Letters
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Memorial mourning
People call Memorial Day a “Holiday,� so they get out their big gas- guzzling vehicles, and their huge gas-eating boats, or their trailers full of gas using toys to tear up the dunes or the National Forest, or they pull out the BBQ and gorge themselves. Memorial Day is a day of mourning for all those that have died in war, especially those that are dying right now in the senseless war in Iraq! As my son wrote me; Thank God for War...if we did not have wars,then how can we have Memorial Day Sales and Memorial Day Barbecues, Memorial Day Camping, and my favorite, Memorial Day Parades.
Dee Carroll
Santa Margarita
Statesmanship
All the the recent hullabaloo and political posturing about illegal immigration from Mexico could be easily solved by following in the tradition of Alaska and Hawaii—simply declare Mexico the 51st state of the USA. Voil∑, all border and citizenship problems instantly resolved. Our new state would be a gold mine resource for cheap labor, cheap oil, cheap pot, and great food. Ol»!
Resistance? Just bomb the the hell out of them, and, they’re conveniently located 10,000 miles closer than Iraq.
Viva la Imperialism!
August Salemi
Atascadero, CA
At the crossroads
Holocaust in Los Osos? Dictator or civil servants? What are you people we voted in? Last weekend I watched on TV, Pope Benedict XVI visiting Auschwitz and some of his prayers mentioned, Why did God allow the dictators to start this war of suffering and death to so many? All this to show the world who has the power over land and death. When the politicians and gangsters get a foothold on our lifestyle and life and we don’t fight back well, then I guess we deserve what we get.
We the citizens of Los Osos are at the crossroads of those that are causing this fear, pain and terror to our property owners and renters that will not be able to afford this sewer plant at the Tri-W site that the previous CSD board and others dictated we needed, no matter what the cost. In the last two elections the people threw out those five directors who were going to run several thousand citizens that are on low and fixed incomes i.e., many seniors, disabled and those with young families out of town. These hateful people are still out there behind the scenes lying to those civil servants that make the decisions that we don’t want a sewer plant. This is hogwash and those that listen are equally as guilty.
You ex-five and others are still causing our citizens to suffer physical stress and fear. The latest action of the water quality board in delaying the cease and desist manmade orders shows what a weak case they had. But, still armed with more taxpayers money, they are changing their team and more lawyers to still continue this holocaust of getting rid of those that will not be able to afford this stinking plant in the middle of town.
At that place of suffering and death we saw the coming together of all faiths and others from all walks of life. Can you Mr. Briggs, Bianci, Capps, Moldonado, Blakeslee and Arnold come together and have the courage to work with the present duly elected CSD directors who want an affordable sewer out of town, or do you still want to fight all the way to the Supreme Court, causing many financial and physical hardships and wasting our hard-earned tax dollars for your ego. We all want clean water. Lift this burden from our citizens. What’s a few more months? DEAL OR NO DEAL. It’s that simple.
Ben Difatta
Los Osos
Unfathomable greed
Roy Berger (New Times Letters May 26-June 1) claims those who oppose Wal-Mart are supporting class warfare against the poor. A more courageous look at reality suggests otherwise. Wal-Mart received over one billion dollars in government subsidies in one ten-year period. This taxpayer money could have bean used to build hospitals or in many other ways to increase our public wealth. Instead it went into the hands of a few already wealthy people at the top of the corporate ladder.
The idea that monopolies bring down costs and in other ways benefit the poor is refuted by history. This fact can also be easily verified by a casual investigation of the rising price of gas in the light of the thousands of mergers, and buyouts by competitors, in the oil industry in just the last decade.
In spite of oil industry record profits (price gouging) these corporate giants will continue to receive huge subsidies and tax breaks. Are they giving poor people a reprieve from their openly-demonstrated unfathomable greed? Likewise, didn’t many, or most, of the largest American companies abandon America‚s workers and relocate where they can take advantage of poor people in places like China?
Robert Sratton,
Paso Robles
Nuclear is not cheap
Our neighborhood nuclear utility has applied to the California Public Utilities Commission to do a feasibility study in relicensing the plant for another 20 years. The price tag to ratepayers is estimated to be $19,000,000. This is on top of the $800,000,000 needed to replace the aged steam generators and prematurely worn-out components. I was here before Diablo Canyon was built. The cost was estimated at well under $500 million. Final price tag: $5.7 billion and counting. Nuclear-generated energy is not cheap.
It is unfair to ratepayers to pay for a study that will be biased. Of course, PGE will tell us it is feasible, even though there is no place to store and secure the hundreds of tons of radioactive waste, except on site at this time and in the foreseeable future. They are asking us to deal with and live with an additional twenty years of radioactive waste.
