Letters to the Editor

A new way to donate

Editor: Donors Choose is a Web site on which teachers can submit proposals for materials or projects they want for their classrooms. Potential donors can search the proposals and fully or partially fund them.
Teachers at Flowery currently have six proposals posted on Donors Choose. If you or someone (or some business) you know might like to help fund one of these proposals, please check out the website at www.donorschoose.org. Choose the search option and enter Flowery School. You can choose one or more proposals to fund or forward a proposal to a friend, relative, employer or business that needs a tax deduction.
Hannah Aclufi
Sonoma

A new hospital

Editor: January will mark our community’s eighth anniversary of new hospital planning, debating, disputing, positioning, criticizing and considering whether, what, how and where to build a new hospital. Most of us who have been actively involved have had our time in the sun and in the mud. Both volunteers, and there have been many, and board members have been accused of acting without adequate public outreach or an ear to minority voices. Processes and decisions, alike, have been subjected to vocal criticisms by active participants, those on the sidelines and the press.
It would be easy for members of the community and press to again assert that the process was flawed and the press for the need to re-assess what can and should be done. Doing so, however, would have many consequences, but none more obvious and devastating than the $1+ million increase in costs for every month of delay.
With the same effort, we can, instead, focus on designing a new hospital and supporting facilities that will meet as many community needs as can be realistically funded by the taxpayers and benefactors of our Valley or investors. When the dust settles on this complex and important issue, our community will get what it deserves and what we deserve will be determined by our collective behaviors from this point forward.
A site has been chosen, land option purchase agreements have been signed and it is time for the architects, engineers, designers, investment bankers and District staff to carry the ball while giving the community complete game coverage and the right to call for timely review of key decisions made on the field.
Gary Nelson
Sonoma

The crèche a religious symbol, Santa Claus not

Editor: It is disappointing to read of the City Council’s thinking regarding the crèche on the Plaza. Not only because of a separation of church and state issue, although that is valid, but also because there are citizens who don’t subscribe to Christianity and who may be made uncomfortable by the presence of a Nativity Scene and the message it sends to visitors and residents.
It is unfair to consider a policy of allowing a religious symbol such as the crèche on city property even if other religions have an opportunity for holiday displays. Christianity is particularly tied into symbolism. Representations of the Nativity, the Twelve Stations, the Crucifixion and so on, are more than symbols. They themselves are objects of adoration and prayer. No other religion has this level of physical symbolism. A cross may be compared to the Star of David, but there is no equivalent to a tableau such as the crèche. By its very nature it is inclusionary to some and exclusionary to others and, hopefully, not the sort of community values we have here in Sonoma.
The argument that we already have religious symbols such as Santa Claus or the Christmas tree doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Santa Claus and the tree are not religious symbols, at least not as practiced in America today. With time they have become associated with Christmas, but they are not of Christmas. Neither are parts of Christian dogma. A cross is a religious symbol, a menorah is a religious symbol, Santa Claus is not.
It is sad to think that a final decision may be made on the basis of what is legal or will withstand a court challenge, rather than what is good and right for the community.
Tim Wetzel
Sonoma

Promoting faith of public property?

Editor: Some recent letters favoring a crèche in the plaza think it is a benign symbol, or even a beneficial one: “It will just be a symbol of our rights as citizens of the free world” and “sacred symbols in the Plaza in a traditional season would lift all our spirits” and “We can do it in a way that brings people together.” I wish this were so, but another letter makes it clear why a crèche is so divisive: “[it] makes an official statement that this is a Christian community,” and “Christians believe that atheists are morally bankrupt.”
I am sure that not all Christians think a crèche certifies this as a Christian community, and I know many who accept that atheists and other non-Christians can have the highest morals and civic responsibility. But the fact that some want the crèche for the sake of promoting their faith is what is so offensive.
The statement that should be made by our city, and which is best made by having an absence of any religious symbols, is that our citizens respect each other, affirm the dignity of every person, and yes, even love each other regardless of our beliefs. Furthermore, that we honor the concept of governmental neutrality in matters of faith.
The crèche is a Christian symbol depicting the virgin birth of Jesus. Its presence on city property gives a message that is divisive and mean spirited, a sad sentiment during the holiday season.
Steve Bakalyar
Sonoma

