LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Think outside the bottle
EDITOR: On Oct. 2, the Sonoma County Water Coalition mailed a
signed letter to Board Chairperson Paul Kelley, expressing our
members’ support for the resolution just passed, which, with very
minor exceptions, effectively bans the County of Sonoma from
purchasing or providing water in plastic bottles. 
We are providing an informational packet for Corporate
Accountability’s Think Outside the Bottle (TOTB) campaign, which
supports the use of municipal tap water over water bottled in
plastic containers. It is the Coalition’s hope that the County will
consider signing the TOTB pledge. 
– Jane Nielson, Sebastopol
Fire Prevention Week
EDITOR: Every 39 minutes someone in the U.S. is injured in a
home fire. Home fires result in hundreds of people being burned and
even killed in Californian each year. That’s why CAL FIRE is
teaming up with fire departments across the country for Fire
Prevention Week 2009 to urge all residents to “Stay Fire Smart!
Don’t Get Burned.”
This year’s fire prevention week campaign runs Oct. 4 – 10 and
focuses on ways to keep homes fire safe and prevent painful burns.
The statistics are staggering. Each year roughly 3,000 people die
nationwide as a result of home fires and burns, and more than
200,000 individuals are seen in the nation’s emergency rooms for
burn injuries.
By following simple safety rules, you can “Stay Fire Smart!
Don’t Get Burned.”
• Keep hot foods and liquids away from tables and counter edges
so they cannot be pulled down or knocked over.
• Have a three-foot “kid-free” zone around the stove.
• Never hold a child in your arms while preparing hot food or
drinking a hot beverage.
• Be careful when using things that get hot such as curling
irons, ovens, irons, lamps, and heaters.
• Never leave a child alone in a room with a lit candle,
portable heater, lit fireplace or stove, or where a hot appliance
might be in use.
For more fire safety tips visit the CAL FIRE Web site at
www.fire.ca.gov.
– Daniel Berlant, Cal Fire
Republicans with guns
EDITOR: I have read your article (Susan Swartz column Oct. 1,
2009) twice now and am missing the point but be that as it may, I
take exception to your notion that even some Republicans are “gun
toters” and that this somehow makes them bad people.
You suggest to “leave the guns at home” as if these politicians
(whomever they are, you never give an example) go to work at the
Senate with a side arm on their hips ready to shoot anyone that
crosses them. Your ignorance and obvious dislike of guns is
apparent by your remarks but it doesn’t help you make your
argument, which I still haven’t grasped.
Are you suggesting that these Republican politicos’ are carrying
guns around and are going to use them to “punish the poor and the
immigrants” with them?
Guns are not the problem. I would venture to say that many of
the constituents down in Oakland that tote guns on a daily basis
vote heavily Democrat but that by doing so have very little to do
with their political leaning. I am neither Republican nor
Democrat.
Both sides disgust me these days but I have “toted” a gun since
I was seven, encouraged to do so by my “gun toting” politically
active, Democratic mother, and don’t really feel it has anything to
do with my political bearing nor does anyone’s responsible use of a
firearm. I get that you don’t like Republicans, but guns have
nothing to do with it. I get that you don’t like guns, but
Republicans have nothing to do with it.
Maybe I did get your article after all …
– Hunt Conrad , Healdsburg
Save the fawn
Editor: An open plea to all Sonoma County Vineyards: Please call
Wildlife Fawn Rescue with any fawn problems. They will come. Yes, I
do understand you have a depredation permit issued by the CDFG, and
that the law gives you permission to legally shoot fawns under the
“deer” clause written into this permit. But there are other
options. If you are not willing to call Fawn Rescue, and feel no
remorse in killing a small helpless fawn, please show enough
concern and compassion to make sure the fawn is dead and not left
to die unaided.
This week Fawn Rescue was called by a neighbor of a vineyard. A
fawn had been shot and left to die inside this vineyard. The bullet
went into the neck, traveled completely through his small body to
exit from the hind quarters. The brave shooter walked away from the
living fawn. The neighbor retrieved the fawn and called Fawn Rescue
for help. When their coordinator arrived at the scene the fawn was
still alive, terrified and in extreme agony. She rushed it to a
retired vet who responded to her call even after dark. The fawn was
mercifully euthanized.
Humankind? Please call Fawn Rescue. They will come.
– Marjorie Davis, Kenwood