Letters for September 27, 2012

Political mudslinging

Re “Justice and Warren” by Nick Miller (SN&R Frontlines, September 20):

It was my perception that the SN&R was a news organization, until you printed this one-sided attack ad on Allen Warren.

Warren has owned his business for over 20 years. He’s created jobs and brought money into the district. His business survived the biggest recession since the Great Depression when many others didn’t.

To use pending litigation as evidence of wrongdoing is just bad journalism.

I knew this campaign would get dirty, and now your paper has proven that.

Michelle Gladney
Sacramento

City council loves Megadeth?

Re “What’s the score?” (SN&R Bites, September 20) and “K.J. Inc.” by Cosmo Garvin (Feature Story, August 16):

I wonder if Sacramento City Council has secret meetings where they play the Megadeth song, “Crush ’Em?” It’s strange that they can put a curfew on free speech. Just one more way to make citizens feel powerless. I guess they gotta show who the boss is, so we don’t forget.

Maybe I’ll worry less about Occupy Sacramento and the city council, and spend my time accepting donations without reporting them. Oh, wait a minute—that’s the mayor’s job.

Noah Kameyer
Sacramento

False outrage and evil ways

Re “Call the doctor” by Rachel Leibrock (SN&R Editor’s Note, September 13):

The problem with your Editor’s Note is that you fail to mention that this girl at “urgent care” could just have gone to one of the many emergency rooms at a hospital and received treatment for free. That’s right—it would not cost her a dime.

Why would she go to a generally privatized thing like urgent care?

The big part you’re not telling is that where treating the arm would have supposedly cost a minimum of $220, it will now cost them $1,000 a year (minimum) for insurance. This does not include the costs that society will bear.

Yes, liberals, let’s pay for condoms and sex changes, because the 45 percent of us who work can afford it. So as a nation, we will get poorer and poorer, which is the point, because you want us to live in the Dark Ages, or like Africa, where fraud and unethical behavior is the norm, and there is one nurse for every 10,000 patients.

Give me a break from your false outrage and your evil ways.

William Kennedy, R.N.
Sacramento

Racism is integral to drug policy

Re “Jim Crow 2012” by Jeff vonKaenel (SN&R Greenlight, September 13):

The drug war has been waged in a racist manner since its inception. The Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 was preceded by a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment. Opium was identified with Chinese laborers, marijuana with Mexicans and cocaine with African-Americans. Racial profiling continues to be the norm, despite similar rates of drug use for minorities and whites. Support for the drug war would end overnight if whites were incarcerated for drugs at the same rate as minorities. The drug war is a cultural inquisition, not a public-health campaign.

Prison cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. It’s time to declare peace in the failed drug war and begin treating all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public-health problem it is. Thanks to public-education efforts, tobacco use has declined without any need to wage war on tobacco addicts and farmers. Mandatory minimum prison sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing and racial profiling are not the most cost-effective means of discouraging unhealthy choices.

Robert Sharpe
policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy

Careless with fluoridation

Re “Fluoride fail” by Brian Lambert (SN&R Guest Comment, September 13):

Many thanks to Brian Lambert for his essay on the ills of water fluoridation.

I remember that when this notion of adulterating Sacramento’s water supply was first proposed some years ago. There was an outcry, but there were also powerful voices supporting the idea. Instead of proposing low-cost dental service to financially stressed families, the city decided that water fluoridation citywide would provide good teeth naturally to poorer children.

Unfortunately, it also provided young people with an increased risk of cancer and elders with bones more likely to break. … They die with good teeth, presumably, but I doubt that this is any consolation.

It distresses me that Sacramento authorities would be so careless with their guardianship of the people living here that they would jeopardize their health and strength in this way. It has no nutrient value. And the city has added it to our water which we drink daily in varying amounts.

Noni Redmond
via email

We deserve to know

Re “Who’s who of Prop. 37” by Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia (SN&R Green Days, September 6):

We already have labeling of foods: calories, fats, the breakdown of nutrients and ingredients, country of origin, etc. Almost 50 countries around the world including Japan, the entire European Union countries, Russia and China label [genetically modified organism] foods.

I don’t think genetically modified foods are healthy. The [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] has not conducted a single independent test of any genetically engineered product. The agency simply accepts the testing completed and provided by the biotechnology companies. Conflict of interest? Only one human study has been done with GMOs and, of the seven people involved, three had adverse effects after eating the genetically modified food.

We can trust the FDA, government and corporations to look after our welfare, right? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. …

We should know what is in our food that we buy it, eat it and feed it to our children. Vote yes for Proposition 37.

John Alexander
Chico

Corrections

In “Justice and Warren” by Nick Miller (SN&R Frontlines, September 20), it was reported that city-council candidate Allen Warren placed first in this past June’s primary; he placed second.

Also in last week’s Best of Sacramento issue, we forgot to include that Roma II Pizzeria (8491 Folsom Boulevard, (916) 383-9264, www.roma2pizza.com) also won third place for Best Pizza. Congrats!