LETTERS: NCT, Oct. 13, 2010

By Readers of the North County Times - letters@nctimes.com North County Times - Californian |Posted: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 12:05 am | Loading… | Print

Elect Marie Waldron for Escondido City Council on Nov. 2. ... As a local business owner, she understands the economic impacts of government regulations and spending on the taxpayers and small businesses. As an elected official, she fought for fiscal restraints, no new taxes and revitalizing our neighborhoods and downtown.

Marie feels there is no more important role of local government than public health and safety. She has supported the filling of additional police officer positions to maintain an efficient patrol level for our neighborhoods and supports fully operating Fire Station 6 with a full engine company. She championed the creation of the successful gang injunction program and supports the police DUI checkpoints. Hit-and-run collisions have been reduced, and crime is down in Escondido.

Marie wrote Escondido's resolution to support Jessica's Law and Megan's Law for the protection of our children. She is dedicated to continuing the fight for tougher sentences, including the death penalty and life terms for one-strike child predators.

Vote for Marie Waldron on Nov. 2.

Is our cultural immune system suppressed by impossibility thinking? Because national science, technology, engineering and mathematics education has become so dismal, with falling enrollments and failing impact, the educational culture can be blinded into suppression. Not in Vista, however — prototype solutions exist at North County Trade Tech High School and Vista Magnet Middle School.

From the book, "The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong," by David Shenk (available at the San Diego County Library): "'If non-linear leaps in intelligence and ability are possible,' writes John Mighton, 'why haven't these effects been observed (and recorded) in our schools? I believe the answer lies in the profound inertia of human thought: When an entire society believes something is impossible, it suppresses, by its very way of life, the evidence that would contradict that belief.'"

I recommend this as a guidebook for an emerging educational paradigm. Actually, it explains our cultural decline through what the latest scientific research reveals. It proposes solutions in education, but since we all must become lifelong learners, the principles apply to us all — particularly in the arena of community building (social ecology).

It is rather ironic that most of the accusations of so-called "police brutality" come from the Latino and African-American communities. The latest, in Los Angeles, came from a Guatemalan section.

They were incensed that the police killed a crazed, knife-wielding individual who threatened women, as well as the police.

At a meeting with L.A.'s police chief, one Guatemalan woman demanded that the police stop coming into their neighborhood under any circumstances, saying that they could take care of any problems that arise.

May I suggest that all such communities that object to police protection submit petitions that advise the police of this and exonerate them from any legal action that might arise from their not responding to calls for assistance? Wouldn't the gangs in these areas be delighted to hear of this?

May I further suggest that these communities contact La Raza, the NAACP and the ACLU, among others, as well as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, to assist them in quelling violence and criminal activities? Fat chance!

Their only goal is to find opportunities to sue someone.

Kudos to Joanne Goodwin (Community Voices, Sept. 12) and Jeff Brownlee (Oct. 1) . Per the Harvard Review, international corporations with headquarters in the U.S. produce 40 percent of all profits in America. They pay only 3.5 percent in taxes. Profits go into offshore accounts in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

President Obama heads a "provisional government." The permanent government for our nation are the international corporations, their lawyers and their lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

Both the Republicans and Democrats are powerless to stop this transaction.

What I admired most about President Richard Milhous Nixon was his raw political courage to, in effect, pardon U.S. Army Lt. Calley from court-martial convictions from the My Lai Massacre in the Vietnam War. I had the honor of expressing thanks to former President Nixon on Nov. 10, 1975.

The freedom and lives of Staff Sgt. Wuterich and Sgt. Hutchens are far more meaningful to me than anyone trying to get elected in November. Enemy forces in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom use effective guerrilla warfare tactics while our rules of engagement get our troops killed.

Former President George W. Bush repeatedly reassured us "politicians in Washington" were not going to hinder our troops, but he was politician No. 1 — commander in chief. Thousands of us begged for pardons for these men, but President Bush refused. He abandoned those men to kangaroo court-martials on U.S. soil while Afghans and Iraqis continued to plant IEDs on their soil. Equally troubling is that President Barack Obama has not put a stop to the unjust persecution of two U.S. Marines.

We should compel our president, our congressmen and our senators to have these charges all dropped and Staff Sgt. Wuterich's and Sgt. Hutchins' lives be made whole again, especially now before we enter the voting booths in November.

Here are some reasons not to return Brian Bilbray to Washington representing the 50th District:

— He voted against the Children's Health Insurance Program that would cover six million more kids.