Manger danger for the plaza

Editor:?Does the crèche issue mimic the cicada’s 17-year cycle of a nymph waiting to molt into an adult while living underground for 17 years, and then emerging as good mole food or perchance fodder for August Sebastiani’s fond memories? True, the cyclic rhythm of the song emitting insects may be symbolic of rebirth or possibly reincarnation. Or, perhaps they are just good luck charms.
Nevertheless, councilman Sebastiani has many ways to assuage his craving for the Sonoma crèche scene of 17 years ago. He can have a nativity scene at his home, at his church, at other willing homes or churches, in his vineyards, or he can even make an all- weather, holographic one in front of his family’s beautiful winery.
Consequently, there is no reason to subject all of Sonoma to his desire to call back yesterday and cause the prior cicadas to infest our body politic with divisive wishes and costly litigation. If he has it, I would even support August’s desire to have a crèche scene placed in downtown Baghdad to promote religious tolerance and peace in a place sorely lacking in such sentimentality. As for the crèche issue, it can go underground now for another well deserved 17 years of rest.
Michael F. Heiman
Sonoma

Stop putting taxes on homeowners

Editor: Enough is enough! Now, Sonoma Valley schools want to get in on the parcel tax business! Why do these people feel that only homeowners are required to provide funding?
The ballot recently received tends to mislead homeowners by stating that the funds will not be used for salaries and yet, the brochure which arrived recently states that the funding is needed to recruit and retain teachers – same thing folks!
Homeowners can no longer finance hospitals and schools, leaving non-homeowners to reap the rewards. Discrimination by eliminating non-homeowners is not worthy of qualified administrators. A better choice would be to impose a tax on every parent of a public school student or by imposing a tax on the many high-income individuals residing throughout Sonoma Valley.
Lotteries and casinos are providing millions of dollars to California schools. Why are these funds not made public? Vote NO on this proposed parcel tax.
Linda McGarr
Sonoma

Second round of applause for community help

Editor: Hear hear to the power of the press and the popularity of Kathleen Hill’s columns! Within one day of the publication of her item about the loss of our freezer, Meals-on-Wheels received $400 in donations, day two brought $600, and so it went. After one week MOW had received $2,600, and the amount continues to climb. So, we now have a new energy-efficient freezer and the money to refill it. Thanks to what we think is the most generous community in the world.
Susan Weeks
Sue Holman
Co-Directors
Meals-on-Wheels of Sonoma

Vandalism ruins school garden

Editor: We are writing this letter as a class to say how we feel about the vandalism that happened to our school garden the night of Sunday, October 14th.? We care a lot about our garden and are very unhappy with the people who did this.? We are sad because they destroyed nature and the habitat of animals and insects.? Another thing that we are upset about is that several people raised money to buy these materials and now we have to do it all over again.? They destroyed all of the gourds and broke a window of the greenhouse. For no reason they threw all of the seedlings, the soil, and many new plants on the ground.? This was work that we did!??
All the work that we did they destroyed for no reason.?? We feel like these people do not respect our school or our garden.? Why would someone do something so terrible to something so beautiful??? They didn’t even steal anything.? It was like they just did it for fun.? To make it even worse, they left all their garbage on the ground.
We need help from our community to rebuild our school garden.? We don’t want to see things like this happening in our city.? How can Sonoma solve this problem so that it doesn’t happen again?? This affected not just our class, it affected the whole school.?
If anybody has any information regarding this vandalism please contact the sheriff at 707.565.2121 or call Flowery School at 707.935.6060. Thank you very much for your help.
Third Grade Class
Room 4.6
Flowery School, Sonoma