Letters for April 29, 2010

Letter of the week
Green dreams, economic hope

Re “Clean energy dreams” by Fred Branfman (SN&R Feature, April 15):

In the 1970s, labor unions were having “jobs vs. environment” debates. Although no longer with labor unions, we continue to have the same debates today.

Renewable energy such as solar and wind will create and sustain jobs that coal and oil cannot; yet there still seems to be this mentality among many people that environmentalists and clean-energy advocates have no consideration for the economic impact of making the change to renewable-energy resources. In fact, it is a green economy that will get our economy back on track.

Branfman has it right; clean energy is “our major economic hope.” We must—in California and then in all of America—do as so many other countries have done and embrace a green economy as the solution instead of the problem to our economic woes.

Elizabeth Kennedy
Davis

Gitmo’s better than tyranny

Re “Gitmo still going” by Kel Munger (SN&R Frontlines, April 22):

Give me a break. How critical was this so-called journalist when it comes to Islamic violence against Westerners? Or about the ceaseless tyranny of Muslim-dominated governments?

These folks come here as near-refugees from the very crap they then try to defend once they’re here.

Christian Baker
via e-mail

Gitmo mocks U.S. policies

Re “Gitmo still going” by Kel Munger (SN&R Frontlines, April 22):

One has reason to wonder why a country like the United States, the world’s most powerful nation, needs to protect and defend itself from a television station and its journalists. No other country, certainly not any Western democracy, promotes its own security by bombing television stations and torturing journalists, effectively making a crude mockery of the notion that U.S. policies in the Middle East are intended to promote freedom.

Suhail Shafi
via e-mail

Stop the live markets

Re “Cruel story” by Thelma Lee Gross, D.V.M. (SN&R Essay, April 22):

I agree with Dr. Gross: These markets absolutely should be shut down.

Not only are they sources of major animal cruelty, they pose a serious health hazard for the public and the environment. Recent necropsies on the market turtles and frogs have shown them all to be seriously diseased and/or parasitized [with things like] E. coli, salmonella, Pastuerella, Giardia, blood parasites, even one case of malaria. It is illegal to sell such products for human consumption, yet the sales continue unabated.

Even more troubling, a study published in the January 2009 issue of Biological Conservation reported that 62 percent of the market frogs necropsied tested positive for the dreaded chytrid fungus, a prime suspect in the extinctions of scores of amphibian species worldwide in recent years.

On the cruelty issue, state Penal Code 597.3 (authored by then-Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl in 2000) offers some basic protections for these animals, but is rarely enforced.

Concerned citizens should contact local animal control when they see abuses in these markets (many of them along Folsom Boulevard in Sacramento).

Meanwhile, the penalties for infractions of 597.3 are badly in need of strengthening. All state legislators may be written c/o the State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814.

Eric Mills
coordinator

PG&E scam

Re “Power outrage” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R Frontlines, April 15):

This is a PG&E scam measure. There are already restrictions on local governments. With this ballot measure, PG&E will have a monopoly. Remember Enron, and how they robbed us a few years back? PG&E will be doing the same thing.

They are spending $25 million dollars to fool us into thinking that this is a tax payer-friendly measure! Why on Earth would a blood-sucking company like PG&E spend $25 million for anything if they did not have something to gain? They are dirty rotten scoundrels. Please vote “no” on Proposition 16.

M. Arshad
Sacramento

Just say ‘Higher rates’

Re “Power outrage” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R Frontlines, April 15):

The petition person collecting signatures outside Lowe’s on Greenback Lane said it was a petition to give the people more power and did not even mention PG&E. I signed it. Then I saw on TV who was backing it and knew immediately that there was a skunk in the woodpile. I wish I could take back my signature.

Where does PG&E get all that money to keep competitors at bay? From higher rates. You bet! That kind of activity should not be allowed. Next time, I won’t sign until I read the entire initiative.

Donna Mckinnon
Fair Oaks

SN&R, the anti-hippies

Re “Getaway green” by Uncle Jerry (SN&R An Inconvenient Ruth, April 15):

It seems SN&R is advocating rolling back the advances of the last century in public health. I quote: “Don’t do laundry. Laundry uses energy. And really, who wants to suds yer duds when you should be saving energy?”

A while back, there was a voice raised to protest flushing toilets most of the time. And we were advised not to rinse out soda cans.

I can’t decide whether you (collectively) are advocating thoughtful resource use or are simply “anti” in the old hippie sense. Well, at least you got me thinking.

Jack Parsons
Sacramento

Reefer gladness

Re “420 Guide” (SN&R Guides, April 15):

As Homer Simpson might drool, “Mmmmm, marijuana …” Thanks, SN&R, for the 420 marijuana guide in the April 15 issue. I’ll light up a little bowl in thanks.

William J. Hughes
Sacramento