Didn’t appreciate poll language
Editor: Regarding the verbiage of last weeks Sun Poll, I was disturbed by the totally insensitive wording of the second option – “only dopes deal with pot.” Your position is your right but there was no indication that this was meant to be an editorial.
You called the poll wording “a little irreverent” and said it was meant to be “light hearted.” Light hearted for whom? I am not a medical marijuana user nor do I smoke pot (anymore) but I have had friends who could not have survived excruciating pain without smoking marijuana on a regular basis. One woman, diagnosed with rheumatic arthritis at 35 was wheelchair bound and totally crippled with this excruciating disease at 40. The ONLY thing which made her life even vaguely bearable was marijuana (and she tried all of her Doctor’s other suggestions before trying). She could not have functioned on any level without it.
Using the word “dope” to describe desperately needy patients is neither funny nor light hearted nor is using the word “deal” in a not so subtle implicit suggestion that you think medical marijuana users sell their “dope?” Have you ever talked to anyone who has gone through chemotherapy, which, without being able to smoke pot, makes them violently ill? As editor of a small community paper, please consider your words and be a bit more responsible.
Let’s suppose you had a terminal illness and the ONLY thing that would help was being denied you by unaware people who accept a lot of propaganda about this herb, which has been used for medical purposes for centuries? Suppose “they” decided that you didn’t deserve a particular medication or treatment because “they” didn’t approve of your behavior. Thousands of people are dying every year from the use of prescription drugs. There are no reported deaths from marijuana.
Donna Waugh Campbell
Sonoma
Keeping honeybees alive
Editor: Spring is here, which means healthy colonies of honeybees will “swarm,” sending dark clouds of these beneficial insects into the open to look for new homes. If you are lucky enough to see a swarm of honeybees clustered on a telephone pole, fence post, grape vine, tree-limb or the side of a building – please, don’t call a pest control company. Call local beekeepers Randy Sue Collins, 707.365.4330 or Thea Vierling 707.483.0426. We will come out at no charge, and see if we are able to relocate them into a safe, new home.
If you happen to come across a cluster of these bees, please call right away as they have a limited time before they will run out of food and perish. We need to get them to a new home as soon as possible.
Swarming honeybees are simply seeking a new location to start their new home. Before leaving their previous hive, they filled their stomachs with enough food to last the colony approximately three days. They are usually very gentle in this condition and are not out to sting anyone.
Please remember, bees are not pests. Honeybees are pollinating insects essential to human livelihood and are responsible for pollinating one-third of the U.S. food supply! They are non-threatening, non-aggressive vegetarians who aren’t interested in stinging you unless you swat at them, step on them barefoot, or disturb their hive.
Let the pest-control companies deal with yellow-jackets and termites, and let your local beekeeper collect and protect that honeybee swarm in your backyard.
Randy Sue Collins
Kenwood
A fan of Joan
Editor: I was so gratified to read the story of the Haitian peoples’ epic 200-plus year struggle
in such a powerful and condensed form in just joan’s column entitled “The Audacity of the Haitian Populace.” I so admire these people for their courage and capability in the face of cruel dominance by others. How shameful that our own government is so culpable in perpetuating the misery! This must end if we are to live with ourselves. The sweatshop worker’s story is especially compelling. My fervent prayer is that the exploitation of Haitian labor will end and that the Haitian peoples’ great desire for
self-determination under the leadership of Aristide be realized at last – without further interference. And let the aid be distributed equitably as compassionate people everywhere intend.
Katie Ruthroff
El Verano
More about the tourism board
Editor: I thank The Sonoma Valley Sun for the article on March 18 entitled: “Sonoma says no thanks to county marketing program.” It was a thorough and fair explication of this complicated subject. There are a few points I would like to make, as the person who was correctly described as “a proponent of Sonoma County Tourism Bureau (SCTB).”
Bill Blum, general manager of MacArthur Place Hotel, said that “the Big Seven is satisfied with the city’s own campaigns, coordinated by the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau.” The Sonoma Valley Sun might have pointed out there could be one simple reason Mr. Blum is so pleased with the SVVB’s marketing. As the chairman of the marketing committee of the SVVB he is speaking of his OWN marketing.
The Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau spends all its marketing dollars during the Olive Festival: in December, January and February. This marketing helps hotels with managers sitting on the SVVB Board of Directors. No marketing dollars are spent during our most competitive months: summer. Sonoma merchants and restaurants are hurting in the summer, because there is NO regional, national, or international marketing being done on their behalf in this critical season.
This is inherently unfair, as a quarter of a million dollars a year is given to the SVVB by the City Council of Sonoma. This money only helps hotels, but City restaurants and merchants certainly pay considerable sums into City coffers.
Wendy Peterson, executive director of the SVVB states it was not the role of the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau to take a position on the matter. “We really have no stake in this decision.”
If the SVVB has no stake in this matter why did Bill Blum, marketing chairman of the SVVB, individually lobby City Council members on this exact point? To say that the SVVB did not take a position on this matter is not true.
Ms. Peterson goes on to state: “the two tourism organizations will continue to work closely together on a day-to-day basis, the council’s decision will not change what is a productive working relationship.”
Ms. Peterson’s statement is part of an ongoing and deliberate misinformation campaign. Careful readers will note the straightforward comments by Ken Fishchang, CEO and President of SCTB: “potential visitors will see a big hole where the City of Sonoma should be.”
Does that sound like a productive working relationship? The truth is that we are losing visitor market share to the rest of the county, and the hotels that run this town care for no one other than themselves.
George Webber
Sonoma