Coastal Post Online
February 2001
The Village Idiot Has Come
Forth
I guess, regarding
this past election, we cannot say we weren't warned.
In 1555, Nostradamus
wrote:
Come the millennium,
month 12
In the home
of great power
The village
idiot will come forth
To be acclaimed
the leader.
Suzanne Nathans
Sausalito
CP Worth More Than $2
Here are two
bucks - I didn't send any last year - and you guys are certainly worth
far more than that to me.
Keep up the
good work - "strident" as it may be.
You have so
many admirers in Oregon - my daughter's boyfriend in Portland thinks you're
great, too.
Happy New Year
(such as it is) and many good ones to come.
Pat Tunnard
Tiburon
CP Only Good For Dog Shit
You will never
be much of a newspaper. Your paper isn't worth 5 cents a copy when you
write that Florida fraud picked Bush for president.
When you go
to vote and punch out the holes, you should check and see that the holes
are punched out period.
Beside most
of them that voted in Florida are uneducted.
Why don't you
write that Gore didn't win Tennesse or Arkansas.
I notice people
take your newspaper from the post office to use to pick up their dog shit
period
Unsigned
Maybe From Florida
Typesetter's
Note: Although this "reader" didn't sign his letter or let us know where
he hails from, the CP typesetter believes he might actually be one of those
"uneducted" voters from Florida he thinks so highly of. Period.
The Justice Who Lost His
Tongue
The unfortunate
ruling rendered by the US Supreme Court in the historic Florida Ballots
Recounting Case which stopped the counting of disputed ballots thus arbitrarily
handing victory to George W. Bush in the recently concluded Presidential
election, will be remembered as the most shameless abuse of authority that
the highest court of the land has ever resorted to in US history. This
was the sentiment expressed by the four honorable Supreme Court Justices
who registered their dissent to that infamous decision. What made the whole
episode even more regrettable was the fact that one of the five Justices
who voted in favor of the decision was never involved in the deliberations
that was recorded and aired over the radio. Being the only African-American
member of that august body, he was expected to at least be heard during
the discussions, particularly considering that it was the African-American
community in Florida that was systematically disenfranchised in that dispute.
Adding insult to injury, this colored Justice found his tongue only after
the decision was rendered, trying to defend it, not to the media, not to
his learned colleagues in the legal world - but to a bunch of high school
students who hardly understood what he was talking about. If this is the
kind of representation that African-Americans have in our Supreme Court
(which in fact is the reason he is there), it is understandable why our
colored brothers in this country feel the way they do.
Antonio R. Serna
Petaluma
Thanks, Jim, for Kinsey Coverage
To Mr. Jim
Scanlon: Thank you for your continued coverage of Steve Kinsey. Your statements
are factual, timely , informative, written with verve, fearlessness, and
certainly benefit the County citizen. But factual.
Unfortunately,
it appears that the Independent Journal had "given up" and no longer assigned
any priority to this extremely important matter. Too bad.
Some questions.
Since Nov. 1999, did Steve Kinsey apply for the required permit to repair
(or correct?) his illegal septic systems? What precisely are his reasons
for "being granted" these extensions? Are these illegal systems used illegally
now?
County codes
on his violations are precise and in full force and effect. Why hasn't
the District Attorney issued a statement regarding this matter? This is
actually long overdue. Where is Kamena?
The illegal
structures. Are they occupied? utilized? How does this sit with the Tax
Assessor? His statement? Are these structures supplied illegally with water,
gas, electricity? If so, they should be cut off. Kinsey is "too powerful?"
Kamena "too accommodating?"
Kinsey retained
an engineer? What's his proposal? Preliminary or otherwise, has the engineer
communicated his proposal to Environmental Health? (EHS reviewed/approved
plans/confers with such engineers.) What is EHS's position on this situation?
Shouldn't they issue, answer, provide some information on this existing,
on-going violation? One must not forget the above officials are getting
continuously paid.
Again, County
laws and codes are in full force and effect. When will they turn off the
water and gas so that the illegal septic systems stop polluting Forest
Knolls and the water tables? One must not forget, septic codes were made
to prevent pollution.
From a reader
who knows thousands of readers await your continued coverage on Steve Kinsey.
You're successful; please accept our appreciation and wishes for continued
success. I'll be waiting for your February issue. Please let us know.
