Letters to the editor: June 2021
The great charade
Dear Editor,
Soon, we will arrive at the great patriotic day in July, with hopefully a sigh of relief.
But I have news for the mayors, parade organizers, country singers, veterans, political candidates, and chamber of commerce gurus who will once again be crowing loudly about āour democracy.ā
Every real democracy passes out land to families, publishes and sticks to a written law, and requires civic and science education of the youth. Democracy must have an independent judiciary, term limits and return limits, and supremacy of the legislative branch.
Democracy curbs luxury, bans special privileges for the rich, and focuses heavily on public health. Democracy protects local decision-making power, uses impeachment to rein-in would-be dictators, and requires citizen oversight of government.
Oh, and yes, democracy establishes broad voting rights among the people and insists on equal justice for all.
In actual fact, we are doing exceedingly poorly on virtually everything except praising ourselves.
Sincerely,
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah (Formerly of Solano County)
Rhi Alysander letter
Editor:
I was rather horrified by some of the things I read in Rhi Alysanderās piece in the May issue of the Sonoma County Gazette. First there was the bigotry exhibited by members of the Active 20-30 club. I guess I thought that people in Sonoma County were very tolerant of gender differences and different orientations because I belong to a very gay friendly church. (Our pastor is a gay man who got married to his husband in our church and there are many gay and transgender members, so I live in this tolerant bubble.) Definitely she was not accepted by the women in the club who looked down upon her and seemed to have indulged in victim blaming.
Secondly, there was the reputation of Dominic Foppoli. The club members knew his reputation as a person who exhibited predatory behavior, but it seems that no one spoke to him about his behavior or held him accountable. He should have been urged to leave the club. The fact that club members felt compelled to warn newcomers of his behavior was a sure sign that he should have been kicked out of the club.
I find the ignorance, intolerance and blind decisions made by people in the club and also people who should have known better in Windsor City government to be very disappointing. The hammer should have come down with the first incident that was reported in an email. It isnāt as if people did not know his reputation.
For too long, entitled men have been getting away with grievous treatment of women. This should be stopped before it gets too far. There were a lot of failings revealed in this case. I am very disappointed that this so-called liberal county failed so miserably in this case.
Linda Robinett
Sebastopol, CA
Unsustainable and Unscientific Economic Development
Editor:
Sonoma County is pushing a new marijuana ordinance that would blanket our lands with unsightly hoop houses, strain our already depleted water resources and ignore environmental laws, all in a panic to pay for a bloated bureaucracy.
Most marijuana jobs are low skilled: trimming, sorting, hauling product and water. One of the many reasons Napa has kept this new āindustryā out is because the vineyards already had problems with labor and housing shortages.
In February 2020 unemployment was at 2.8% in Sonoma County, then the virus hit. We are on track to get back to full employment, so thereās no urgency for adding thousands of low skilled jobs here during a housing crisis. Where will all this new labor live? Might this impact our homeless crisis? What about the impact on our water resources?
This ordinance does not promote smart nor sustainable economic development. Instead, why not partner with a leading scientific laboratory to create a THC and CBD research institute? Sonoma could be a leader in establishing the scientifically proven benefits, or harms, of these new and unregulated drug products. These higher skilled and better paying jobs would also shed light on this murky industry. Follow the science!
Moira Jacobs
Santa Rosa
Water, Water! How precious!
Dear Editor:
Please, can we all help to be so aware and conserve our very precious water.
Put a drip system on your garden/it helps to save water.
Kids, relearn and shorten those showers.
Collet shower water in buckets and put on garden
Folks who have grass, pls consider the rebate the City offers and TAKE yours out!! We need that precious water for other things.
Folks who can, lets collect what precious water we may get and let it collect in rain barrels or the like and save it
Those of you who have tall dangerous grasses as far as fire hazzard goes, pls cut those down for all our sakes. It takes water to put fires out.