Random Letters: 8-19-21

Appreciation For Judy Baca

I’m very touched in my heart and mind to read the article on Judy Baca “the Mexicana artist” of Los…. I met her at SPARC/Venice 13 meeting back when I was the Westminster Senior Citizens Director LA Recrecreation & Parks also at handball courts in Oakwood Recreation Center. She loved working with the homies & home girls at the RC, her love of barrio art was so cool and visionary — her murals tell stories from the corazon! Paz y amor

 Ricardo Pulido y fam, Environmentalist/Social Justice Advocate, Carson

Afghan Exit

I keep hearing the blame being put on Afghanistan’s armed forces for not standing up to the Taliban by President Joe Biden. Biden says things like the “Buck Stops Here” by Harry Truman and blames others for the airport catastrophe. Biden’s justification of pulling-out with words like, “the Afghanistan’s did not have the will to defend their country, why should we support them?”

Biden needs to go back to February 2020 in which Trump made a deal  with the Taliban that limited direct military actions against the insurgents.  That allowed the fighters to gather strength and move quickly to siege key areas when Biden announced his plans to withdraw all Americans forces by the end of August.

By the way, Biden when he took office did not have to follow this deal that Trump made.  It was just another bad foreign policy in which Trump made, as he was trying to make a deal with the devil.

I feel the reason the Afghanistan military did not fight the Taliban was because of the arrangement that Trump made and the Afghanistan soldiers were honoring that agreement.  Consequently, because of that deal there was poor morale, discipline and no leadership to fight the Taliban.   

Biden did not recognize the red flags and for months lawmakers and advocacy groups wanted the administration to accelerate its efforts to get those that served our military out of harms way. This message went to deaf ears as Biden did not listen to his advisors as to the capabilities of the Taliban.

Why didn’t Biden learn from the pull-out of Vietnam in 1975, as he said there would not be any helicopters flying on the roof-tops of the embassy to get people out.  We now see the opposite of what he is saying, as this is exactly like Saigon or worse, which was a very sad and ugly chapter in American history.

P.S.  I would appreciate it if you could address this issue in the Random Lengths newspaper.  

John Winkler, San Pedro

Braves Go Next

Hello Cleveland! Thanks for finally doing the right thing by grudgingly ditching your city’s Major League Baseball franchise name “The Indians” at the end of the 2021 MLB season.

Yes, the name “The Indians” was racist as all get-out, and Cleveland’s recently retired team logo “Chief Wahoo” was even more ridiculously reprehensible than the team’s soon-to-be former moniker.  But who doesn’t love the possibility of redemption for long-time losers and ultimate underdogs, like Cleveland itself.

If there is one thing that Cleveland’s MLB franchise has been consistent at since the era of World War II — back when all Americans could openly and unapologetically agree that “the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi” – it’s that Cleveland couldn’t win the World Series (except for 1948).  Maybe a new team name is just what Cleveland baseball needs.

Cleveland’s new MLB team name “The Guardians” will debut in 2022. Perhaps Atlanta will follow suit and drop their MLB franchise’s name “The Braves” before next season? “The Bandits” would be a much more appropriate choice for the city of Atlanta. (I’m pretty sure Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, and Jackie Gleason would all agree with that.)

East Bound and Down.

Jake Pickering, Arcata, Calif.