Unsigned
But Obviously From Marin
County
No Thanks, Jim, for Kinsey
Coverage
This letter
is in response to the latest edition of the "Kinsey Report" written by
Jim Scanlon. First off, I would like to thank Jim for bringing to my attention
that my fictitious business name license had expired. I assume his investigating
at the County of Marin prompted someone to send me a renewal form, which
we have completed and sent back. Thanks, I had no idea.
Secondly, I
would like to point out how pathetic it is to make insinuations and write
outright lies regarding my relationship with Steve Kinsey as a business
partner in Design/Build Alliance, all without even a phone call to my office.
A responsible reporter would have called me as a part of his investigation
into the history of our business dealings. Not to mention having enough
respect to at least have a discussion with the next person who they dragged
into their search for yet another scandal.
Let me help
you become clear. Steve Kinsey and I started Design/Build Alliance (DBA)
as a partnership in 1986. In 1992, I left the business and relocated to
North Idaho. During the period of my absence, Steve Kinsey was the sole
proprietor of DBA. I returned in 1997 with the intention of renewing my
previous partnership with Steve. After several months, it became quite
clear that with the responsibilities associated with the County Supervisors
position, Steve had zero time for the business so he left the business.
I have seen the sole proprietor of DBA since Jan. 1998. To set the record
straight, Steve Kinsey has received no income from DBA since I became sole
proprietor, and he received less than $6,500 for the short time we were
partners in 1997.
Mr. Scanlon
also criticized my views related to septic systems. I'm sorry we don't
see eye to eye, but maybe he just doesn't see what my eyes have. I have
friends and community members call monthly wanting my help to repair or
remodel their home, with a permit, when their septic systems were functioning
as they should, and I've had to break the news that they can't do anything
without a new septic system. This in addition to planning and building
regulations requiring the legalization of all work performed on their property
without a permit back to 1957 can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000
and up. Often that's their entire budget, essentially killing the project
or forcing yet another project to proceed without a permit.
I am not for
rampant growth or environmental degradation. I am for composting toilets,
gray water systems, county assistance programs regarding the design and
repair of systems that are not functioning adequately, rules and regulations
that are fair to the environment and the homeowner so that neither suffer
when septic system do. I just don't see how or why he would be against
this.
If Mr. Scanlon
is still not clear on issues surrounding my relationship with Steve Kinsey,
or if he'd like to discuss my views regarding existing planning and septic
policy, he's welcome to call my office and I would be happy to speak with
him.
Steve Holt
Forest Knolls
Something About the Bourgeoisie
Kudos to reader
Herman Berlandt of Bolinas for his fascinating letter "Trying to Get a
Fix on America" in the Jan. issue of the Coastal Post. I loved his description
of a sizable section of Americans being "emotionally adolescent with permanent
teenager enthusiasms, easily distracted with a limited attention span."
And as for reader Kevin Hughes of Tomales, here's a letter chock full of
stridency for you:
I am most familiar
with the bourgeoisie class having grown up in an upper middle class community
and spending years in and around centers of bourgeoisie training: universities;
and I've lived in elite Marin for the last nine years.
What strikes
me most about the bourgeoisie is their hyperness; they're always in a hurry
to go somewhere, do something, like they're uncomfortable in their own
skin. They talk fast with clipped diction. It's like they're going to die
in two weeks and they're desperate to get in as much activity as possible
before they croak. The notion of slowing down, contemplation, reflection,
is totally foreign and abhorrent to them.
My second observation
about the bourgeoisie is how eager they are to please, like they never
left the developmental stage of being a child who is constantly trying
to please his parents. Whether it is parents or teachers, coaches, employers,
peers, mates, they're totally dependent on approval from outside themselves,
incapable of any internal capacity for self love and acceptance.
My third problem
with the middle class is how little choice they allow themselves, even
in America, so-called land of freedom. They're constantly telling themselves
and others how they have to do this, they should do that; and if you don't
do it their way, you're wrong. They don't have tolerance for dissension
or even different viewpoints or customs. Any behavior in others that they
won't allow in themselves, even if it's natural, they label as wrong or
morally suspect.
But the most
disturbing characteristic of the bourgeoisie class is how readily they
turn aggressive and violent when they feel threatened. They frighten easily
and are conditioned to attack verbally, emotionally, psychologically or
physically when threatened, instead of having the discipline to take responsibility
for their inclination to frighten so easily. They're soft.
