One of the best kept secrets in our city of Antioch is that we have a professional theater company in Rivertown!  The four year old Hapgood Theatre Company’s latest show, a musical revue entitled, “Side by Side by Sondheim” opened last Friday evening at the Nick Rodriguez Theater. The show runs Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00pm and Sunday’s at 2:00pm through February 6^th.  For a bit more than the cost of going to a movie we can enjoy live theater in our own town.  No need to go ‘over the hill’ for an evening of quality entertainment! 

Whether or not you are familiar with the name Stephen Sondheim you’re probably familiar with many of his songs, and definitely with his lyrics.  For example, Sondheim wrote all the lyrics for the musical “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.” 

The four person extremely talented cast includes Kelly Ground, Juliet Heller, Stewart Lyle and Erez Shek and the production was directed by Jeremy Messmer.  You may purchase tickets online at www.HapgoodTheatre.org, at the box office before a performance or by calling 925-219-8545.

Next up, from March 4^th through March 20^th is “The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged).” This is an uproarious fast-paced 90 minute romp through the Bard’s plays!  It has been said that if you like Shakespeare you’ll like this show, if you HATE Shakespeare you’ll LOVE this show!

Bonni Bergstrom

Hapgood Theatre Board member

Antioch’s third annual celebration of Martin Luther King Day, held this year at the Deer Valley High School auditorium, gave pause for stock-taking Antioch’s report card of tolerance and embraced diversity.  If you are swayed by TV and San Francisco print dailies, aggressive outsider advocacy groups, and a cluster of criminally-investigated citizens turned civil litigants, Antioch could appear dismally failing. It’s habitually smeared as a bastion of bigotry.

The proof, though, is in the pudding. We might start by asking, who do the good citizens of Antioch choose to lead them?  Our former Mayor, Mary Rocha, is Latino, as were council members Manny Soliz and Ralph Hernandez.  Reggie Moore, who recently lost a reelection bid, was defeated by a fellow African-American, top vote getter Wade Harper.  On the school board side of the ledger, Wade Harper moved on and African American Teri Lynn Shaw was defeated.  Tellingly, our two comprehensive high schools have Latino Louie Rocha and African American Clarence Isadore at the helm.  Our former A.U.S.D. Superintendent, Deborah Sims, is African American.  Two recent Antioch Citizens of the Year, Gary Gilbert and Iris Archuleta are African American. My wife, Cynthia., a Filipino-American, won 2/3 of the Antioch vote on her way to County Board Trusteeship. Seems, then,  the bigot designation simply doesn’t reconcile with Antioch’s  track record.

The popular lyrics, “Who let the dogs out?” once brought grins. Now, it”s more likely to solicit my grimace. After my dog, Sebastian, was attacked twice in the last month those words take on a darker meaning.

These incidents come on the heels of an Antioch friend witnessing their beloved pet mauled to death in front of their home by a pit bull a few months back. Add some chilling statistics: Nationally, reported dog attacks doubled in the last fifteen years, topping one million people yearly. Over one third, one thousand people daily, end up in emergency wards; half of them with face bites.

An estimated 27,000 dogs live in Antioch. About 40% of all households own one or more dogs. Here’s the tale of two; more precisely, of two Masters. It’s fascinating what you learn about human character and psychology from reaction to their dog attacking.

Exhibit #1: My wife was finishing her morning walk when a large pit bull bounded out of an open door. It chased her and our pooch down the street, bloodying our lasha apso’s legs, who resembles the mop-haired Benji.

Sadly, nobody came out of their house or waiting car to help. When I rang the owner’s doorbell minutes later nobody answered. Allegedly, he was in the shower. Sadly, a handful of times previously the dog was either unleashed or had lunged at my wife, myself or neighbors from an inappropriately long leash tethered to a tree. Habitually, the owners took a cavalier attitude.

Hence, I called Animal Control. The dog was impounded that day. Being the first inflicted injury, the dog was released. I understand, though, that a fine and warnings were levied.

Exhibit #2. A couple of weeks later Sebastian was attacked around the block by a small but unrelenting Snauzer. It took the owner minutes to come out and corral the dog, who was unfazed by a score of my kicks. Sebastian was uninjured but in a state of shock for nearly an hour.

I returned to talk to the owners and was pleasantly surprised. They apologized profusely saying that they had spent hundreds on training with no issues until their dog, too, had been attacked twice in the last month. They offered to pay any vet bills. That night they came by asking about our dog’s condition and delivering a restaurant gift card and doggie toy.

