Letters to the Editor

School district wrong on color ban

Editor: I am a mother of a sixth-grade boy at Sonoma Charter School and a very involved parent, as I was at Prestwood when he attended K-3. While I am very aware of the gang problem in Sonoma and know that something needs to be done to stop the gangs in our schools, the color ban is not the way to go.
I cannot believe that the school board would ban red and blue from the junior high schools and high school in Sonoma. Yes, these are the colors worn by gangs, but they are also colors in our nation’s flag and are in almost every single college logo and sports team in the country!  I am furious that the school board is letting the gangs win by taking these colors away from everyone else!  My son’s favorite color is blue, so with the ban, he will be wearing his blue clothes around Sonoma and everyone is to assume he is a gang member? My son also plays for the “Reds” baseball team at Sonoma Valley Little League and wears his hat proudly because he loves his team, does this again mean that my son is a target because no one at Adele Harrison, Altimira and the high school are allowed these colors? Did you know that the hats that every boy and girl are given when they attend Fall Ball baseball are blue with the word “Sonoma’’ written across the front? Are the kids not allowed to wear these hats given out to them by their league?
When will this end, when you have taken away every color after the gangs start wearing white and black or orange and green? Will Sonoma Valley High School change their green and black when the gangs decide to make those their new colors?
The school district needs to reconsider this ridiculous ban that feeds into making these colors special to the gangs. The real issue here is the gang activity and it is not being addressed with the “color ban.” We need to stop the violence  – not the colors our children wear to school.
Samantha Chapin
Sonoma Charter School Parent
Sonoma

Editor: I was disappointed that Mayor Sanders didn’t recuse herself in the decision on the election, given that there was an obvious conflict of interest. Worse yet: that one has to look to a city staff member (Mr. Curry in this case,) for guidance on such an apparent conflict of interest is amazing! This grade of ethics of finding someone who will agree with your level of ethics and use them as corroboration for not recusing yourself is a poor example of leadership. Unfortunately, this dismal state of ethics is rampant in the world in which we live, and our children are paying attention and learning from it! I know children who would be able to school Ms. Sanders on what the right thing to do would have been.
The lessons our populace and our children are learning from government officials, corporate executives, and other leaders who have lost their ethical compasses are all around us. Though individuals are responsible for their choices, they also learn from their leaders. They learn what is acceptable as presidents lie people into war, corporate criminals are pardoned thanks to connections, etc. Locally, we see the trickle-down effect in the form of gang murders, vandalism, stolen chickens, etc. We must begin calling all leaders on poor ethical choices, or we can expect more of the same!
Leslie Sheridan
Sonoma

Editor: Quite suddenly, John McCain and his party have become sympathetic to women, and especially to Hillary Clinton, whom they had previously hated with a white heat. Now, in fact, they want somebody just like her, only younger and prettier and less experienced and less presidential and from far away. Somebody like the two-year governor of Alaska.
I was in Starbucks when I heard the news. A man in his sixties asked, “Is she pretty?” When told she was once a beauty queen, he said, “She’s got my vote.” Even after the woman’s lack of qualifications for the job of vice president and possibly President was discussed, he said, “She still has my vote.”
I’d hoped he was kidding, but I wondered, how many more Americans are looking for any self-justifying excuse for not voting for the one man who might actually have it in him to end this eight-year national nightmare.
Darryl Ponicsan
Sonoma
Dems support mobile home ordinance

Editor: The Sonoma Valley Democratic Club Executive Board (SVDC) has voted unanimously to support the proposed ordinance enacting a new Chapter 9.84 of the Sonoma Municipal code regarding conversion of mobile home parks to resident ownership. This matter is on the City Council agenda at its first meeting in September.
We urge the Council to pass this measure into law. Further, we call upon Sonoma citizens to review the proposal and offer their support too.
SVDC supports the new Chapter 9.84 in order to provide more affordable housing within our community. As we understand the measure, it will bring the existing Sonoma City Ordinance into line with recently passed state legislation.
Further, it is our understanding that whenever these changes have been proposed in other California cities they have been adopted into law. We ask the Council to add the City of Sonoma to the list of cities in support of affordable housing for our senior citizens.
Tom Martin, President
Sonoma Valley Democratic Club