— He voted against equal pay for equal work for women.

— He voted against reducing the costs for college loans and expanding grants for students.

— He voted against Wall Street reform to rein in the excess and greed that caused our economic collapse.

— He voted for offshore drilling in California.

— He voted against creating and retaining jobs, and against bringing 16,800 California teachers back to our classrooms.

— He opposed tax credits and increased access to credit for small businesses.

The choice is clear. Francine Busby to replace him.

The North County Times' choice of headlines panders to ignorant readers who need their opinions fed to them in sound bites. A case in point: "State welfare money spent on vacations," Oct. 4 heads an article that actually states that less than 1 percent of California welfare payments is spent out of state. I expect we'll now see a flurry of letters from irate people who didn't bother to read the article or to consider other possible interpretations of the data. Las Vegas, for example, is a place where unskilled workers can find jobs. Hawaii and Miami are places where many Californians have family ties. Given the small percentage spent out of state, perhaps we should be celebrating that so many of our tax dollars are going back into the California economy.

Spoon-feeding your chosen conclusions to your readers constitutes irresponsible journalism that contributes to the dumbing-down of our electorate — which certainly doesn't need any help. Restrict your headlines to the facts. Some of your readers may appreciate being instructed how to interpret the news; most of us prefer to think for ourselves.

Why don't we just say it?

The current fiscal problem resulting from bloated public employee pensions will not and cannot be solved without the participation of current and soon-to-be retirees. To place the burden on new workers, or worse, the taxpayer, is practically, as well as morally, bankrupt.

Given the parity between salaries in the public versus the private sector, a possible initial bargaining point would be to have public sector employees start the negotiating process with the same sum they would have received if they had been participants in Social Security.

Any funds contributed themselves would of course continue to be theirs, including 401(k)s, even with matching employer contributions.

I found the letter from Jeanette Hurst ("Who leads the tea party?" Oct. 5) to be quite humorous. I like a good laugh, thanks. But she has the wrong characters.

Alice doesn't live there anymore. Alice was voted out in 2008 and is retired in Crawford, Texas, thank god. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were elected. The Red Queen is globe-trotting to the laughter of North Korea, Iran and Venezuela. As for the Mad Hatter, he left D.C. to run for mayor of Chicago.

As for the tea party, they are ... Americans who are fed up with being taxed up to their eyeballs without representation. You don't need a specific leader to voice opposition to our government representatives, Democrat or Republican, who have all had a hand in tanking this great nation. That, I do not find funny. Vote them out.

To be honest, my daughter and all of her gay friends don't give a crap what Irvin Forbing thinks about homosexuality (Community Voices, Oct. 4) . They are way too busy living their lives to pay any attention to a hate-filled old man muttering into his word processor about people who couldn't care less about his religion's ancient superstitions.

I, on the other hand, am sick of Christians and their constant need to demonize homosexuals. I am actually moving beyond "sick of" and into active anger against these people and their desires to suppress and denigrate people who, through no fault of their own, grow up and discover that they are gay. Do these Christians really desire to keep "the gay" in the closet forever? Well, it is not going to happen.

People born gay don't really care any more what bitter old men like Forbing think. They and their friends do care, however, when gay people are treated differently under the law. And it is going to stop. Let's start with giving gay people the right to marry whomever they love.

So Irvin can mutter all he wants. The times, they are a-changing.

Dick Morris writes ("The danger of under-confidence," Oct. 4) that "The swath of destruction Barack Obama has cut through our economy, banking system, manufacturing base and medical profession is so broad and ugly that Republicans and independents everywhere are determined to end his mandate ... "

A reminder: The economy was on the verge of collapse in the fall of 2008. A decade of banking deregulation and malfeasance had facilitated the calamity. Manufacturing had been shipped overseas for years, and the health care system, by everyone's estimation, was a mess. So, one asks, what swath has Obama cut?

The actions of the Obama administration stopped the free-fall of the economy from recession into depression (even The Economist grudgingly admitted that the General Motors bailout was a success). New banking regulations have been enacted, and health care reforms will, according to the Congressional Budget Office, cut the deficit over 10 years. Destruction?

For broad and ugly, look no further than the bloody sands of Iraq and Afghanistan, where hundreds of thousands have been killed and displaced, more than 5,500 Americans killed, thousands wounded and untold billions (trillions?) added to the deficit, all with the approval of craven pundits like Dick Morris, a true swath of destruction.

Posted in Letters on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 12:05 am | Tags: Nct , Opinion , Letters