Keller clarification
Editor: Dr. Jeffery Low’s article on “Relating to life’s challenges” (03/27/09) was wholesome and pragmatic. For the more fatalistic folk among us, the mantra “It’s God’s Will” may be sufficient to transcend the blame game.
I found inspiration in the Helen Keller quote: “Life is a great adventure or nothing.” However, Ms. Keller was not as Dr. Low reports, born deaf and blind. She was about nineteen months old when she contracted a disease, possibly Scarlet fever, and became deaf and blind. The key point is she had some exposure to language that allowed her to eventually over come her disabilities and become the first deaf and blind Bachelor of Arts degree holder from Radcliff. I, too, have an inspirational quote to share from Helen: “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
Michael F. Heiman, M.D.
Sonoma
Less is more
Editor: Your editorial “Counsel to Council” nailed it. Unfortunately, human nature being immutable, Parkinson’s Laws apply to all organizations-especially governments. Less is more, of course, but try telling that to a politician.
What should their mission be? To minimize everything: regulation, mandates, spending. What does their mission appear to be? To search for ways to encroach on our personal and economic freedoms. Except for policing, almost all of what they seek to do would be better done by the market and the private sector.
That our local government is but a pale shadow of the state and federal monstrosities provides little solace.
Alden Brosseau
Sonoma