Two distressing incidents; two markedly different owner reactions.

Lessons learned:

I now document any and all incidents with phone calls (779-6989) and letters to Animal Control, copy furnished the owners. Be part of the solution or Antioch will go to the dogs.

I’ve learned strategy. An approaching slow gait is friendly, a steady-on run signals trouble; head down o.k, level -headed approach not. Of course, never run, panic, move or scream violently. Stand still and don’t confront. Dogs take staring as a threat, a sideways posture as a calming signal.

If you are trying to separate dogs, your safety is preeminent. If water is nearby, douse them. Also, lifting hind legs or tails disorients them.

We now carry protection. Consider a putter, umbrella, or expandable billy club. Dogs will take appendages as your extension. Distance matters. Mace, dog or pepper spray deter. Learn their use. They make this stuff for bears, so it works.

If you are jumped on, painful as it seems, don’t tear yourself away. Pulling only causes greater damage. If you have outerwear use it to extend. If needed, offer a leg or arm. Protect the fingers and face by making fists and covering your head. If knocked down, curl up in a fetal position protecting the head. Motionless is best. God willing, the attacker should quickly lose interest.

If you fight back, realize that a general head blow will, invariably, further infuriate. Instead, strategically aim for the nose or base of neck. Remember, too, dogs don’t wrestle. Turning them over and compressing your weight will cause them discomfort, if not broken bones. This is no time to be soft-hearted.

In short, be knowledgeable and document.

The attack tips are unnerving but, hopefully, sharing them can, perhaps, save somebody serious injury.

My wish for you, though, is that you never need this advice because most of your neighborhood dogs have the temperment of Lassie. For those that don’t, may their owners have the sense to act accordingly.

Happy t(r)ails!

Walter Ruehlig

I want to thank everyone who voted in our last election. As a first-time candidate, I was impressed by the turnout. We all need to remember that voting is essential for our freedoms. Even if you didn’t support me with your vote, you supported our basic freedom to choose.

The school board has a task set before it that we all need to keep watch on. It is never enough to vote someone into office, but we must watch and question when those ideals we voted for are not put into practice.

Thank you, Antioch, for keeping freedom alive.

Jack Yeager

The signs of UC Berkeley’s relative decline are clear: Cal tumbles from 2nd best in the world. In 2004, for example, the London-based Times Higher Education ranked UC Berkeley the second leading research university in the world, just behind Harvard; in 2009 that ranking had tumbled to 39th place.

When UC Berkeley announced its elimination of baseball, men’s and women’s gymnastics, and women’s lacrosse teams and its defunding of the national-champion men’s rugby team, the chancellor sighed, “Sorry, but this was necessary!”

But was it? Yes, the university is in dire financial straits. Yet $3 million was somehow found to pay the Bain consulting firm to uncover waste and inefficiencies in UC Berkeley, despite the fact that a prominent East Coast university was doing the same thing without consultants.

Essentially, the process requires collecting and analyzing information from faculty and staff. Apparently, senior administrators at UC Berkeley believe that the faculty and staff of their world-class university lack the cognitive ability, integrity, and motivation to identify millions in savings. If consultants are necessary, the reason is clear: the chancellor, provost, and president have lost credibility with the people who provided the information to the consultants. Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau has reigned for eight years, during which time the inefficiencies proliferated. Even as Bain’s recommendations are implemented (“They told me to do it”, Birgeneau), credibility and trust problems remain.

Bain is interviewing faculty, staff, senior management and the academic senate leaders for $150 million in inefficiencies, most of which could have been found internally. One easy-to-identify problem, for example, was wasteful procurement practices such as failing to secure bulk discounts on printers. But Birgeneau apparently has no concept of savings: even in procuring a consulting firm, he failed to receive proposals from other firms.

Students, staff, faculty, and California legislators are the victims of his incompetence. Now that sports teams are feeling the pinch, perhaps the California Alumni Association, benefactors and donators, and the UC Board of Regents will demand to know why Birgeneau is raking in $500,000 a year despite the abdication of his responsibilities.

The author, who has 35 years’ consulting experience, has taught at University of California Berkeley, where he was able to observe the culture and the way the senior management operates.

