Let the Public Speak

By Contributed Content

PUBLISHED: August 16, 2010 at 1:00 AM PDT

Ignoring the lessons

EDITOR: Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, President Barack Obama's point-man for the Gulf oil spill, says that it would be unacceptable if we do not learn a great deal from this crisis. Meanwhile, lobbyists for the nuclear industry are adding provisions to energy/climate bills, such as the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act, that undermine the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing of new reactors in ways dangerously similar to how the petroleum industry undermined the licensing of new oil rigs, something widely credited with paving the way for the BP spill.

Meanwhile, tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer-financed loan guarantees are being procured by the nuclear industry to build new reactors, with loan details withheld from public scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Energy through its noncompliance with Freedom of Information Act requests from watchdog groups such as the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

So which is it? Do we take a lesson from the BP disaster that the consequences to human health, the environment and the American taxpayer of deregulation in the energy industries are unacceptable? Or do we continue moving forward in new reactor licensing in the same way we did in new oil rig licensing?

LINDA SEXAUER

Petaluma

Time for a cure

EDITOR: The big card companies have scored again. I couldn't believe my eyes when I was looking for a greeting card and noticed not one, but five cards for people with cancer. It seems to me that card companies would not print a new line unless they felt public demand was there.

What is the cause or causes of this dreaded disease? Is it he polluted air we breathe, the food we eat, the high-tech equipment throughout the world? What is all this cancer about? Think of all of the people who have the surgeries, the chemotherapy, radiation and long periods of suffering.

Watching my daughter go through two surgeries, six chemo treatments, nausea, loss of appetite and weight and weakness was heartbreaking to say the least. It's time for a cure.

BARBARA BERTOLI

Santa Rosa

Vicious thinking

EDITOR: I was horrified by Los Angeles Times columnist Gregory Rodriguez's op-ed on the elimination of affirmation action ("The time has come to eliminate affirmative action programs," Aug. 5).

I quote:

"To avoid a destructive white backlash in the face of a rapidly diversifying society, the president should call for an end of affirmative action …" In other words: Go back to Jim Crow, when whites felt safe and people of color didn't.

He continues: "Because minorities were fast approaching 50 percent of the population and whites felt that the playing field had tilted against them." By what arithmetic is 50 percent strong enough to tilt anything? A 50/50 division is perfect balance.

He concludes, "As whites in more states become the minority, they will seek to protect what they perceive to be their self interest." Thus the answer to racial discrimination in the U.S. is to allow those angry people any means available to protect their privilege. Who cares about people of color?

I'm glad for Rodriguez's column. It shows how far backward our country has gone, how vicious our thinking has become. This must be a (figurative) call to arms for thinking people for a continuing open, convivial dialog on race.

MARYLOU SHIRA HADDITT

Sebastopol

Pot farming

EDITOR: I can remember when the logging industry was the major force in Northern California. It employed thousands of people, paid taxes that paved our roads and built schools and aided in the prevention of forest fires. It was an honest profession.

Now our politicians want to start a new industry. They want us to back an industry that is ingrained into the gangs and will make California just like the drug cartels in South America. The marijuana industry has ruined lives, families and careers.

Marijuana farmers are outlaws who have taken our forests and destroyed them and threatened and even killed people who stumbled on to these illegal pot farms.

Why did we turn our backs on the folks who made this state and crawl into bed with a group that has proven that it will go to any length to earn its blood money?

Just to counter the argument, no, it is not a cure for any health issues. It is just as bad if not worse than tobacco.

DALE HEIZER

Cobb

Special Olympians

EDITOR: As caregivers to a special-needs nephew who benefits from Special Olympics, we want to offer kudos to Ursuline and Cardinal Newman high schools for their generosity in donating fields, gyms and time to Special Olympic participants. As parents of an Ursuline graduate, we know this is not because of deep pockets; quite the contrary. It is because of a value system that is deeply ingrained. It is about equal opportunity for all individuals. It is about humanity at its best.

JOE and ANNIE McNEANY

Santa Rosa

SMART paychecks

EDITOR: You have to hand it to the people at SMART. They are years away from having an actual train, but there are lots of staffers earning six-figure incomes with over-the-top benefits ("Staff costs for agency $2 million a year," Aug. 8). This may be SMART for them but for taxpayers, not so much. That's why I think we need a new acronym. I'm proposing SCAMMERS. Sonoma County and Marin Medical and Early Retirement Swindle.

Doesn't it just roll off the tongue?

DON JONES

Santa Rosa

Gun rights

EDITOR: Our state is pushing to remove another right from us: our open-carry right. The push is very short-sighted. You see, if you disallow the ability to carry a weapon openly, as per the Second Amendment, you must allow us to still bear arms. So that means you must allow and issue concealed-weapon permits in this county and every other county in this state. Many other counties have already been changing to "shall issue" vs. the "may issue" we deal with because they see that the people of this country deserve our rights.

SHAUN BOOTSMA

Petaluma

Sleeping easier

EDITOR: I have been able to sleep easier these past few weeks with the special Rohnert Park City Council hearing behind us. Why? Because the Wal-Mart hearing proved to me that Rohnert Park politicians do defend the interests of their constituents.

My wife and I may live in Santa Rosa, but we do 90 percent of our shopping in Rohnert Park.

In this economy, new business is hard to come by and jobs are even less likely to land in your lap. Thanks to the City Council, Rohnert Park will enjoy more tax revenue, and the unemployed will be given a chance to work — 85 new chances to be exact.

Also thanks to the City Council, we have multiple options of where to shop, where to find a job and where to expand business.

As for all the fuss about Pacific Market, their shoppers will only need to continue to shop there to keep it going, and its management has years to prepare before the expanded Wal-Mart opens.

LEW CIRILLO

Santa Rosa