Alex Caylee
San Rafael
Appreciates Nakamura's Israeli
History
I appreciate
Karen Nakamura's history of Israeli versus Palestinian "property rights,"
but we should be careful not to credit any idea that right and wrong between
the "Jewish State" and its displaced victims hinges on technicalities.
Our tax support for an officially "Jewish" settler-state, forcing its way
ever-deeper into Palestine and constantly cleansing away the ethnically
unsuited locals, belies every standard of justice and peace. End of argument.
When Israel's
supporters try to gentrify its atrocities with motifs of historic or divine
privilege, they repeat the usual rationales of state-racism. If we dispute
that stuff, we better make sure it's clear that nothing can excuse catastrophic
ethnic violence - or make it a workable answer to any problem. The subversion
of that hard-won modern awareness, even among our "progressives," is one
of the worst effects of the bloody exception we have been trained to make,
for our spoiled pet Israel.
We're supposed
to have learned, by now, that human rights can't be canceled by special
ethnic fiat. We should be able to see that peace between Israel and Palestine
requires the rights of Jews and others to be honored equally, in a multi-ethnic
Israel-Palestine, with Jerusalem as the shared capital. such normalcy may
seem utopian, against the familiar context of an officially racist settler-state,
avowed to "redeem" Palestine for one "chosen" ethnic group - but we are
supposed to know that peace cannot arrive until that regressive definition
of Israel fades, as eventually it must, into history's gory museum of futile
experiments in state-racism.
Israel's
refusal to let Palestinians return home - because they're not Jewish -
is overt ethnic violence against them. It is the active opposite of peace.
And it is where we stand now. The last Clinton-Israeli "peace offer," which
tells the Palestinians to give up their right to go home, is a reversal
of every "peace process" since President Carter's Camp David talks, every
international agreement, and everything we tell children on Martin Luther
King Day.
This reversal
shows the point of Israel's fifty-year filibuster of all the "peace talks"
the world has required, and it shows that Clinton has been playing their
charade all along. Once his term was effectively over, the game could end
- and Ariel Sharon's gesture at the Haram al-Sharif, on the anniversary
of his Sabrah and Chatillah massacres, was a terrific way to say so. it
shows just how easily Israel can resume its extermination of Palestinians,
starting with their leaders, of all ages, in their West Bank and Gaza Strip
concentration-ghettos. The liberal shooting of Palestinian children reverses
every idea of Western social progress since World War II; in fact, if boasts
a new precedent in ethnic criminal impunity and media complicity.
By deleting
the Palestinian right of return, the final Clinton-Israeli "peace offer,"
presented as an even-handed way to end some of the most flagrant ethnic
butchery in history, means that Israel will freely murder Palestinians
until they drop their legal claims and human rights "peacefully." The apartheid
consolation - a tiny reservation, or a "Palestinian State," to be "redeemed"
by Israel, at the first alleged excuse would be the last cul-de-sac
of Palestinian national annihilation. Genocide, shmenocide; where's the
Macy's ad?
At least, that's
Israel's direction, compulsive and certainly not sustainable. The Palestinians,
the Mideast, the progress of history, cannot be erased. The only question
is, how violent will Israel get in its denial of this fact? (And how much
of this violence will be directed, with the complacent support of Americans
who do not protest, against those of us who do?)
Israeli extremists
would cultivate Jewish fears forever, but they could not "create facts"
that override sustainable approaches to Jewish security, if they could
not depend on inattentive US taxpayers to finance policies that cannot
bear scrutiny - policies that provide easy prominence for those who impose
them, while pushing Israel into eternal fear and "self-defense" against
the legitimate claims of its victims. Our indulgence encourages Israel's
meanest fanatics to run amuck - and lets them shepherd our elected officials
like goats.
A lot of Americans,
of all political leanings, feel that this has gone too far. We never meant
to finance policies that inevitably "require" soldiers to shoot children.
Anyone who wants to help us stop this should call 415-459-0196. And we
should call our representatives and tell them that our taxes must not support
official discrimination, or state-racism, in Israel or anywhere.
Dave Kersting
San Rafael
Ashcroft Nomination A Joke
Bush's nomination
of John Ashcroft for Attorney General is a full out war against people
of color and women of independent thought. His extreme views against civil
rights and a women's right to choose are well documented.
