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Letters to the Editor for Sept. 18
| Sunday, Sep 17 2006 11:24 PM
Last Updated: Sunday, Sep 17 2006 11:24 PM
No vote for Parra
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Assemblywoman Nicole Parra peddled her votes to get other Assembly members to vote against SB 999. This progressive bill would have made our local air district board more responsive to the health needs of valley residents and less beholden to polluting industries.
It would have done this by adding members from more valley towns and by adding a couple of health and science experts. This would have served to balance out the present board, composed mostly of various county supervisors who know nothing about cleaning our air, except to make it painless for their most important donors.
Despite recent claims to the contrary, our air is not getting better. Ozone violations are on the rise. Nothing is more important than cleaning our air if we are to have a valley that is economically prosperous and healthy.
For the first time in my life I will be voting happily for a non-Democrat. Goodbye, Nicole.
-- TOM FRANTZ, Shafter
Win drug war
What happened to the “war on drugs?” It was a major topic of discussion for years. But lately we’re not hearing anything about the “war on dugs.”
Did we win or lose or is that war still going on endlessly?
Apparently, the latest fad is the “war on terror.” One commonality with the two wars is that they cannot be won. We can’t win, but we can’t give up. We have to continue the fight until human nature changes, if ever.
But think about this: there are far more Americans killed every day by, for and because of drugs than by terror. Shouldn’t we be concentrating our efforts on the “war on drugs?”
-- WILLIAM B. RADER, Bakersfield
Great president
George W. Bush is the greatest president of my lifetime. He showed us again on 9/11 that he is a courageous and principled leader in a world of blind guides. I admire a man that will walk the talk.
It amazes me that Americans cannot comprehend that we are at war with Islamic fundamentalists. How quickly we forget that we have been under attack from these murderous zealots since the Carter administration. I will believe that Islam is a religion of peace when the imams preach that it is just as evil to kill a Jew or Christian as it is to kill a Muslim.
It shocks me that people are naive enough to think that their war with America would have gone away if we had not liberated Iraq. I don’t question the patriotism of those who can’t connect the dots between terrorism and a terrorist nation. I question their intelligence.
It might distract us from our self-absorbed lives, but 9/11 is our generation’s Pearl Harbor. To talk about 9/11 in hushed tones is not a solution.
“Land of the free and home of the brave?” Certainly not the majority.
-- ROGER C. ALLRED, Bakersfield
Have decency
Well, columnist Marylee Shrider finally got to me with her diatribe against Senate Bill 1441. She claims it attempts to legislate morality. It does not. It attempts to legislate a degree of mind-your-own-business compassion which ought to be present in decent human beings.
It’s too bad that the social fabric is so riddled with hate and exclusionism that such legislation is needed, simply to try to guarantee that those among us who are not precisely like everyone else are not discriminated against, using tax dollars.
If you want to call people names and spit in their direction, do it on your own time and your own dime.
-- BEVERLY STONE, Bakersfield
Bring in horses
Bakersfield is spending a lot of money on some really nice activity projects, but are limiting those activities to only joggers and bicyclists. We need to expand our horizons and include horse-drawn carriages on these river/canal side trails.
Horses are a very natural and original way to travel. What better environmentally friendly, fuel conscious statement for the city to make. And about the mess? No problem. These carriage horses can wear “bunbags” that catches everything.
Bakersfield is growing. Let her grow intelligently.
It would have been nice to include these on the river projects as well. Think of the relaxing, one-on-one small business meeting, sitting in the back of a nice surrey (two seater), taking a short relaxing ride along the river on Truxtun or behind the businesses on Stockdale Highway. Or the company luncheon ride on a 20-person people mover, etc.
Use your imagination and creativity, Bakersfield.
-- MARYANN RONK, Bakersfield
Serve majority
Assemblywoman Nicole Parra says that voting for Gil Cedillo’s bill to allow illegal immigrants to obtain California drivers licenses will have no effect on her re-election. She contends that the people of the Central Valley support her position.
I, for one, do not support this bill. This is the eighth time Cedillo has tried to push similar bills through. They have all been defeated. That doesn’t sound like support to me. It appears these “public servants” are only interested in serving a select few and not the majority which has repeatedly rejected their attempts.
Trust me, any politician who supports this bill will not get my vote. It is time the politicians started working for the majority and not for a few special interests.
-- JIM HERSH, Bakersfield