When and if the day comes that we can ship our waste to someone else’s neighborhood (or reservation), do we really want this nuclear material transported all across California? This stuff is deadly for thousands of years. Nuclear generated energy is not safe.
Given the $13 billion of our tax dollars the Bush administration and Congress authorized to build new reactors, and the hundreds of millions the Department of Energy has authorized giving to utilities to go through the relicensing process, isn’t it about time the pockets of the corporate shareholders bear the burden of “bailing out� PGE? The ratepayers across California bailed PGE out of bankruptcy to the tune of $6.2 billion, an average of $1,300 per ratepayer through 2012.
PG&E should stand behind their advertising and develop a sustainable energy future. Other utilities across California and the Nation are doing that now. It’s good for us all, it’s good for generations to come after we’re long gone.
Marty Brown
Atascadero
A true treasure
Kathleen Goddard Jones and I worked so many years to protect the Nipomo Dunes. In the tradition of John Muir we showed people the unique beauty of this resource—like Muir showed Yosemite. We kept development out, reduced vehicle use to less than 2000 acres, stopped a nuclear power plant, prevented a supertanker port, stopped a fancy marina at the mouth of Santa Maria River, and alerted the media to Unocal’s oil field mess. We showed literally thousands of people a true treasure that is too often taken for granted—Point Sal to Pismo Beach.
We helped establish the Dune Center (DC) to continue what we had started. Now the DC (343-2455) is too busy to even show a 6th grade class Oso Flaco Lake. Now the DC does not even take a stand on vehicles on the beach & dunes. Their silence to me implies they approve of this flagrant violation of the Endanger Species Act which pollutes the air we breathe and continues “our addiction to oil�. The Dunes Center needs to do what they were designed to do—lead.
Bill Denneen
Nipomo
Coalesce-ing
I think Christy Heron did a wonderful job of describing our “Coalesce� show and the students’ dedication to their work. Thank you for taking the time to acknowledge the show and recognize the students. I am sure I speak for all—great job!!
Barry Williams
Cal Poly
In the arena
Let’s face it folks, rodeo animals are not treated well in the arena. Animals do get injuries; however, if the animal doesn’t drop dead in front of the bleachers, the audience usually doesn’t know anything is wrong.
Matthew Scully, a born-again speechwriter for George W. Bush, had it right in his 2002 book, Dominion, when he wrote, “If ever there were a completely gratuitous abuse of animals, and often baby animals at that, all done for the sheer thrill and bravado of it, it is rodeo.�
If you support compassion for animals, join us on Saturday, June 3, 1PM, for a peaceful protest at the rodeo gates in Santa Maria. For more information, call 544-1580.
Peggy Koteen
Living in filth
With bird flu outbreaks on the rise, many citizens are becoming exceedingly concerned. When you look at the state of our factory farms it’s not hard to see why and where this disease originates. A single shed contains thousands of birds who are crammed and confined to small cages for their entire lives. They are forced to live in their own filth. Farmers are aware that these conditions spawn diseases, so instead of cleaning up their act they pump the birds full of drugs.
Whenever you make a conscious choice to consume animal products you run the risk of being infected with the bird flu, one of the many diseases that can be contracted from consuming animals. There is a quick, easy, and painless solution: Go vegetarian!
If you would like more information, please visit GoVeg.com and order a free vegetarian starter kit.
Katie Baker
Morro Bay
Make the world greener!
More than 300,000 seals could be killed in Canada this year - most ofthem babies. Tell Canada’s Prime Minister to stop the hunt now!
www.go.care2.com/stophunt
You’re slanted Klemz
One item you failed to mention in your article was the period of time when Morro Bay did everything they could to greedily get an exorbitant increase of the fee from Duke for the use of their own outfall.
Power generation is a public service—one that is done in an excellent and cost effective manner by hundreds of corporations nationwide. Whenever there is a shortcoming in the system it can usually be attributed to unwarranted regulatory, municipal interference, and pandering to unfounded (media fed) public fears (e.g. atomic power).
Everyone wants unfettered power for their lights, air conditioning, cars, trucks, planes —yet they erect endless regulatory, zoning and cost restraints to block new power plants, oil and gas drilling, refineries....
Your slant on the article is quite evident—�I assume they weren’t lying too much,� Pierce adds wryly. Why would you print such an unfounded, ill-advised statement? Except to fuel the anti-corporation psychosis the liberals and media have engendered in our society today.
Do you really know what it takes to generate a kilowatt of power? Bring barrel of oil from Africa to the US, refine it into oil and gas for your car? Mine a pound of selenium for the chips in your computer? What of the trillions of dollars, pounds, yen, rubles spent worldwide for basic commodities to serve our civilization? I believe not.
Frank J. DeMicco
[email protected]
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