LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Buddhism and Brit Hume
Editor: I’m sick onto death hearing about how Fox News is “fair
and balanced.” In reference to the comment by Marilyn Pozas, Brit
Hume, who is just another Fox shill, exactly said that Christianity
was superior to Buddhism. In fact, he said that Tiger Woods would
never be “saved” through Buddhism, that if he became a Christian,
he would be redeemed. If that ain’t talking “superior,” I have no
idea what the term means. I expect that Mr. Atkinson based his
commentary on the same source I did — Brit Hume’s actual remarks on
Fox. If Hume had made the same remarks about Christianity, there
would have been marches in the streets demanding his removal
from
Fox!  When later interviewed by the other shill, O’Reilly, Hume
lamely claimed he wasn’t “proselytizing” for Christianity. Of
course he wasn’t.
He was only telling Tiger that he needed to be a Christian to
save his soul. That’s a classic example of what the Fox clowns do
all the time — make silly statements and then try to weasel out of
them. Yes, there is an irony in “taking on” Fox News. The irony is
that anyone would be a fool to fail to “take them on.”
Robert Wagers
Santa Rosa
Treat rather than punish
Editor: I was very glad to read Guy Wilson’s position regarding
the proposed Social Host Ordinance.
I appreciate the work of local law enforcement in keeping drunk
drivers off of our roads. But I agree with Guy that counseling,
intervention and — let me add — education are more appropriate
avenues for further addressing the problem of underage
drinking.
Giving alcohol to minors is already illegal, and that’s enough
law for me. We don’t need to punish families; we need to support
them. I imagine kids are drinking more for the same reason that
adults are drinking and taking drugs more. Our cultural norms have
been disintegrating for decades and now our economy is in tatters.
What kind of future can we all look forward to?
Let’s spend our free hours providing Sebastopol families with
the support that will lead to making responsible choices, rather
than on writing more punitive laws. This ordinance doesn’t provide
any real support, other than giving parents permission to stand up
to their kids. How ridiculous. Parent education is the obvious
solution here, along with better paying jobs so parents can work
less and spend more time with their kids. But then, I guess that
costs money, whereas this ordinance would take money from families.
I could almost suspect it’s just one more strategy of strapped
government agencies to bring in cash.
Jean Redus
Sebastopol
Disabled out in the cold
Editor: We are the parents and care providers of developmentally
disabled adults who are in work/day programs at Becoming
Independent. Their transportation is provided by North Bay Regional
Center. We were notified last week that contract negotiations
between Pride Industries, a transportation contractor, and NBRC had
broken down and as of Monday, Feb. 1 transportation will not be
provided for about 100 disabled clients.
The criteria that NBRC is using to identify those who will lose
transportation are those who live “geographically remote, (long
distance) from home to their day programs, or use wheel
chairs.”
Many of us found out about this impending disruption from our
children or their bus drivers. Even though contract negotiations
broke off in mid-December, NBRC sat on this information.
Notification dated 1/14/2010 was mailed to some affected clients
the last week of January. NBRC has advised us that this service
interruption may continue for two months. NBRC recommends we drive
our disabled family member, carpool with others, or use public
transportation, which is often non-existent in rural areas. Some
families have not received notification of this transportation
interruption.
This failure by NBRC to perform its mandated responsibility is
discriminatory against our most vulnerable citizens who are
literally being left out in the cold.
Jerry and Susan Fabiano
Sebastopol