To think that
this man would be fair in enforcing the laws of the United States is to
believe that Bush won the election. They stole the election. Don't
let them steal the nation. Contact your senator now.
Don Norton
Florence, OR
flofone@fonebooks.com
Government Blessed American
OPEC Disaster
The current
energy crises in California is absolutely a criminal example of how "trusts"
and "monopolies" work against the public good. Deregulation was ill conceived
and poorly put into effect without any real understanding of the final
picture when the ribbon was cut. All those California legislators
who rushed into deregulation
should be drummed out of office fast. They, with their cost of living increase
will not be burdened with high energy costs as will the great mass of California's
aged and young married
populations.
There was enough
energy before deregulation and there was a comfort knowing that the Public
Utilities Commission was overseeing
energy consumer costs.
That energy source is now in the hands of an American OPEC, since we can't
blame this debacle on the Gulf Nations. Southern California should negotiate
energy from Mexico since if the tables were reversed America would be the
first to assist them in any crises. In any event the crises call for governmental
intervention NOW
Dr. Norman E. Mann
San Diego, Ca.
Unsolicited Western Meddling
Must Stop
Recently Senator
Arlen Specter visited India. There he claimed that Christians in
India are vulnerable, and the government is not doing enough to protect
them.
Violence should
not be tolerated in a democracy. But let us look at the big picture.
Almost 400,000 Hindus have been terrorized out of Indian Kashmir by Pakistan-supported
Islamic terrorists, and have become refugees in their own country.
In the north-east of India, Baptist-affiliated terrorists regularly target
and kill Hindus.
As opposed
to this, only a handful of Christians have died in anti-Christian attacks.
Many of these incidents were proven to be common-criminal attacks; some
were even incidents of Christian-on-Christian violence. The only
organized series of attacks on Christians was the bombings by Deendar Anjuman,
a Pakistani ISI-supported group in south India. Indian and Western
media raised a lot of ruckus when those attacks happened and assumed that
the "Hindu extremists" were involved. It wasn't followed up with
one-tenth the attention when it turned out it was Pakistan-orchestrated.
If a few attacks
on Christians are construed as being ignored or even encouraged by the
government, what would Senator Specter say about the literal cleansing
of Hindus from Indian Kashmir?
In spite of
everything, India's record of accommodating and protecting Christians is
actually pretty good. In the US last year, certainly more than 100
"hate crimes" were committed. But the US government would never tolerate
any other country lecturing it about human rights and interfering in its
internal affairs.
Such selective
targeting of a nation in favor of a particular religion makes one wonder
if the Western commentator is a champion of human rights, or a champion
of human rights for Christians! Why do the Western politicians take
it upon themselves to speak only on behalf of Christians elsewhere?
The Indian Christians are not of Western origin - they are Indians.
Why portray them as Western protˇgˇs or dependents? Such unsolicited
and unbalanced Western meddling only brings back bad memories without achieving
anything.
Violence should
be condemned, but selective condemnation without understanding the context
or background is not productive.
Mohana Kher
Bloomington, IL
Flag Burning Is Patriotic
There are many
people who will be offended by those who are going to burn the flag on
inauguration day, the moment that Bush is sworn in as president. And they
should be offended, after all, that is the idea of a protest, to offend
people and get attention. But flag burning is a duty of patriotic people
who love this country to speak out against the installation of a president
who was not elected by the people.
Our country
was founded by flag burners who stood up against the injustices of the
King of England and who fought and gave their lives to form a government
of the people who's sole purpose of existence is to serve the people. And
it is ultimately the responsibility of the people to protect and defend
those freedoms
both from external enemies
and those of us who would take away those freedoms and liberties for the
benefit of self interested political gain.
Our soldiers
didn't fight and die to protect the flag. They fought and died to protect
the people's right to burn the flag. The burning of the flag is the ultimate
symbol of the people asserting their dominance over the government. Let
us therefore honor those who would now stand for our freedoms and liberties
and who love America enough to burn the flag this 20th day of January.
Marc Perkel
San Francisco
Distributing Sewage In Sonoma
It's urgent
for the Healdsburg Tribune to assign an investigative reporter to uncover
the full scope and earthquake risks of Santa Rosa's massive pipeline and
its unknown Wastewater Storage and Disposal scheme. It's being piecemealed
to avoid public scrutiny.
