Letters to the Editor 5-16-13

Save Point Reyes
Editor: I am shocked to see the misleading signs regarding Drakes Bay Oyster Company popping up around the Sonoma and Marin Counties. These signs should say “Save Point Reyes Wilderness.” I strongly support organic sustainable agriculture and I love oysters, but the attempt by Drakes Oyster Company and their corporate allies to deny wilderness status to Drakes Estero has nothing to do with farming and everything to do with opening publicly owned wilderness lands to development.
Point Reyes National Seashore is a wonderful example of cooperation between agriculture, the national park system and wilderness.
My family, friends and thousands of people worked for years to protect this national treasure. The current owners bought the oyster company in 2005 with seven years remaining on their permit, knowing that the estero is a designated wilderness area. They should honor their lease agreement and contracts, follow the rules and policies and respect the 1976 wilderness designation.
This is not an issue of “farmer” versus big government. The real issue here is that private development and industry interests have been working for years to overturn environmental laws and allow natural resource extraction and commercial development in the wilderness areas, national parks, oceans, estuaries and other publicly owned and protected lands.
As a member of the public, one of the millions of owners of the Point Reyes National Seashore, I urge all Americans to protect Drakes Estero Wilderness and stop the attempt to privatize and commercialize our national park and wilderness systems by powerful private business interests. American taxpayers have waited 40 years for wilderness designation for Drakes Bay Marine Estuary in our beloved Point Reyes National Seashore.
We stand firm in protecting National Parks, wilderness, publicly owned lands and the commonwealth of the United States of America for future generations. We will not be fooled by another attempt by special interests with friends in high places to attack the National Park Service and subvert the Wilderness Act.
Please let any restaurant or business displaying one of these signs or serving Drakes Bay oysters know that you support our National Parks, the law and wilderness designation for Drakes Estero in Point Reyes National Seashore.
Lynn Hamilton
Occidental
Dump Veolia
Editor: We, the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County, are writing to support opening up our County Transit contract for the bidding process this coming year. Veolia, the French company currently under contract, is in violation of International Human Rights Laws by operating bus lines through the occupied West Bank on roads that are off limits to the Palestinians who live there. These bus lines transport Israelis from Jerusalem to the illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. International law also prohibits the transfer of civilian populations into occupied territory, which is what Veolia is doing by connecting the settlements to Israel.
This company (Veolia is the 33rd largest corporate employer in the world) also operates the Tovian Landfill where Israeli waste is dumped onto Palestinian land. On July 24, 2012 the County of Sonoma Commission on Human Rights heard testimony by Ruth Otte, executive vice president, marketing and communications of Veolia Transportation North America. She stated that “We do not have any ownership or interest as Veolia Environmental Services in that contract any more.” Despite Veolia’s repeated claims that it divested from the landfill in 2011, on Jan. 17, 2013, the Israeli Ministry confirmed that Veolia is the sole owner and operator of the Tovian Landfill.
In the 1980s the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors made a principled decision to divest from South Africa. The Peace & Justice Center now would encourage the Board of Supervisors to disqualify Veolia from the contract renewal process due to its participation in human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The $7 million contract to operate our County Transit System, an important community resource, should be awarded to a company or agency that upholds human rights and make it possible for our tax dollars to go to an entity that does not violate international law.
Gary Melrose
Board Member, Peace & Justice Center
Sebastopol
Food Pantry thanks
Editor: On behalf of the Sebastopol Inter-Church Food Pantry I wish to thank our local letter carriers and the community for their generous response to the “Stamp Out Hunger” campaign. Our shelves are now full to bursting. The amount of food collected was amazing but more impressive was the quality of food donated. We are so grateful to be part of a community that supports programs for people in need.
Mary McAulay
Sebastopol
Rename Town Square
Editor: We have lived in Sebastopol for 55 years and loved and enjoyed our former small town atmosphere. It has changed so much and yes, I personally liked our past small town shopping much better. Guess this is what is called “progress”?
A young boy who lived and attended schools here in Sebastopol was the first (I believe) Vietnam casualty from here. His name should be honored by naming our Town Plaza after him. His name was Bill Blessman. He deserves this honor.
