In response to A Shock for TTUSD School Sports published online May 23
Not about Choice but Compliance
I’m so confused. I thought it wasn’t a choice but a situation where the board has to comply with California law because it was the Nevada league that changed the rules? Can someone please clarify if this isn’t the case. It seems like many people in the community think it’s a political choice, but isn’t it such that it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with compliance with the law? Is there a choice? What would the consequences be if TTUSD were to not comply? Would TTUSD possibly lose state funding? I just feel like maybe we need to take a deep breath and listen and learn before we jump to drastic judgements, fears, and accusations.
~ Emily Rademacher, Truckee, via Facebook
Armchair Commentators
I watched the board meeting. It does seem like a logistical nightmare, but the number of armchair doctors and wannabe fringe podcast hosts that tried to make arguments about gender assignments and surgeries and the Constitution was mind-numbing. At least have your argument based in reality, people.
~ Craig Rowe, Truckee, via Instagram
No Easy Decisions
Many of us who support the rights of trans people can see the problem with trans females participating in women’s sports. The problem is the right of cis females to fair competition. There are no easy decisions when rights conflict. As it is, this issue has gotten far more attention than numbers warrant because reactionary politicians see that it is an issue where a lot of independents and liberals agree with them. But it is the wrong hill to die on.
~ Jack Kashtan, Donner Lake, via email
In response to Communion by a Creek and Hounding the Issue: Bears, Dogs and a Divided State in the May print edition
Tired of Liberal Guilt that is Moonshine
A mother finds a way to blame herself for getting kicked in the gut by her child? Yep, this tracks for Moonshine, right in line with all the other madness that is marketed as “thoughtful journalism.” Sometimes kids need their ass popped. Hunting bears with dogs during bear hunting season — bad. Hunting bears without dogs during bear hunting season — keep it going. Where do you find these people? And if hunting bears in the Basin is illegal as the article states and Ann Bryant and the Bear League are mainly concerned with saving Tahoe bears, then who the hell cares what Bryant has to say about it, anyways? Her bears are protected. What’s more interesting is why I cannot open any of the financial links to previous tax years on the Bear League’s website. I wonder what Bryant pays herself to be such an expert? Every opinion piece in this paper since Trump got elected is anti-Trump rhetoric. Is anyone else getting tired of the white, liberal guilt trip that is opening every paper in the Tahoe/Truckee area? I can think of at least two readers mentioned in this edition. You say disagreement is healthy, here ya go. Post this.
~ Thomas Parris, Truckee, via email
In response to Don’t Cancel the Conversation in the May print edition
We Need to Learn to Disagree Better
I really appreciated your recent message, and I hope it encourages our community members to value, as you say, “diversity of ideas, perspectives, and yes, disagreement.” I recently read a book that speaks effectively to this very issue: Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt by Arthur Brooks. Given our current politics, I can’t think of a timelier book than this one, or a book that could do more to quell the “culture of contempt” that infects our society. Brooks offers us a compelling strategy for the formation of our character in relation to others with whom we disagree politically. This is not a book of advice on how to avoid disagreement, a “can’t we all just forget our differences and get along” lament. Quite the contrary. Brooks believes that disagreement is good and necessary for the health of our culture. He offers us some guidelines about how to disagree with respect and love for others. He presents real life examples of what can be accomplished when people of strongly differing mindsets agree to civil discourse, to hear one another out, and respectfully reply with their own concerns. “Disagreeing better, not less, is what we need to lessen contempt in America and bring our country back together.”
~ Dale Chamblin, Tahoe Vista, via email
