 50 years now! These storage tanks were built “without building permits” in 1973 for a projected life span of 25 years, and to an earthquake substandard of 5.5 mag. while sitting in a EQ fault zone of mag. 7.4! This prolonged extraordinary willful ignorance to disregard public safety is intolerable and unacceptable in light of the overwhelming scope of disaster that this storage facility represents. Yet, here we sit on the precipice of doom under the most vulnerable of conditions possible.

Renowned forensics risks professor, Bob Bea, has repeatedly warned of our government’s persistence to disregard obvious hazards due to: hubris, arrogance, indolence, ignorance and greed. Employing these traits will ultimately guarantee disaster….sooner or later.  The Plains All American Pipeline owned Rancho LPG LLC facility represents the Poster Child for his testimony. The catastrophe here awaits. The threat does not get any more obvious than this.

Janet Schaaf-Gunter, San Pedro

Vet Refuses Payment, Cat Held for Ransom

I have never written a letter to the editor in my life. So clearly, the interaction with Dr. Volkenburgh, License # 15031 on July 21, 2021at her Peninsula Pet Clinic was so appalling that I feel compelled to do so.

I responded to a FB post that day by a woman reporting that a cat owner was sobbing because Dr. Volkenburg refused partial payment to release her beloved cat, Mickey. The owner would get paid a few days later.

Dr. Volkenburgh and the cat owner both called the LAPD. Nothing was resolved.

I drove up and walked in the clinic to pay the cat owner’s bill in full. Dr. Volkenburg refused my payment because I was not the owner. The owner had been banned by her from the Clinic premises. The owner came outside the front door and Dr. Volkenburgh refused my payment again. Each time I verbally protested, she stood close to the receptionist and yelled, “and ANOTHER $100!” I was astounded and she did it three more times! The receptionist looked up and yelled, “that’s $643” to get the cat!

I informed them both I was calling LAPD and the receptionist said so was she.

I introduced myself to the lead officer as a retired LA County Psychiatric Emergency RN who had worked alongside LAPD many times writing 5150’s for 72 hour involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations. Unfortunately, there is no Danger to Animal category I thought because Dr. Volkenburgh clearly met the criteria.

The bill was finally reduced to the $243 ordinal fee. The cat owner got her darling Mickey but no itemized receipt of services rendered or diagnostic impressions. This was an emergency visit. I had to pay in cash.

Please consider posting this in your newspaper so that our dear, hardworking San Pedrans and their beloved pets will be spared her unethical and illegal extortion, you pay or no pet and raising the agreed upon bill hundreds as the owner arrives to pick up their pet. Read Yelp, FB and Next DoorNeighbor with a kleenex to corroborate this.

Mitzi Morin, RN (ret.), San Pedro

Mitzi Morin,

You can file a complaint with the agencies listed below:

Department of Consumer 

Affairs, Consumer Information Center

1625 North Market Blvd., 

Suite N 112

Sacramento, CA 95834

For additional assistance, call the Consumer Information Center: 800-952-5210. mail a complaint form to the address above and copy the  complaint with the Veterinary Medical Board

Filing a complaint with a state agency can be intimidating. However, the Veterinary Medical Board cannot take action without input from the public regarding activities that may cause actual harm or create a potential for harm to animal patients. We encourage you to submit your complaint online through the board’s BreEZe online complaint system. Any questions regarding the complaint process can be directed to the board at (916) 515-5220. Please make sure to provide documentation with your complaint.

James Preston Allen, Publisher

Attacking the Messengers

Linda Alexander and Lou Caravella certainly have it out for you. I totally agree with your position regarding Lou. I think Central [San Pedro Neighborhood Council] should try to get him removed. I’m not familiar with the content of the article that Alexander calls you out. 

What about Gene Seroka’s bully pulpit? The general public can’t ever engage with him and his outright lies of the facts as well as his subordinates. The NC port committee reps are too busy sucking up. Just last week I could not believe how a couple of Coastal’s board members just sucked up to Mike Galvin with his presentation of the port’s future plans. 

Yes, we should be polite, but there should be no sucking up to an agency that ignores the community. And the neighborhood councils rather suck up to the port than stand up for the rights of the community.

It is a sad state of affairs. Thanks for your holding the line.

James Campeau, San Pedro

Hateful Hillbillies

“In the wake of Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat…many people who spout QAnon’s false claims have hatched a new plan: run for school board or local office, spread the gospel of Q, but don’t call it QAnon.”  

—  NBC News’ Ben Collins (July 7, 2021)

You may ask yourself, why would a group of hateful homicidal hillbillies like these crazy QAnon crackpots waste their time on local school boards, when these white supremacist whack jobs can better display their disgusting delusions by running for Congress instead?

Skip running for the local school board, conservative cross-burning anti-Semites, and run for Congress as your fascist fuhrer Orange Hitler commands! (Traitor Trump now reportedly wants to become Speaker of the House, since Putin’s puppet Trump would of course be a sure loser again attempting to take on the popular President Biden in 2024.)

Kool-Aid drinking QAnon cult members are dumb-as-dirt dysfunctional dolts, no doubt, but even with a borderline IQ of 73 like dimwitted Donald Trump, Y’all Qaeda should be woke enough by now to realize following the foolish, pathetic political paths of Marjorie Traitor Greene and Matt “The Molester” Gaetz is pure folly from which the Rapepublican Party will never recover.

Jake Pickering, Arcata, Calif.

You Omitted My Signature Text

Your outlet published a letter I recently sent to you and your staff, forwarded below.

Your published version of my letter omitted the opinions-my-own statement from my signature text. Your publisher then responded to his own inaccurately published letter, attacking me for attributing opinions to others.

Lou Caravella, San Pedro

Mr. Carvella,

The point of my last response (with or without your disclaimer) is that you are proscribed in the bylaws from opining with the title of “president” as it makes you appear to be speaking for the entire council, which you are not in this instance. The cure is to take the title off of your petty vitriol when attacking others.

James Preston Allen, Publisher