Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Friday, Aug. 15, 2008

Letters to the Editor

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Crucial points missed

Y our piece on Cal Poly’s Sustainability Conference (Aug. 2) missed three points.

One, the star of the opening plenary was Jerome Ringo, who received a standing ovation by almost a thousand people. I was totally blown away by his integrity and intelligence. He’s not even mentioned in your article. Instead, you display a picture of Lt.Gov. John Garamendi. Two, Garamendi’s quote, “We cannot green our campuses based on state financing,” was so subtle I didn’t even hear it. Instead, I heard Garamendi say that we faculty and administrators should think outside the box, not to worry about affordability. The tone of his comments was stirring and proactive, not cautionary.

Finally, I’m glad you pointed out Cal Poly’s sustainability efforts. However, they are embarrassingly modest. And the majority of Cal Poly faculty and students still don’t understand that we humans are in desperate straits and that remedial actions should have started years ago.

Tom Neuhaus,

Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Cal Poly

Everything’s connected

Several letters have been published in which the terms “environmentalist” and “elitist” are used when speaking of people who advocate care and respect for the air we breathe, the water we drink and all plants and animals.

If an environmentalist is a person who wishes to take the long view for the sake of future generations, that is me. If an environmentalist is a person who believes that seeking knowledge about little- known plants and animals makes more economic sense than paving over what might be the source of a compound for a medical breakthrough, that is me.

If an environmentalist is someone who respects the rights of all, poor or wealthy, to live in a healthy environment, that is me. If an environmentalist is someone who thinks we can “find” more oil, more cheaply, through meaningful conservation measures than through increasingly costly oil drilling, that is me.

Americans are smart enough to know what our grandparents knew long before us: wastefulness and ignorance make us our own worst enemies.

Elitists are people who believe they are a superior class of beings. A good portion of the global population view Americans as rich, privileged and elitist because of the way we live.

All life is connected and interdependent. We forget that to our own destruction.

Susan Richardson

Los Osos

Traditional fair no more

A fair is supposed to be a celebration of the harvest.

Gone are the exhibition halls of private collections of fountain pens and hair picks. Down to nothing are the exhibits of sewing and cooking. The showing of mammoth vegetables and fine grains, farm equipment and tractors are nearly gone.

Now it’s just bars and junk entertainment. None of which benefit or show off the local community.

Every year, the city gets its sales tax cut no matter what and doesn’t care about protecting its own merchants. Not only as merchants do we lose money by the loss of traffic, but we also can’t get into the fair to do business to hedge our losses. Thirty percent of the fair vendors should be from Paso Robles and SLO County!

The mayor and the City Council are supposed to be protecting us. That’s why we pay for our city business permit on a percentage of our gross, not a flat fee.

Vendors swooping in from all over the state and out of state and then stealing our gross and disallowing us to compete happen every year.

Noel Monteleon

Paso Robles

Chaos in energy markets

In May, several congressional committees held hearings calling upon experts to testify, under oath, regarding oil prices. The overwhelming consensus was, “We can’t drill our way to lower oil prices”; “Supply and demand plays a diminished role in our current situation,” and “Speculators are responsible for up to 50 percent of the price of oil.”

These results were reported at a news conference I watched on C-SPAN. I searched for and did not see this vital news reported on the evening TV news.

Then, the Senate tried to pass a carefully crafted bill to limit, restrict and regulate oil speculators that could bring down oil prices quickly. The Republicans sabotaged it. They demanded provisions for drilling. They continue to take partisan advantage of the abysmal ignorance and willful gullibility of the American electorate — plus the blind obedience of their base.

Remember, due to largess in the Republican Congress of 2000, Republican Sen. Phil Gramm manipulated a bill preventing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from overseeing energy speculators, thus, the “Enron Loophole” (Google it). In spite of hand waves by a toothless CFTC, those speculators, running amok, are continuing their rape of the market and the public. So, the present worldwide chaos.

Today, Phil Gramm is still John McCain’s unofficial economic adviser in spite of his recent blunders.

Charlie Lawrence

Paso Robles

A call to action

I am very disappointed that our California government has not come to agreement on a budget for this year.

An approved budget is at least 30 days overdue, and we are starting to see the fallout —threats against state worker wages; vendors serving the state in good faith who may not be paid; those who receive services from the state (usually the most needy) who will not receive those services; and nonprofit service agencies that can’t help their clients as the state withholds funds.

I am most frustrated about the apparent lack of urgency to resolve the budget impasse. It seems that passing a budget late is not a big deal to our legislators, but many in need, who have little influence in resolving these political matters, will be hurt by inaction. This is just not acceptable.

I urge Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee and Sen. Abel Maldonado to make every effort to put the current year budget in place. While there needs to be longer-term budget reform, it should not be accomplished by holding hostage those who work for or receive services from the state.

Tom Lott

Atascadero

For the love of birds

Since I live on the coast, I mark the morning by greeting the ocean.

This morning, and the last few mornings, I noticed the large number of pelicans, possibly hundreds, diving and feeding just off the Cayucos coast. Most seem to be the white variety, which usually migrate through our area about the end of August or early September. I know the brown pelicans are here year-round.

Has any Audubon biologist noticed that the pelicans are here about a month early? Is it because the ocean has brought schools of anchovies here early because of a change in ocean currents? They are usually accompanied by sooty shearwaters and terns, which form veritable islands of birds just off the coast. But not this year, at least not yet.

Just curious.

Mel Wysock

Cayucos

A better place

Mr. Nicholas Kristof, in “Farm boy reflects on animal rights” (Aug. 2), explains his meat-eating habit as a result of his “farm boy” lifestyle as a youngster.

Mr. Kristof personally came to know the intelligence of pigs and realized the fear of geese when he came to get them for slaughter. It is inconceivable that he could justify his meat-eating habit with the excuse that he grew up on a farm.

Mr. Kristof, anyone can change and grow through life’s experiences. Don’t wait for the future to act on your observations—the future is now. We should all try to eat less or no meat — it would make our world a better place.

Carol and Saul Goldberg

Avila Beach