Mar 2, 2007

Letters

Retirement pact raises questions

Dear Editor: Unions contributed more than $29,000 to get Heyward Robinson and Richard Cline elected to the Menlo Park City Council. Is anyone surprised that the retirement packages of city workers are getting a huge boost thanks to their votes? One could conclude that these votes were bought and paid for.

Pat White,
Menlo Park



Save High Tech High

Dear Editor: High Tech High Bayshore is a school that changes lives. Up until Friday night, those changes were for the better. But the board's decision to close the school is creating a change for the worse for all of the students currently attending the school, and for the prospective students who might not have the opportunity to study and grow in a learning environment suited to their needs.

The board made a number of poor decisions along the way that culminated in their vote to close the school:

_ Banking on a new school reaching full enrollment within 18 months

_ Purchasing a building that can't accommodate the full enrollment necessary to sustain the school

_ Wasting $70,000 on a public relations firm that did not perform

_ Not informing parents of the financial crisis, nor giving them time to marshal their own resources

These mistakes have deeply wounded a group of up-and-coming young adults whose bright futures now feel dimmed. The parents, students and community supporting the HTHB students are intent upon doing everything possible to keep this school open. It's not the building that makes the school, it's the people and the program.

We ask the community to work with us to continue to provide this vibrant group of young people with the learning environment necessary for them to succeed.

For more information, visit

http://savehightechhighbayshore.blogspot.com.

Sheri Morrison,
Mountain View



Obsession with spanking

Dear Editor: I can't believe how many people are obsessed with the idea that they have the right to spank their young children. It is against the law for one adult to hit another, and it is against the law for an adult of one gender simply to pat an adult of the other gender on the butt at work, but when it comes to children under 3, a six-foot-tall, 200-pound man can still hit his child on the bottom until it causes intense pain. I hope people are happy. The editors of this paper once suggested that parents need to be able to spank children in order to teach them not to run into a busy street. If a 2-year-old child is running into a busy street, it is not the child who should be spanked. We as a society have not only a right, but a moral responsibility, to protect our children. And that is not just because we don't want to pay for these kids to go to jail when they turn 18, but because it is the right thing to do.

Pam LePage,
Palo Alto



What about opposing views?

Dear Editor: No one who examines the city of San Carlos Web site would know that the hospital that Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) proposes to construct in the city is controversial. San Carlos' Web site notes but tries to explain away possible criticisms of the project, but notes and emphasizes popular aspects of the project.

For example, the Web site includes a link to the proposed development agreement. The agreement includes a list of fiscal incentives to be provided by PAMF to San Carlos.

The agreement was the result of negotiations between the city and PAMF. It is obvious that, regardless of the intrinsic merit or lack of merit of the agreement, if PAMF agreed to it, the agreement is not going to consider or represent the wishes of citizens who think San Carlos has sold itself too cheap. Ditto for the staff report to the City Council. Obviously, staffers who negotiated the proposal are going to slant their report in favor of the proposal.

I fully support having the agreement and staff report posted on the San Carlos Web site; the marketplace of ideas would be incomplete without them. But the marketplace of ideas is also incomplete without the opposing view. I have requested, therefore, that San Carlos post a link at its Web site to our Web site, www.stoppamf.org. I have not received a response to my request.

Sol Kutner,
San Carlos