Letters for September 22, 2016

A beautiful ‘ugly’

Re “Say no to sprawl” by Jeff vonKaenel (SN&R Greenlight, September 15):

The article about the McKinley Village development included the following statement: “When complete, it will transform an ugly piece of land into 336 homes.”

I remember the land before it was bulldozed by the McKinley Village developers and it was a breathtakingly beautiful field with tall green grass, mustard flowers and a working orchard with trees that produced beautiful blossoms. The beauty of the open space made me smile every time I drove past it on the Capitol City Freeway. Let’s keep the record straight, please!

Tricia Christie

Sacramento

Power plays

Re “Real Talk” by Tucker Hoog (SN&R Letters, August 25):

I agree with Tucker Hoog’s analysis of the gambling industry in Sacramento, but I think that gambling, gaming and all addictions plug into power, or the lack of it. For one, brief shining moment someone wins and feels the power of what that is like. Perhaps something never experienced before. The loss of the same winnings then is doubly upsetting, but the win—man, just to feel it, taste it, experience it. But then it must stop. Those excitements are escape and sooner or later reality must be faced.

Stefanie Stolinsky

Beverly Hills

A devil’s bargain

Re “Up in Smoke” by David Downs (SN&R Feature, September 15):

While advocates see [marijuana legalization] as a step toward sanity in the war against weed and opponents fear for the well being of generations to come, the seeming stalemate is exemplary of a more regressive than progressive outlook than where we were 20 years ago when California’s first in the nation Compassionate Use Act of 1996 directly challenged the federal government’s prohibition against legitimate medical use. The difference then and now seems to be the same racial and class biases that gave rise to marijuana prohibition in the first place. Unfortunately the tipping balance of the new regulations will do little to alter that reality. Prop 64 pits the moral imperative of saving lives against the moral travesty of destroying lives through legal and economic marginalization. Prop. 64 is the wrong answer, to the wrong question, by the wrong people, for the wrong reason. It’s a devil’s bargain.

Rev. Scott T. Imler

West Hollywood

Smoke, out

Re “Up in Smoke” by David Downs (SN&R Feature, September 15):

Interesting that with all the health warning ads, taxes and legislative bills against smoking cigarettes, now some want to legalize smoking marijuana. It does not follow as smoke is smoke.

Glen Salo

Sacramento