Letters for May 31, 2012

Scared to get food

Re “Money from the feds” by Jeff vonKaenel (SN&R Greenlight, May 17):

I wanted to weigh in on the “welfare” thing you talked about in SN&R this week—the CalFresh food-stamp benefits that go unused in Sacramento.

I am one of those who pretty much lost my job in the Bush [administration] meltdown. A year or so ago, I went to apply for CalFresh (at the office near 28th and Q streets), and besides an estimated two-hour wait time in conditions far more hideous than the worst [Department of Motor Vehicles], I was accosted twice as I walked up by very scary and aggressive panhandlers.

Until the whole already-humiliating experience is made safer and saner, we will never get participation above where it is right now. As a 50-something white male, I will never put myself in a position of being as scared as I was walking into that building. There is so little information online that going there is the only way.

We are screwed as a society if we don’t make the whole process a little easier and a lot less terrifying. I can’t even imagine how awful it must be for a woman with kids to walk into that place.

Ron Westover
Sacramento

Shame on you, SN&R

Re “Vote with us!” (SN&R Editorial, May 24):

It is with a tremendous disappointment that I saw SN&R’s mayoral endorsement of Kevin Johnson.

I cannot believe you call this wannabe king of world class/strong mayor-dom “exceptionally intelligent.” How can you? He’s like a puppet with his army of advisers; like a petulant child when he doesn’t get his way; and he makes grammatical errors whenever he speaks on his own.

But that’s not why he shouldn’t be mayor again. All of your other comments—tunnel vision, needed leadership for police, fire, homelessness, etc., are valid and have been neglected with K.J.’s obsession with the Maloofs-NBA arena fiasco. He won’t accept blame for his part in the resulting nonsense. … Sacramento deserves better; not a celebrity-, fame-chasing former NBA player who doesn’t know how to compromise and lead. …

I’m voting for Jonathan Rewers, and urge others to do the same. I thought SN&R was better than this. Shame on you.

Dismayed in Carmichael

Re “The secret life of Google” by Rachel Leibrock (SN&R Feature, May 17):

I read your piece on Google and found it very interesting.

The day I picked up the paper (Thursday), I had just received an email from Amazon.com to buy bird feeders, listing choices and prices. Three days prior to that, I had Googled bird feeders. I also watched a YouTube video on how to make bird feeders.

I couldn’t believe that this info was shared or sold, and it has really freaked me out! I may stop using Google and Amazon.com now.

Sharla Lloyd
Carmichael

She’s not fooled

Re “Don’t get fooled” (SN&R Editorial, May 10):

I think Proposition 29 is a good idea. I encourage voters to educate themselves on the issue by checking out the facts on the Californians for a Cure website (http://californiansforacure.org).

Some people seem to think that somehow being an American means doing whatever you want without consequence. We enjoy our rights, but don’t want to accept responsibility. Are we a nation of teenagers? When my neighbor smokes, I have to close the windows to my baby son’s room. Doesn’t that infringe on my baby’s right to clean air? Today I saw a driver flick his cigarette from his window—won’t that eventually make it to the ocean?

We are not living in the Wild West, nor would many of us want to. Our actions have consequences for ourselves and others, and rather than “curb freedom,” this proposition means that smokers pay their own way. And don’t we want everyone to “pay their fair share” these days?

Lastly, I like to think we are not so cynical that we believe that big, corporate, out-of-state tobacco companies have our interest at heart more than our fellow citizens—Prop. 29 is, after all, a ballot initiative.

Jennifer Williams
via email

Prop. 29 devil’s in the details

Re “Don’t get fooled” (SN&R Editorial, May 10):

I am a cancer survivor and am infinitely grateful for all the cancer research that’s been done around the world. Also, I grew up in a haze of tobacco smoke. My mother chain-smoked unfiltered Lucky Strikes; my father chain-smoked unfiltered Camels (that’s not a camel, it’s a horse with tumors). If I had my way, tobacco companies wouldn’t be allowed to advertise at all, and all of the tobacco-corporation execs who lied to Congress and the public for too many years would be in prison.

So, I am all for increased tobacco taxes, and if the money raised by Prop. 29 was to go into the general fund, I’d be all for it. But I am voting no on 29.

To mandate a new nonemergency spending program when the state is in a fiscal crisis is irresponsible. Raising the tobacco tax and then mandating it be spent on a new program removes it as a potential source of revenue to help balance the state budget.

This new spending isn’t needed at this time: Some of the Prop. 29 money would go toward our existing smoking-reduction programs. But according to SN&R’s own editorial, our current smoking-reduction programs, since 1988, have done exceedingly well. We don’t need to increase funding for them. The federal government already spends upward of $6 billion a year on cancer research. And there is much cancer research being done with private funds and in other countries.

We need to take the state budget crisis more seriously. Smoking reduction and cancer research are worthy causes. If you insist on spending more money on them now, then you tell the Legislature what current services and programs you want reduced or cut to help balance the budget.

Jan Bergeron
Sacramento

He wants to know our second choice

Re “Pan’s the man” (SN&R Editorial, May 10):

I was surprised and disappointed that SN&R did not list the other candidates in the endorsement article and explain why they picked [Dr. Richard] Pan over the other candidates. … Even The Sacramento Bee did an online comparison of all of the candidates.

I guess freedom of the press does not mean that the press will provide all of the information for a person to form an opinion or make a decision, but it does mean that those who can afford to own the press can print what they want.

C.T. Weber
Sacramento

C.T. Weber is the Peace & Freedom Party candidate in the state Assembly 9th District.