Why would tiny
Healdsburg which only produces 1.4 million gallons of wastewater per day
rescue the monstrous Regional Santa Rosa Sewage Plant with 40 million gallons
per day? Healdsburg would be better off disposing of its own wastewater
through irrigation of existing vineyards.
Few seem to
realize that the treated sewage wastewater from half the present and future
population of Sonoma County is destined for distribution, storage and disposal,
near Healdsburg. Here, pipelines will radiate west, east, and north from
the city dumping wastewater into the Russian River, or newly dug gravel
pits at Healdsburg. Tentative maps show where billions of gallons of wastewater
may be stored during the winter in 17 gigantic "anchor" reservoirs, many
in steep wild canyons. They may be used for spraying 22,000 acres of oak-studded
landslide-prone private watershed lands encircling Healdsburg in one of
the most earthquake sensitive areas on the planet. These are lands mostly
unsuited for vineyards.
Unless
sanity prevails, one branch of the pipeline from Healdsburg may inject
11 million gallons per day down the Geysers fault, potentially triggering
more small and large earthquakes along the Healdsburg fault lines, and
triggering massive landslides from broken dams along West side, Sweetwater
Springs, Mill Creek, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valley roads, destroying
spawning tributaries of Porter Creek, Griffin Creek, Dry Creek, Maacama
Creek, and half dozen others in the Russian, Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys,
(to say nothing of property damage).
It appears
that Healdsburg has hired two Sonoma County Water Agency engineers to design
the storage reservoirs and disposal system for Santa Rosa as a separate
project. This bypasses public scrutiny while Santa Rosa tunnels a six-foot
diameter, high pressure pipeline under the Russian River into Healdsburg,
trenching Kinsey Drive, Westside Road, under the freeway at Dry Creek and
along Grove and Healdsburg Avenue.
It also appears
that Santa Rosa is annexing its wide, 41-mile pipeline route all the way
into Healdsburg so it can readily lay more pipelines to accommodate expansion
of its sewage plant. I believe the City Council and its citizens will be
outraged when they learn of the terrible public health burden of safely
disposing of billions of gallons of wastewater stored around Healdsburg,
year after year. Santa Rosa was recently fined for 350 illegal spills.
Also, consider the impacts of torrential wastewater sprayed over vast wild
and native plant corridors, drastically changing our Mediterranean climate.
Write, phone
the Healdsburg City Council and demand that they prohibit the pipeline
tunneling from the Foppiano Vineyards, under the Russian River into the
city at any cost. And let's not call it the Geysers Pipeline, it's Santa
Rosa-to-Healdsburg Wastewater Storage and Disposal pipeline. It's certainly
the most costly, nature-destroying,
dangerous, and bizarre construction project in county history.
Marty Griffin, MD.
PG&E: Where's The Money?
The California
Public Utilities Commission has approved yet another rate hike bailout
for California's public utilities because PG&E and SoCalEdison have
been screaming bankruptcy for weeks. The simple fact is that these utilities
are not facing bankruptcy and there is no evidence that a rate hike will
do anything to solve the California energy crisis.
While it is
true that California's utilities have been forced to pay outrageous rates
on California's exploding wholesale electric market, it is also true that
these same utilities own and operate vast electric generation assets (both
in California and throughout the nation).
The utilities
are actually selling huge amounts of electricity on the wholesale market
at exactly the exorbitant rates that they are complaining about having
to pay! Yet they refuse to use the extra profits from the sale of
electricity on the CA wholesale market to offset their short-term losses.
Simply put, PG&E and Edison want us to only look at one of their accounts
while every other account they control is bursting at the seams.
NO MORE CORPORATE
WELFARE! The public should not have to bail out big businesses that are
putting the squeeze on us for the benefit of their shareholders.
Michael Lind
Ojai, CA. 93024
Terminal Cancer And Rolling
Blackouts
I have
deadly, fast moving, incurable TERMINAL CANCER and am not in remission.
Due to
cancer, I have severe osteoporosis, so I have suffered a number of broken
spine bones. Also due to the cancer, I have anemia, so am exhausted all
the time. There is no cure for this cancer. In spite of chemotherapy, I
am not in remission. I am in extreme pain, in fact I hurt like hell.