Milan Moravec
Chief Executive Officer
Moravec and Associates
http://www.Moravecglobal.com

Walnut Creek PD Sgt Tom Cashion’s 5 year old daughter is fighting cancer. She has already had surgery at Kaiser and is now taking chemotherapy. She has been referred to Stanford Medical Center for follow up.

The out of pocket expenses for the family have reached crisis stages not to mention that they have 4 kids and only one income. We have put together an event to assist the family with those expenses. Could you please help us pass the word?

Also if you want to participate the family would greatly appreciate it. To purchase tickets or make a tax deductable donation please go to: http://www.ismcnorcal.com/ISMC/Events.html. Some businesses and POA’s are purchasing an entire 9 seat table for the event. We really need to sell this out, the family really needs our help.

Mike Schneider
mcschneider@comcast.net

Has political correctness run amok? Consider the secular battle cry over Yuletide expressions; ‘Christmas tree’ or ‘holiday tree’; robust ‘merry Christmas’ or neutered ‘happy holidays’? Folks are cussing, not kissing, under the mistletoe over nomenclature, caught in a wintry cultural war swirling around innocent holiday semantics.

Call this a tyranny of the minority as, tellingly, 84% of Americans are Christian and 96% celebrate Christmas. Mr. Retailer, freely call your trees whatever. That’s your merchandising right. It’s also my consumer right to take my business to a vendor unembarrassed by the word Christmas. Pointedly, what elitist would likely drag a pine to the top of their ivory tower? Heaven forbid, the act might interrupt their incessant whining and cause a dreaded momentary spell of light heartedness.

As for calling out happy holidays, Hannukah, Kwanza or Ramadan, be my guest; indulge me my ‘merry Christmas!’ I’m also continuing with ‘happy New Year.’ Following the Roman tradition isn’t affronting the Babylonian, Baha’i, Balinese, Chinese, Coptic, Islamic, Mayan, Persian or, for that matter, Sports Illustrated calendar. Graciously, then, spare the sanctimonious indignation. My cultural links, family roots, and even plain common sense, scream bah humbug! to toasting an emotionally productive, disease free, economically advantageous, environmentally conscious, gender, race, religion and ethnicity neutral passing of the winter solstice.

Amidst shrill secularism, we forget Harry Truman’s words to Pope Pius XII in 1947; “this is a Christian nation”. America was, in truth, founded on Biblical principles. The genesis of the Bill of Rights is found in the teachings inspired by Exodus, Saint Matthew, Isaaha and Saint Paul. The Ten Commandments still rest on the wall behind the sitting Supreme Court Justices. Our coins still display the motto, “In God we trust”. The President still swears his oath of office on a Bible. Congress is still convened with prayer.

Though nobody is imposing a public religion, that doesn’t exclude faith from our resplendent national tapestry.

Friends, appropriate parting sentiments from Charles Dickens ‘Christmas Carol’; “I don’t know what to do! cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath. I am as light as a feather. I am happy as an angel. I am as merry as a school boy. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world.”

Walter Ruehlig

I am amazed at the glaring differences between our city and the city five miles west. That city’s government and chamber of commerce is innovative and progressive.

The amount of events and activities for the citizens of Pittsburg is amazing, considering the current financial crises that we are experiencing. Subscribe to Pittsburg’s website and be enlightened.

Pittsburg manages using ideas, opportunities, significant citizen input (not ignored) and action to improve its environment.  The community is a bit smaller than Antioch but it is much more aggressive on improvements embracing change. If you attend a function in that city you will experience the impact of how they manage by asking any active citizen; and they are active. I applaud their Council and Chamber  for the work being done. Good job, we should all give them a hand!

The city of Antioch might think of working closer with Pittsburg’s management to discover how they make things happen while we remain stagnant and regressive. At least regressive in respect to city-sponsored, supportive events and our Chamber’s active campaigns to attract more business; example, the Wal-Mart expansion fiasco. Where is our management’s push for improvements?

I realize that our budget is not something that will not be simply solved overnight or perhaps for years. What I have not seen is any action to raise money other than a failed sales tax measure. We are now applying event charges on non-profits, which is a slap in their face since their events supplant city-sponsored withdrawals. From my perspective when funds are short we head backwards.

Why not increase events with reasonable cost for attendance, instead of taxing our citizens? That would be  giving our citizens something for their money and offer more community participation. Too much cost to manage? Ever think of volunteers or the Chamber of Commerce ? The folks to the west are good at that! 

Fred Hoskins