Letters for July 18, 2002

They’re just really small

Re “Child Labor at the Bee” by Sushma Subramanian ( SN&R News, July 11):

Lighten up. This is not child abuse. There are far too few jobs in this society that a family can do together. Too often children are divorced from their parents’ work life and this in part creates children who feel unimportant, unneeded, and in the way.

Immigrant families have often depended on their children’s labor to contribute to their family. In turn this creates children who respect the work of their family and feel like an equal member. These children later in life appreciate hard work, and aren’t as apt to whine and beg for “stuff.” It’s far better to have a child at work with her parents, being safely supervised, than to be at a day-care center for over 8 hours a day as many unfortunate modern-day kids are.

Tina Wong
via e-mail

Division from within

Re “Our Lady of Infinite Division” by R.V. Scheide ( SN&R Cover, July 3):

I read the article on the problems at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church with some bemusement. While I agree that many are not pleased with the priests from the Legion of Christ, and perhaps rightly so, there is another problem that your reporter overlooked. There is a group at that church who, according to other published reports, have caused division by their insistence on running the affairs of the parish in a “my way or the highway” fashion. They are the Guadalupanos—yes, the same Guadalupanos who were the source of your story. According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, that was the reason for their being locked out of the parish facilities: they apparently refused to share the facilities with anyone who did not meet their approval. According to your story they number 125 families strong. How many families are there in that parish? Are newcomers made to feel welcome? The Bee investigated these allegations as well as the problems with the Legion of Christ. Does this denigrate your story? No. But it does show a flaw in your coverage, perhaps. As Mr. Tom Walsh says, the Catholic Church does need to solve all of its problems, perhaps one church at a time. But let’s be sure that all of the problems are brought to light for review.

Eric D. Fisher
Sacramento

Pledge ruling will backfire

Re “Two Little Words” ( SN&R Editorial, July 3):

I must take issue with your Editorial and point out the folly of Dr. Newdow’s campaign to oust God from our lives. Contrary to your first sentence, no child is forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and Newdow admitted on a national news program that his daughter has never been forced to do so, and she doesn’t care about the Pledge, the controversy, or the lawsuit one way or another. Like his previous attempts to get “In God We Trust” off our coins, Newdow’s campaign is using his daughter simply as a pawn.

In the unlikely event that this ruling is upheld, our Circuit being the most often overruled in the country, there may be an unintended result. There will be an immediate call for a 28th Amendment to the Constitution which will pass both houses of Congress and be ratified by 49 of our 50 states in record time. It will enshrine the Pledge of Allegiance, “In God We Trust,” and the “Star-Spangled Banner” in the Constitution (since few Americans know the complete lyrics to our national anthem, few know that the final verse is entirely dedicated to God and it is the source of “In God We Trust”). Since our founders were religious men, referring to God in the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence, and three times thereafter, they would have approved of such an amendment, had they ever thought that it would be necessary. Dr. Newdow will have succeeded in making these references to God unassailably constitutional!

C. M. McAdams
Sacramento

Cleaning up the meth

Re “The Meth Makers” by R.V. Scheide ( SN&R Cover, June 6):

I wanted to commend you for your reporting of the dangers of methamphetamine in this story. It accurately reflected the hazards associated with the sale of this toxic drug and the handling of the explosive chemicals used to manufacture it.

Governor Davis is committed to aggressively pursuing these clandestine drug operators who are endangering lives as well as the environment in California. Your reporting on the recklessness of this illicit trade helps bring home the message that there is no future in meth.

Allen Sawyer
Interim Executive Director
Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning

Says who?

Re “Two Little Words” ( SN&R Editorial, July 3):

Thank you for your brave and well-reasoned support of the Pledge decision and for taking the opportunity to educate. According to various polls, as much as 90 percent of the American public disagreed with this decision. That number is as stunning as it is frightening. I especially appreciated your position that the decision was an act of patriotism. I have a rich relationship with a higher power I choose to call God, but I also choose to practice and develop that relationship outside the confines of any particular denomination. As the bumper sticker says, “My God is too big to fit inside one religion.”

Being free from governmental endorsement is as important to me as it is to atheists. It deeply concerns me that the general population doesn’t understand the issue of freedom that’s associated with this. It supports the protection of everyone’s freedom to practice—or not practice—religion exactly as they wish, a fundamental premise of the creation of this grand country in the first place. What could be more patriotic than that? The emotional over-reaction to this decision makes this country look as religiously zealous as those whom we call our enemies. It’s time we take stock and decide what this country is really about, and this decision provides a great opportunity to do just that. I thank you for furthering the discussion.

Steve Haas
via e-mail

Bike riding is not a crime

Re “Capital Bites” (SN&R weekly column):

I would like to clarify a few points that Capital Bites has misrepresented regarding Sacramento Critical Mass over the past several months. (Critical Mass is a community bicycle ride whereby bicycles become traffic.)

To begin with, bicycle riders are not anarchists. In one Capital Bites, it was put in bold type that Critical Mass riders are anarchists. We ride bicycles, regardless of political views. We are interested in having more bikes and fewer cars on the road.

Secondly, the Bicycle Civil Liberties Union does not organize the Critical Mass rides. BCLU is an organization created and run by Jason Meggs, who is very involved in the ride.

And thirdly, in the June 13 Capital Bites, where Bites so generously printed info about the lawsuit against Sacramento Police by the BCLU, there was another misstep. Riders on the June ride were not treated better by the police. Instead, the surveillance was simply overt. Every time riders took over all lanes, we were accosted with loud siren bursts. We, in their communication, are the problem, rather than motorists who become violent.

Critical Mass cyclist Nova Reeves
via e-mail

Shaken, not stirred

Re Ad (SN&R, June 27):

This letter is being written by a long-time Sacramento resident, a long-time reader and advertiser in your paper. However, after noticing the ad on page 46 in the June 27 issue, not only will I not advertise again, I won’t read your paper again. The ad for “custom oil paintings by Joel Dodds” is about hatred of women. For you to run this ad must mean you support this kind of sexually explicit, hideous hatred of women in which also supports “we will make money any way we can.”

The ad showing a woman in a martini glass with her legs spread wide apart is disgusting. Its saying, “It’s just your turn,” promotes and advocates for rape. If that were a black or Hispanic person saying, “She doesn’t love you—it’s your turn,” then you would know (if you had half a brain) that this promotes racist and sexist hatred.

When you can stop promoting hatred for women, which in turn promotes hatred of others, including minorities, let me know.

Nancy Cornelius
Sacramento

Father Sister

Re “Our Lady of Infinite Division” by R.V. Scheide ( SN&R Cover, July 3):

The Catholic Church constantly bemoans its priest shortage. Father James Murphy sites this as one of the reasons that the Legion of Christ was called into Sacramento. Why do we continue to sympathize with the Church’s problems in finding priests, when they continue to deny women the ability to join the priesthood?

Casandra Amos
via e-mail