Letters to the Editor 5-12-16

Letter carrier food drive May 14
Editor: Saturday, May 14, marks the 24th anniversary of America’s largest-single day of giving, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. This event is presented in partnership with the U.S. Postal Service, National Association of Letter Carriers, National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, Valpak, United Way, AFL-CIO, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, and other partners. Currently, 48 million Americans, including one in five children, are unsure where their next meal is coming from.
In 2015, over 6.5 million pounds of food was collected by Postal Service carriers in the Pacific Area, providing needed food for many throughout California and Hawaii. Over the course of the 23-year history, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive has collected well over one billion pounds of food nationally. The food drive’s timing is crucial and planned to help restore much needed supplies to local food banks. Please join our community on Saturday, May 14, by placing your non-perishable food donations in a bag and place near or in your mailbox. Your mail carrier will collect it and promptly deliver in to our local food bank. For more information please contact the Cloverdale Post Office at 894-4607
Rickey C. Cordova
Postmaster, Cloverdale Post Office
Dinner to honor local veterans
Editor: The Kiwanis Club of Cloverdale and the Lions Club of Cloverdale are hosting a dinner to honor the veterans of our community. This is our way of showing our appreciation for the service they gave to our country. The dinner will be held on Sunday, May 29 at the Veteran’s Memorial Building, 205 W. First St. Doors will open at 6 p.m. for a social hour with dinner and program at 7 p.m. All local veterans and their spouses are cordially invited to attend. If you have not received a special invitation by May 12, please call 894-3222 to get on the mailing list as we hope to make this an annual event.
Susan Lile
Cloverdale
No to Wood
Editor: I see that State Assemblyman Jim Wood is up for re-election on June 7. I wanted to see how our guy is doing, so I looked on his official website. It lists 12 bills he introduced; they all sound fine enough, though none of them is much of a barn-burner, and it doesn’t say where they are in the legislative process or what’s happening to them. That’s odd. Nor could I find out any more, because I signed up for his updates awhile back, but I haven’t received one yet. His statement in the Voter’s Pamphlet says he’s fighting for some mighty fine things, all of which sound good to me. Unfortunately, he left his voting record out of that statement, as he did on his website, so I did a little research, and what I found didn’t sound good to me at all.
There was SB 443, to curb a nasty, unjust policy called Civil Asset Forfeiture; and the Racial & Identity Profiling Act of 2015, AB 953, a landmark bill that addressed issues of racial profiling and police brutality. Wood voted No on those. And then there were SB 406, Expanding Paid Family Leave, and AB 1017, Equal Pay for Women. Wood abstained on those. He also failed to support: SB 641, Consumer Protections; SB 260, Expanding Medi-Cal Protections; AB 533, Unexpected Medical Bills; and SB 308, Debtor Protections.
There may be really good reasons for opposing a bill or two, but that list represents a pattern I don’t think is right for our district, or our state. In fact, highly-respected Common Cause put Jim in their Hall of Shame for “state legislators most out of step with their constituents, and most closely aligned with corporate and special interests that exploit Californians.” (couragescore.org)
So I recommend that you join me in voting for his opponent. Oops, I just looked at the Voter Pamphlet again, and I see that Jim is running unopposed. Should have figured that. I guess we get two more years of opposition to family leave, equal pay for women, MediCal protections, consumer protections, and debtor protections. Or you could just write in your neighbor’s name, which is what I’m going to do.
Dave Henderson
Healdsburg