For life
and death medical reasons patients like me need to be exempted from rolling
blackouts.
Big Brother
has started 'rolling blackouts' for all of California. Yesterday Big Brother
turned off the electric utility power to my building which is full of old,
disabled people some of whom need dependable electricity for compellingly
critical life or death medical reasons.
Some of us
need electric power to keep essential medical devices running.
I risk death
if I do not sleep with my face in an electrically driven breathing machine,
and when I am awake I am supposed at all times to have oxygen forced
into my nose from another
electrically driven
breathing machine.
Last night
the TV news claimed that hospitals and facilities for the old and handicapped
were exempt from the rolling blackouts. That is not true, at least some
of us are paying a dear price for mal administration!
I am confined
to a wheelchair. I have to use the elevator. The elevator in this facility
for old, handicapped people did not run when the electricity goes off.
There is no other way I can get my self-propelled wheelchair from
my floor to any exit, so in case of a fire, people like me will perish.
I don't know
how many days I have left; I would like a decent quality of life, not a
shortened life.
DON'T LET BIG
BROTHER KILL US OR WEAR US DOWN
Frank Hills
Mill Valley
FrankTalk@Juno.com
Dangerous Road Partly To
Blame For Death
Recently I
read in the Gannet Corporation's Marin Independent Journal that 60 bicyclists
rode from Corte Madera to Woodacre to celebrate the memory of Cecy Krone,
a bicyclist from San Anselmo who died after being struck by an automobile
driven by a person under the influence of alcohol. This was the second
mass bicycle ride to the San Geronimo Valley and it is expected to be repeated
in years to come.
This tragic
accident received extensive press coverage before and during the court
proceedings in which the woman who drove the car plead guilty and
was sentenced to six years in state prison
I think of
Cecy Krone every time I drive along the San Geronimo-Nicasio road up over
the hill, and through the narrow roadway where Cecy died. I do this at
least once a week. Twenty years ago I used to run that road with my dog
through that narrow pass up to Lake Nicasio and back.
I stopped taking
my dog with me because the 30 yard or so at the rocky summit could not
be seen clearly by oncoming drivers, especially if they were traveling
fast as so many West Marin drivers do. Then I stopped running that road
entirely. There was no shoulder and it frightened me to hurry along
the edge of the roadway with cars and trucks speeding past just inches
away.
Nothing has
changed since I ran that road 20 years ago. Nothing has changed since Cecy's
death. Every time this story appears in print it states that she was killed
by a drunken driver, which is true in part, but this ignores and exculpates
an extremely dangerous, deadly piece of our highway system. There is no
bicycle path! There is not even a shoulder! The white line that many bicyclists
follow when riding along our rural roads is often covered with small pieces
of fallen rock forcing them to ride in the narrowest of roadways
which, is, as I said, is hardly visible to approaching motorists under
the best of conditions.
If anyone thinks
I am exaggerating they can test the accuracy of my assertion by parking
on the safe pullout next to Cecy's memorial monument and walk through that
pass on foot. It is not illegal to do
so, but, as I said, it is
extremely dangerous.
There are not
even special warning signs on both approaches to the narrow defile. There
are just "business as usual", small, standard signs at the foot of
both sides of the hill. The speed limit is 30 mph and one would think
that it might have been reduced after Cecy's death. Both sides of the hill
could use a large warning sign like the one on the western down slope of
Big Rock Hill on Lucas Valley Road.
Until vehicle
traffic is slowed down and that dangerous stretch of road is widened,
and improved so that bicycle riders can safely move through it, off the
roadway, the annual remembrance rides for Cecy
will be little more than
empty rituals by well meaning but misdirected people who are unwilling
or unable to recognize the danger of their recreational activities
and the dangerous conditions of our rural roads.
If the county
of Marin can secretly spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in firing
an Environmental Health Chief, it can come with the money to make that
pass safer for bicyclists.
Let bike paths
be Cecy's living memorial.
Jim Scanlon
San Rafael
Support Justice For Atomic
Veterans
To Office of Management
and Budget
Washington DC
I am
writing to urge the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to support regulatory
changes proposed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) providing a
presumption of service connection for veterans diagnosed with or who have
died from bone, lung, brain, colon, or ovarian cancer as a result of their
exposure to ionizing radiation during military service.
