Don’t blame Newman for speaking the truth Here’s cause for a (future) celebration

On Monday yet another letter condemned Chico Friends on the Street and its founder and tireless spokesman Patrick Newman for insisting that the very poor have rights as human beings and that the best-funded local charities do not serve them as well as they ought to do and once did.

I for one agree with Newman that shutting down the city’s only no-barrier soup kitchen, and evicting the homeless from public spaces in the dead of winter during a lethal pandemic, have been deeply shameful acts that need to be called out as such. The old Jesus Center was not the result of somebody’s bright idea and cooperative manner. It developed from the lucky combination of an empty, centrally located site, exceptional Christian humility, and a lot of time to grow when circumstances were not so dire. These cannot be replaced.

I will ignore the writer’s claim that the poor have been inspired by Newman’s letters to achieve even higher degrees of indigence, and ask instead

— Carl Peterson, Paradise

In case you missed it: Demand for oil peaked on the last day of winter 2021. That means every day from the creation of the internal combustion engine until now the demand for oil increased. Now every day demand for fossil oil will decrease. Fossil oil and the gasoline made from it will be used less and less until its demand and use will be small enough to stop and eventually reverse climate change. This is the best news for our environment since we recognized pollution was destroying it. Let’s plan a party celebrating our independence! (Post herd immunity, of course.)

— Richard Sparkle, Chico