Letters to the Editor 12-17-15

GMO free
EDITOR: This letter is to inform voters about a new initiative called, Sonoma County Transgenic Contamination Prevention Ordinance. Signatures are being gathered around the county by committed volunteers to place this initiative on the November 2016 ballot. This ordinance would: 1) Protect the health of Sonoma County from the increased herbicide use inherent in the cultivation of GMO crops. 2) Protect farms from cross-contamination by genetically engineered pollen and seeds. 3) Allow Sonoma County to join over 30 countries worldwide, as well as seven counties in Oregon and California, who already have similar laws prohibiting the growing of GMO crops.

The FDA approved the production of genetically engineered salmon on November 19. This salmon was created in a laboratory by combining genes from the ocean pout (eel) with genes from the Chinook Salmon. No long-term studies have been done to determine possible health effects from such an unnatural creature. In addition to any health concerns, research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that a release of just sixty GE salmon into a wild population of 60,000 could lead to the extinction of the wild population in less than 40 fish generations.

For all of the above reasons, Citizens for Healthy Farms and Families urges Sonoma County residents to sign our petition at venues throughout the county. To obtain more information or to volunteer, please go to www.GMOfreesonomacounty.com.
Pamela Gentry
Sebastopol
Sustainability concerns
EDITOR: Grape growers seem to feel that legitimate questions and concerns interested citizens have about sustainability and the size and scope of event centers amount to lies and misinformation.
To quote the wine growers, our “opponents are actively contacting local officials to spread misinformation and build opposition against us.  If we fail to respond and inform, we run the risk of having their lies become facts in the eyes of key decision makers.”
I favor limits and regulations for winery event centers. I don’t believe my questioning the overall effects of wine tourism on sustainability or the quality of life here is in any way illegitimate. Sustainability demands true cost accounting, not anecdotal defensive posturing. A fair analysis of the status of the wine industry as a whole in the county would say it is quite well represented, maybe even enough as is. Nobody is exempt from limits.
Many related wine-tourism-hospitality issues have come into question in the last few years: tasting rooms, hotels, TIDs, low wages, high rents, inflated costs of food and services; these are all part and parcel of a gentrifying economy that leaves social equity and environmental justice considerations secondary to unlimited, unregulated economy.
People of conscience want a more ethical society, not endless free-for-alls that just make more tragedy of the commons. Now it is time to favor residents’ quality of life and sustainability concerns and, to take steps to balance a fair spectrum of economic outcomes in the county.
Fred Allebach
Sebastopol
Stand up silent majority
EDITOR: In the mid 1990’s Australia had a mass shooting.  Within a year they were onthe way to passing new gun laws with the approval of all their states.
Those gun laws outlawed rapid fire weapons completely and funded a buyback program for rapid fire weapons.  In addition they instituted a 28-day waiting period for gun purchases and required registration of all firearms including mandatory classes on gun safety.  Since that time there have been NO mass shootings.  Suicides have gone down.  Accidental shootings have gone down.  At first the gun lobbyists, ranchers and hunters resisted the law, but by the time it was enacted, they were brought on board.
The citizens could still have guns, just not rapid-fire weapons.What would it take for a law like this to be passed in California or the United States?  It would take legislators with the guts to stand up to the irrational gun lobbyists.  It would take education of the public and support of those of us tired of reading about mass shootings.  When is enough, enough? The time is now. This law will make a huge dent in killings by terrorists, criminals and mentally unstable people.  That said, it is time to provide funding to mental health programs so that people can receive treatment for mental health problems instead of using our jails to simply hide them.
Stand up silent majority and be counted for common sense gun laws that
protect us and take the mass firing weapons off the streets.
Frank Mayhew
Sebastopol
Pluto
EDITOR: Once again, one has to wonder on which planet the present members of the Board of Supervisors reside. As the letter by Alain Serkissian, Administrator at Mirabel Lodge, Forestville ably pointed out on Nov. 10, the BOS voted 4-1, Supervisor Zane gave the only positive vote against increasing the size of this senior residential care facility from six beds to twelve.
As the letter published in last week’s Sonoma West Times & News pointed out, the board ignored both its own staff’s favorable recommendation as well as that of the County’s Planning Commission which stated “there were no valid objections presented.”
As a senior myself, soon to be starting my seventy-fourth year on the planet, recently I wrote to the board urging them to set aside some small segments of both the Chanate Hospital Campus and the Southwest Corridor properties to build affordable housing for veterans and for affordable senior housing.
As you might guess, the response from the BOS, including 3rd District Supervisor Zane, has been zilch. Nada. It is not the first time the majority of the board has turned its collective back on those who need help the most in Sonoma County.
As Serkissian eloquently pointed out, “What’s incompatible is that seniors needing a care home must live in a warehouse facility with no human amenities in an institutional environment.”
Seniors do not become less than human when they reach the age of 60 or 65 despite the apparent stone cold attitude of the Board of Supervisors. The answer to my question at the start of this piece is obviously Pluto.  
Frank Baumgardner
Santa Rosa