Years ago we saw his name on the traveling Vietnam Wall at Santa Rosa J.C. Then later in Washington D.C. we stood in front of the Vietnam Wall looking at his name again. It was a somber feeling knowing that the name Bill Blessman was one of our own Sebastopol boys of the 1960s.
Bill Blessman should have the honor of our Town Plaza being named for him. He fought and served our country well, losing his life in the process.
Think of this fact; Montgomery Village was named for a young man who was the first casualty of war from that area. Our own son, U.S. Air Force, served in Vietnam and other wars as well. We were and are thankful and proud of him too.
Dorothy and Odes Jennings
Sebastopol
Save the apples
Editor: It is with sadness and frustration and a bit of optimism too that I read the story about the planned destruction of apple orchards and replacement by yet another vineyard in Sebastopol (“Vineyard conversion at Twin Hills District in the works,” May 2). The Apple Core committee of Slow Food Russian River has been working for 11 years to promote Sebastopol apples and apple farmers and to save the Gravenstein apple from commercial extinction. We work to bring awareness to our community of the real risk of slowly but surely losing our apple heritage, and with it some of our food security. Wine grapes are not food.
There are many more issues at stake here, and pesticides and water use and fences blocking wildlife corridors and the use of Roundup, a known carcinogen, are just some of them. Apples are part of Sebastopol’s cultural heritage, part of how our sense of community has evolved, and they are family friendly too. Wine is none of these things. Vineyards are often owned by corporations or by “vanity” owners who pay little or no attention to responsible water use and farming techniques. Children cannot pick or eat wine grapes. Families cannot preserve wine grapes or make cakes and pies out of them. Vineyards are not beautiful, and they do not remind us of Spring. They may make more money per acre for their owners, but they destroy so much in the process and put our agricultural biodiversity at serious risk.
We support the parents and are heartened by the fact that a new group of us has become aware of this awful conversion issue and are willing to take a stand. We hope that the powers that be in our town wake up too, and realize that the tax revenues and personal wealth created by corporate alcohol cannot begin to make up for the losses we are suffering to the quality of our lives. We welcome new volunteers to our efforts.
Paula Shatkin
Occidental
Criminal act
Editor: The town of Sebastopol has disgraced itself by falling under the spell of the most destructive cult in world history, the false fad and religion of renewable energy. The only really worthwhile renewable energy source for large-scale energy production is hydroelectric power. Geothermal energy is marginally acceptable. Any energy scheme that cannot produce electricity 24-7 should not even be considered because the costs of storage and backup systems makes the whole affair irreparably uneconomic. We need reliable, concentrated, cheap energy, not absurdly expensive, unreliable, diffuse energy.
Mandating by law that all new homes use inherently inefficient photovoltaic cells is a criminal act, not just a bad idea. Whatever happened to the American concept of “freedom”? History has proven that photovoltaics do not reduce CO2 emissions and only increase unemployment and budget deficits. In Sebastopol they will increase homelessness. Of course, the global biofuel scam is the deadliest of all the renewable energy hoaxes.
For full technical explanations and better carbon-free energy alternatives, Google “The Renewable Energy Disaster” (website) and “Biofuels, Windmills, and War” (YouTube video). This topic demands full details that cannot be contained in a short letter.
Christopher Calder
Eugene, OR
Confusing values
Editor: Our City Budget keeps needing to be tightened. With the long-term Schellinger Brothers lawsuit (and thankfully, they haven’t gone away), the CVS lawsuit, which could be very costly, Helen Shane’s lawsuit against the city also could be costly. Was purchasing the Mobile Home Park area a smart use of City money?
The PG&E implications could cost us. Also, the turning away of business revenue and loss of revenue from people leaving Sebastopol (our population seems to be getting smaller).
Tell me, does the Barlow, which was quickly passed by City Council and Planning Commission, look like “Small Town Sebastopol”? Really?
Then comes the SmartMeter issue. Do we know who the person was who called 911 because they thought a SmartMeter was being put in, so our understaff Police Department had to deal with the call that was made. Who are they and were they fined?
The latest embarrassment, or an ongoing embarrassment, was with our Mayor Micheal Kyes, who made a big issue out of the fluoridation possibility in Santa Rosa, which does not even apply to Sebastopol. But he says it might leak into our system. Has he considered what his cigarette butts have done to our Eco-System, affecting our food, animals and children? I am thinking those are very confusing values.
Linda Rouse
Sebastopol