Letters to the Editor

Overwhelmed by community support

Editor: My husband, Donald Clement, and I, with newlyweds Paul Vieyra and Stanley Abercrombie, who have been together over forty years, and twenty or so wonderful friends, formed the “Just Married” contingent at the Fourth of July parade. For all of us, it was one of the most moving experiences we’ve known. The moment we set foot on the Plaza, a roar from the crowd burst forth and people began to clap and shout out their congratulations. Dozens, many of whom we didn’t even know, leapt to their feet and gave us hugs.
It was overwhelming, and I, along with others, cried the entire length of the parade. You see, I never dreamed I would be able to legally marry the man of my dreams, and never did I imagine my hometown would cheer me on as you did. Out of the thousands of people who showered us with love and support, all we saw of dissent were two people who turned their thumbs down.
It was a stunning example of community, and we are very proud to live where we do, given such heartwarming and loud, very LOUD, support. We are so grateful to each and every person who cheered us on. We would like to thank you in person by inviting you to come to the Community Center at 7:30p.m. on Tuesday, July 15 so we can do exactly that! Please join us.
What you have done is something very special.

Bob Powers
Sonoma
City Council: respect-free zone?

Editor: After watching the televised City Council meeting of 7/2/08 (SVTV 27), I went to bed with a blinding headache from the cliquishness, sarcasm, cutting remarks, and other distressing behaviors of many of our civic leaders. In response to one member’s proposed agenda item, another member read what he termed a “comedic” letter from a “constituent,” essentially characterizing the proposing councilmember as an out-of-touch codger and calling him a “buffoon.” In response to a member’s argument that allowing residents to raise animals for food would save transportation costs, another countered very respectfully that he is always able to buy locally, but the first member cut him off at the knees with a curt, “It’s nice that you can afford to do that … I have to buy what’s cheap.” The camera caught the victim’s look of apparent frustration.
In a discussion about potential time limits on council responses, the mayor alluded to one unnamed member who had once spoken for a half hour straight at a meeting. As it was not being used illustratively in support of speaker limits (which, in fact, the mayor was against), the story came across as a gratuitous dig. Another member used a discussion on one topic as an opportunity to complain bitterly about a vote that didn’t go his way many months ago. It became apparent that several members have formed a mutual admiration society, and that some members have nothing but contempt for several other members. Much of the four-hour meeting felt like an exercise in pettiness and one-upmanship.
I’m sure it is difficult to serve on the City Council, and I do appreciate those who are willing to step up and do the job. I would only ask that our mayor and council try a bit harder to treat one another – and one another’s ideas and proposals – with respect. Then they can be more than leaders – they can be role models.

Ann Clark
Sonoma

Everyone has talent

Editor: In reading the response of Julietta, in the July 3 “Sun on the Street” (What is the one talent or skill you don’t have but always wanted), I want her to know that EVERYONE has talent! I believe in you and your desire of being a nurse or doctor; I’m certain you’d be excellent.

Megan Clouse
Sonoma

Gone but not forgotten

Editor: We read the article about Emily’s Cottage and loved seeing Emily’s picture in the July 3 edition of the Sun. We owned Kay’s Fabrics for many years and she was one of our longtime customers who also became family to us. So it was wonderful to read of her success and her mention of our store in the article and to know that even though we’re gone, we’re not forgotten.

Al and Kay Adams
Sonoma
Too much garbage on the streets

Editor: Having recently visited South America, I was saddened when I found that people there just threw their garbage on the streets, in the canyons and historical parks. The attitude is that someone else can pick it up. Their rivers and public waterways are filled with plastic bags, bottles and dirty diapers.
When I was a kid, there was a commercial on television (Keep America Beautiful, 1974) that showed a native American, who looked like my own grandfather, crying because of the pollution.
I walk daily from Verano Avenue to Friedman’s and back. Every day I see the same thing, people tossing garbage, from high school kids to people in Mercedes and Volvos. I’ve even seen the police just look the other way when asked. So I’m asking, isn’t there a law against this? Why do people not care? Isn’t there dignity left in our country?
Could someone please explain how we went from such a proud nation to a bunch of people who don’t care? What happened to respect of others’ property and community caring?
Maybe this doesn’t mean much, but since when are we a third-world nation?

Peter Chrimson
Sonoma
WTC collapse
no mystery

Editor: People, people, please stop this asinine gibberish about a government conspiracy that supposedly brought down the WTC. Claims that there have been no proper investigation of the circumstances of this vile attack are big flat lies at best and speak more to the writers’ paranoia, their unwillingness to do their own proper homework, and/or their hatred for our current president. Start educating yourself by reading less from all the kook sites on the web and absorbing more from the thousands of people who did the heavy lifting during the many investigations that took place since. Start with this one:
“The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) conducted an extremely thorough three-year investigation into what caused the WTC towers to collapse, as explained in NIST’s dedicated Web site, http://wtc.nist.gov. This included consideration of a number of hypotheses for the collapses of the towers… Some 200 technical experts – including about 85 career NIST experts and 125 leading experts from the private sector and academia – reviewed tens of thousands of documents, interviewed more than 1,000 people, reviewed 7,000 segments of video footage and 7,000 photographs, analyzed 236 pieces of steel from the wreckage, performed laboratory tests and sophisticated computer simulations of the sequence of events that occurred from the moment the aircraft struck the towers until they began to collapse…”
Make sure you read all 43 volumes issued on October 2005 before you complain again about lack of transparency by the current administration, but if that’s too much work, go to their “Frequently asked questions” site which provides some answers for people with a shorter attention span: http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/factsheets/faqs_8_2006.htm. Then when you still haven’t exhausted your curiosity go to “WT7” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_World_Trade_Center and scroll down to “Collapse” and make sure you click open and read all the reference points imbedded in the text. If after that you still want to talk or write about a controlled demolition ordered by the evil war mongers in Washington, make an appointment with a head doctor first.
Another notion that keeps creeping into the conversation: “How come some stupid goat herder living in a cave could coordinate such a complicated multi-prong attack?” Well, serious journalists ought to know better than that by now: The man in the cave (a location most likely a myth, aggrandized by our famous Media with their fancy computer graphics) only financed the attack. The Chief Strategist, however, resides in the beloved Guantánamo pleasure compound today and he lived mostly in villas before his capture, traveled the world under 27 different aliases, even got himself a Mechanical Engineering degree at a U.S. University. He was never a devout Muslim but pretends to be one today as he faces the death penalty. This man was simply peeved – like millions of Arabs and Muslims around the world are – at the American people for our undeterred support of Israel. His name is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and you can read lots about this murderer at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_Shaikh_Mohammed. As his tactical commander for the 9/11 attack he selected Mohamed Atta, an Egyptian studying Urban Planning at a German Technical Institute in Hamburg, also traveling around under a multitude of aliases. To read more about him go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Atta.

Henry Ratz
Sonoma