Jul 2, 2008

Letters to the Editor

Daily News

Barack Obama

Dear Editor: I beg to differ with R. Cohn (Letters, June 27), whose platitudes about Barack Obama are typical of one who cannot see the forest for the trees. It is laughable how those who are so caught up in the negativity of failed policies, unqualified presidents, corrupt systems and corporate welfare are so quick to judge those who seek a way out of the dark hole of energy dependence on oil. Mr. Cohn's idea of reality is skewed to his ideological braces, which continue to push for offshore drilling, decimation of our beaches and die-offs of wildlife due to ongoing oil spills, rather than an aggressive and progressive policy supporting the use of alternative technologies.

If Bush, Cheney and their gang had put forth a rational energy policy eight years ago, rather than continue to support their oil buddies and their own pocketbooks, we might have already been tooled up for this "crisis" that was an unnecessary result of arrogance and ignorance. As Americans who let unqualified people determine the fate of our country through regressive, self-serving policies, we will now have to bear the pain - the price of our apathy and lack of participation in our own government.

We cannot relieve this pain with quick fixes like offshore and ANWR drilling, but with forward looking policies and actions which I believe Barack Obama, as our next president, is willing to carry forward. In the meantime, we must all make sacrifices.

Sandra Skolnik,

Sunnyvale



Tom Elias

Dear Editor: I had thought columnist Tom Elias was a straight shooter - until I read his June 25 column, "Hatred follows nativist tide," which tries to guilt-trip us into accepting limitless immigration from Mexico.

He starts by beating us over the head with the Statue of Liberty poem, whose advocacy for limitless immigration, if taken now, would turn America into a Third World country with more than a billion people living in our borders within a decade. Is Elias nuts?

Nor does the poem single out Mexico. And no wonder. One hundred other nations are more destitute, by United Nations reckoning. Mexico's biggest problem is that its population rocketed from 20 million in 1940 to more than 100 million in 2000. This is America's fault how?

Of course, if we chose immigrants by who America needs, we'd look for people like my German neighbor with a Ph.D. working in high-tech - who isn't sure he'll be allowed to stay.

Next, Elias claims that hate groups targeting Latinos have been burgeoning, and implies that if you object to Mexican citizens coming here in the millions, you're just like those hate groups. This ploy combines fear-mongering with guilt by association and playing the race card.

Note that Elias gets all his statistics from the Southern Poverty Law Center, an activist group with more than $100 million in the bank. The SPLC constantly tells donors we're experiencing a tidal wave of hate crimes. Reputable observers say the SPLC exaggerates the problem wildly.

As does Elias.

Lee The,

Palo Alto



Hillcrest juvenile hall site

Dear Editor: San Mateo County is committed to reducing waste and salvaging materials by carefully deconstructing the former Hillcrest juvenile hall in the San Mateo Highlands.

Deconstruction takes longer than simply bulldozing the 130,000-square-foot complex and hauling truck after truck of debris to a landfill. The county has instead hired one of the most experienced deconstruction contractors in the country to provide cost estimates and diversion options.

Many hours have already been spent to salvage and recycle interior furnishings, equipment and other materials. This valuable work will continue.

There was never any intent to mothball or preserve the obsolete building for later use. San Mateo County committed to neighbors during the planning phase for the new Youth Services Center, which is located nearby, that the former juvenile hall would be removed.

In its place, the county is considering creating a garden where young people could learn about agriculture and sustainable food production. Meanwhile, the county has taken steps to secure the vacant Hillcrest campus from vandalism.

Through innovative and creative initiatives such as building deconstruction, the county government can make significant contributions to environmental protection and enhancement.

James Porter,

Director, San Mateo County

Public Works Department



Cargill site

Dear Editor: I question why Mayor Foust is such an admirer of the Cargill development scheme for the baylands in Redwood City. She came out in January as an enthusiastic cheerleader for this development while at the same time, she and Council Member Jim Hartnett, who is also her husband, were equally vocal in their disdain for the "divisive" grass-roots Open Space Ballot initiative. We all know that Cargill is one of the mightiest agribusiness corporations in the world and wields a lot of influence in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., and now apparently in our own Redwood City as well.

In the end, Cargill stands to make a tidy profit while Redwood City will have to absorb the costs of infrastructure maintenance, police and fire protection and permanent loss of open space.

Redwood City citizens have been misled by their elected officials before, like the failed Glenborough Pauls plan to develop at Pete's Harbor, which the then-mayor also championed. Citizens took matters into their own hands and killed that plan on a ballot initiative. I would have hoped that Mayor Foust and council members would have learned a valuable lesson from that grass-roots initiative, but it looks like history is about to repeat itself.

Marsha Cohen,

Redwood City