A warm welcome for new superintendent

Along with many others, I want to add my voice to those welcoming CUSD superintendent Greg Blake to his important new role (Education, July 12). Although predecessor Kelly Staley will be a difficult act to follow, I am sure that she would be the first to acknowledge that some ongoing challenges persist.

Greg could include in his summer preparations a review of recent California assessments of student performance and progress, noting the continuing local declines in the percentages of our students who test at grade level in essential reading and math skills. He might also read “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathon Haidt, a book that has caught the attention of Chico parents and educators who are concerned about the impact, especially since 2013, of digital technology on our children’s levels of distractibility, shortened attention spans, and emotional health.

While our schools are not responsible for the social and technological changes that have made basic education more difficult, they will continue to have the primary responsibility of countering and reversing these downward trends. Greg and his team, to include the Board of Trustees and the employee unions as well, will need to be creative and innovative, leaving no assumption unchallenged. It might also make sense to inventory all the many things that schools are trying to do, with a “first things first” approach to priorities and plans.

Finally, I encourage Greg to reach out to our many community organizations, who stand ready to assist and support his efforts.

— Carl Ochsner, Chico

A call to make America compassion again

This is not going to be a typical letter from me, but I want to share what thoughts have come to mind following the recently signed One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

I will be losing all food assistance money from the SNAP Program. After July 2026, I may also lose some of the health care I’ve been able to access — including dental care. This bill will affect my life in a negative way, perhaps even in a significantly negative way.

And yet, the unusual thing I want to say is this: No one ever owed any of this to me. These programs have always existed because of the kindness, generosity, and compassion of fellow Americans. I choose not to be angry if that generosity is reduced or even disappears.

Food, clothing, shelter, medical care — these are not guaranteed rights, but blessings. I have always tried to see them as privileges, and I still do. At the same time, a nation is like a tree: it can only thrive when all its parts, even its smallest cells, are healthy and cared for.

I hope I live in a country and among a people who aspire to make America kind again, generous again, and compassionate again. That is the kind of America that can inspire the world and bring tears to our eyes when we raise our flag or hear our anthem.

— Brian Anthony Kraemer, Chico

Observations on roads getting the attention

The sidewalks on Bruce Road … all the streets up in California Park … really?

— Frances Perata, Chico

Grieving the loss of a (very) loved one

In many relationships, a dynamic exists whereby couples do not form ties based on mutual respect. This type of connection frequently results in situations where the parties argue, fight, mistrust, hold grudges, cheat, and otherwise act in a manner that sabotages the relationship and makes it less than whole.

Honest, loving relationships are based on equality, mutual trust, and a willingness to work together to solve problems in the interest of achieving a strong bond. Many couples in our culture enjoy this type of rapport, yet many more, by their own doing, suffer the kind of incomplete relationship noted in the first paragraph.

Participants in genuine loving relationships find a deep bond that endures and grows over time. These couples create mutual intimacy based on being the best of friends. They make decisions together, compromising if necessary. They sometimes differ, yet respect each other’s right to disagree. The pair becomes a whole entity greater than that of two separate individuals; together, they become one, which is often held up as the ideal for marriage.

When death intervenes to bring such relationships to an end, the remaining partner will be left with a crushing sense of loss. However, that partner may also gain an understanding that their grief is the result of the couple’s profound love. Their heartbreaking loss affirms they have known a degree of mutual devotion many humans will never experience.

I held her hand as she slipped away; I grieve, I grieve.

— Michael Herman, Chico

Mazed and confused by engineering plan

I learned to read because of Superman comics. A spin off of that virtual two dimensional world was Bizarro World on the planet Htrae (Earth spelled backwards). Everything in Bizarro was backwards. Out of that Bizarro World, I am convinced, came “maze gates.” (You know — those metal obstacles across our public pedestrian and bicycle paths.)

I have hated maze gates (or, as known in Bizarro World, “etag ezams”) before hating maze gates became popular! Now even the National Association of City Transportation Officials officially says, “do not use maze gates” (https://nacto.org/).

Yet, buried in their proposed revision of the engineering parts of the Chico Municipal Code, the city proposes to ditch the current standard for “bicycle barrier posts” (bollards) and substitute a new standard for “bicycle path gates” that sure look like maze gates to me.

Whatever you call them, maze gates are a hazard and no friend to families, disabled folks, joggers, kids and old people on bikes, families with bikes, trikes, one-wheels, skateboards, mobility devices, cargo bikes. They are injury and liability hazards. Yes, let’s ditch rigid bollards, but let’s not make things worse by substituting maze gates. I was thinking — a nice arch over the path to be passed through, or colorful artistic flags messaging welcoming and caution.

Our city has done a great job in many places. I am amazed at how nice the new bikeway along the Esplanade is (3rd Avenue excepted), and travel it a lot. But please stop installing maze gates!

— Richard Roth, Chico

A reminder of our true seat of power

I was reminded recently that, in 1791, when Major Pierre L’Enfant was commissioned by George Washington to design the new nation’s capital city, he established “The Congress House” as the center of the city, on a hill, the place from which all main city boulevards radiated. Befitting its role as the centerpiece of our nation’s government, it stood above “The President’s House” and all other government buildings. L’Enfant understood, as did Washington, that Congress — not the President, not the Court, but Congress — was the seat of power and authority in our nation.

Sadly, that notion of Congressional supremacy has been self-diminished over the past half-century, until today, the Congress is reduced to nothing more than another department in the Executive branch. Our own Congressional Representative is living testimony to this emasculation, parroting the talking points of the Executive and choosing to ignore significant numbers of his constituents.

In the Constitution, in Article 1, our nation’s founders named Congress first — before the President and before the Court — establishing Congress as the first among equals. It’s time, past time really, for the Congress, including Rep. LaMalfa, to engage with all of its constituents, to assert its independence, and to reclaim its authority and power, in keeping with Congress’s symbolic elevated and central location in our nation’s capital. To do otherwise is a dereliction of duty and a shirking of obligation.

— Ron Hansen, Chico