Letters for December 3, 2009

Cosmo Garvin, kitten killer?

Re “They spent our money on what?” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R Feature, November 19):

Was Cosmo Garvin being critical or complimentary by reporting that [Sacramento City Councilwoman] Sandy Sheedy spent $3,000 from her discretionary fund for spay/neuter programs?

I hope it was the latter. Low-cost spay/neuter programs are desperately needed in Sacramento County and city, where half of the 40,000 dogs and cats who enter animal shelters every year are killed by lethal injection. There are too many animals in our community and not enough people willing to adopt them.

But shelters and nonprofit organizations cannot solve this problem without more support from local governments. I hope all city council members and the mayor will follow Sheedy’s example and designate some of their discretionary funds to make spay/neuter more affordable and accessible for everyone. As a taxpayer, I’d rather my money be spent on canine and feline birth control today than on killing kittens and puppies tomorrow.

Alexis Raymond
secretary

Sac’s Tammany Hall

Re “They spent our money on what?” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R Feature, November 19):

Why are the taxpayers paying for a slush fund to help re-elect these politicos by making them look good to special interests? The fees put into this slush fund are taxes and should be in the general fund.

These thieves don’t need a Tammany Hall fund to do their job, where if you don’t pay, you don’t get listened to. Last time I looked at a map, we are not in Chicago. They are paid to listen to the community and figure out how to and what to fund based on the community needs. If the funds are not needed in the general budget, then the funds are graft gotten by extortion, and these guys and gals would go to jail.

Michael Fellion
Carmichael

He hates us. He really hates us.

Re “They spent our money on what?” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R Feature, November 19):

Since SN&R obviously couldn’t find their ass with both hands, I’ll give you a heads-up. On a story as important as this, you should give bullet points about where you feel money has been poorly allocated. Given the person who generally reads your news rag, the lowdown on all your local political adversaries only makes us wish we’d stuck to reading your headlines and “man on the street” opinions while eating our Hammer 2s at Willie’s [Burgers and Chiliburgers].

You guys really ought to know by now that your barely above UC Davis Aggie reporting is (at best) an opportunity to plant seeds for more critical exploration. Perhaps you should rate all your stories with the meaningless popcorn bags you so triumphantly use to bolster whatever middle-of-the-road independent film that’s playing at the Crest or Tower theaters on a given weekend.

From one Sacramentan to another, you suck, and so does your concept of “cutting edge” journalism.

Darryl Kessler
Sacramento

Shocked, she sez. Just shocked.

Re “They spent our money on what?” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R Feature, November 19):

Great reporting. This is the kind of stuff that should be plastered and reported in the local newspaper. I’m shocked at the waste of our money!

It’s so Third World; I’m very concerned how low these council members have sunk. I think these expenditures are wrong and criminal. It seems this behavior is happening everywhere in government nowadays. It’s not acceptable—never was and isn’t now. I hope all of us hardworking taxpayers stand up and take back our government.

Janet Lake
Sacramento

Ivory tower vs. real world

Re “Theater of pain” by Kel Munger (SN&R Frontlines, November 19):

Academically, theoretically, the professor is right on. However, we don’t live in a world which subscribes to ivory-tower speculation as to whether or not constitutional rights are supposed to be applied. Moreover, just about all of these detainees came from countries in which political and economic freedom as we enjoy in the United States is nonexistent. I fail to see any valid foundation in evaluating the treatment for these prisoners through the looking glass of our own value system.

Allow me to add that, as we all should know, things aren’t perfect in the United States, but, in general, much better than most anywhere else. I believe this is why the honorable professor chose to abandon his native land to come and live in the United States: freedom of thought.

Who was it that said, “I disagree with everything you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”—Descartes?

Jack De Mond
Sacramento

Editor’s note: The statement is most commonly misattributed to Voltaire, but was mostly likely originated by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G. Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire (1906).

They’re worse than us

Re “Theater of pain” by Kel Munger (SN&R Frontlines, November 19):

The professor from UC Davis and the [American Civil Liberties Union] have everything backwards, as usual. It blows my mind to listen to this liberal rhetoric about how terrorists are treated unfairly. If he is so worried about human rights, why doesn’t he focus on the abuse that woman go through in Islamic countries, such as stoning, etc., or about the innocent people who were murdered on 9/11? This guy does not belong in a public university teaching our children this left-wing radical ideology.

Mathew Fines
via e-mail

Still the same

Re “Saving south Sac” by Sena Christian (SN&R Frontlines, November 19):

Joany Titherington, president of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association, seems to think that the neighborhood is unfairly stigmatized, and that “it really isn’t that way anymore.”

I live in Oak Park. My 10-year-old daughter came in the room to tell me there were people outside screaming “F” and “B” words. I sent my boyfriend outside, who informed me that at least 50 people were jumping on one girl right in front of my house; one even jumped on my car to scream and yell.

Drug dealers, addicts and alcoholics, prostitutes and general rowdiness rule the neighborhoods ’round here. I don’t know where you live, Joany, but it really is that way still.

Jennifer Mishler
Sacramento