Unlike civilian
employees and others, many veterans suffering from these radiogenic diseases
or their survivors have been unable to obtain appropriate disability compensation
because accurate military records of exposure were not kept and radiation
dose exposure cannot be reliably determined. As a matter of equity, the
presumption of service connection for atomic veterans should not be more
restrictive than presumptions for civilians. VA's proposed changes would
ensure that veterans are afforded benefits similarly provided to civilians
under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, as amended this
year.
I support VA's
action to correct this injustice and strongly urge OMB to move forward
with approval of proposed VA regulatory changes providing service connection
for atomic veterans who have been diagnosed with or died from bone, lung,
colon, ovarian, or brain cancer as a result of ionizing radiation. Thank
you for prompt consideration of this matter.
Daniel Cedusky
Champaign, IL
The 22 Million Alto Tunnel
Debate
The Post article
about opening an existing but unused tunnel for cyclists titled "The $22
Million Alto Tunnel Debate" should have been titled "A one sided criticism."
While I respect
a well-written debate article that explores the pro and con of important
issues, your article was spun just slightly less than the average bike
wheel.
I commuted
from San Anselmo to Mill Valley on a bicycle to go to work in my early
twenties. I didn't bike commute from a desire to be a bike stud.
I did it because I didn't have a car. For me a tunnel would have
been a dream. I rode a bike as much as I could, but was eventually
worn down by the amount of time going up hills took me, as well and the
effort to get home after a long days work. Not to mention my dislike for
being in perpetual fear of being squashed along the narrow margin. I drive
a car now.
A work associate
of mine lives in San Rafael and told me that opening the tunnel there would
help him greatly. My parents live in Woodacre and opening that tunnel could
help cyclists in the valley. I understand
those of us like me and
my family who don't own fancy touring bikes or hoped up SUV bikes don't
make it on your radar screen. So I thought I would tell you what we use
our cheap 10 speeds for. We use them to go to work, school and the store.
While I don't pretend to be an expert on transportation issues, I still
don't need to be told what to think. More information and less opinion
would have been nice.
In regards
to Debbie Hubsmith, I met her years ago at a community gathering in San
Geronimo and have bumped into her about every 6 months since then.
She has always struck me as a very friendly, intelligent,
engaging, highly motivated
community activist of the highest caliber.
Before reading
your article I would have said that she deserves any money she gets for
her causes or her pocket more than a former bicycle commuter like myself
or the author of the article, but after I read the
article I came to a surprising
conclusion.
Ms Hubsmith
is not a wonderful, dedicated and good natured person, but a vile and treacherous
corporate enchantress attempting to make herself rich by corrupting public
officials and stealing money from innocent
taxpayers to build a dangerous
cavern designed to lure young children into a den of fire-building homeless
drug dealers who help fleeing criminals confuse police while thwarting
the efforts of paramedics and firemen. All of this so that she can
terrorize cyclists by putting them through an infernal obstacle course
of staggering pedestrians, helpless infants, barricading seniors and wild
dogs.
Thank god I
read your article in time. I might have mistakenly supported a new
bike path and all the terror it would bring to the community.
Thank you for
your very informative "debate." I'd say more but it's time for me
to go for a recreational drive.
Jon Gardner
Mill Valley, Ca.
Blast To Media About Florida
To The Media:
I have been
disgusted again and again at your lack of investigative reporting regarding
the electoral process in Florida. If all valid Florida votes were counted,
Vice President Al Gore would win by 23,000 votes, according to the Miami
Herald. Inauguration of an unelected President is anathema to the principles
of Democracy, for which generations of Americans have fought and died.
History will condemn George W. Bush for attempting to steal the Presidency
as well as those who failed to take action to preserve American democracy.
I lump you in the latter category, those who failed to take action and
report not only the disenfranchising of thousands of African-American voters,
but also the results of the recounts underway.
Just so you
know, I have canceled my newspaper subscriptions and watch no network news.
May the independent, passionate voices of the internet sink your corporate-controlled
newsthink. Maybe when you're in the unemployment line with your fellow
brethren will you begin to hear the voices and concerns of the American
electorate again and realize why you became journalists in the first place.
Jennifer Michalski
Issue Management
Cadmus Professional Communications
Linthicum, MD
E-mail: michalskij@cadmus.com