Letters for February 9, 2017

Art over fish

Re “Exit through the peanut gallery” by Rebecca Huval (SN&R Arts & Culture, February 2):

Kudos, M5 Arts! Mayor Steinberg, are you watching? We don’t need an aquarium in Sacramento. We need to promote our unique art community. Art Hotel and Art Street are showing our city how to swim against the conventional current.

Kristina Rogers

Sacramento

Thanks, Bernie

Re “Suffragettes’ city” by Rachel Leibrock (SN&R Feature Story, February 2):

While it was heartening to see the turnout of women embarrassing Trump, history will record that American women failed to take their golden opportunity on Election Day. Special thanks for that goes to the Berniebot free-lunch “feminists” who wounded Hillary Clinton early and often. Did they think misogyny would go down so easily? They deserve the whirlwind, even though the rest of us don’t.

Christine Craft

Sacramento

Walking money bags

Re “’The judge took my son away’” by Alastair Bland (SN&R News, January 26):

Thank you to SN&R and Alastair Bland for this dynamite article. You covered all aspects of the problem clearly and thoroughly. The collusion among multiple professionals to endanger children is quite evident, despite the self-serving protests by Sacramento family court judicial officers.

Instead of being protected, children are placed with identified physical and sexual abusers in record numbers throughout California. How do we know? Over the past 15 years, our organization (California Protective Parents Association) has received over 5,000 contacts from desperate mothers and a small handful of fathers pleading for help. Their children continue to report abuse even while being in the full custody of their abusers.

According to Geraldine Stahly’s research, these battered mothers pay an average of $100,000 to a squadron of lawyers, therapists, evaluators, private mediators, supervised visitation centers and other profiteers working the system. One can only speculate whether their opponents may have found it useful to donate to judges’ campaign funds.

To add insult to injury, the mothers are often forced to pay for court-ordered supervised visits, and even pay child support to their batterers. As one attorney crassly put it, “Children are little walking bags of money.”

The only dilemma I have now is whether to send the article to the FBI Public Corruption Unit or the FBI Organized Crime Unit. Fortunately, both are located at the same address: 2001 Freedom Way, Roseville, CA 95678.

Connie Valentine

Davis