LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: 9-20-12

Thanks HDH
Editor: Just a few days ago, I found myself a surprise guest at Healdsburg District Hospital (HDH) awaiting surgery as a result of an angry gall bladder which erupted in the middle of the night. Surgery completed successfully, I then spent the next three days at the hospital flat on my back slowly recovering. The staff could not have been more wonderful — thoroughly professional, but pleasant, efficient, and invariably upbeat even when someone woke me at 4 a.m. to check my “vital signs.” We are so fortunate to have this jewel of a hospital in our midst. Thank you HDH doctors and staff.
Bob Rawlins
Healdsburg
Not the last word yet
Editor: When the character of a letter-to-the-editor contributor is defamed, that cannot be the last word in an ongoing debate. The debate continues until the defamation charges are answered.
As I’ve previously emphasized, in our society, individuals have the freedom and right to express their opinions whether they represent those of the local majority or not. That right certainly extends to columnist Susan Swartz and my fellow debaters Dave Henderson and Jack Russell Stone. However, when I last read our founding documents, the right to character defamation is nowhere to be found.
Before Mr. Stone chose to go ad hominem (a popular liberal debating tactic) by characterizing my letter’s statements as “twisted and false”, he should have taken sufficient time to more carefully read Ms. Swartz’s column and my letter response. His closing use of the words “with honesty” is another less direct but implicit and not too subtle ad-hominem attack.
In her column, Ms. Swartz referred to the Catholic Bishops as “the new best friend of the religious right and anti-choice and anti-women politicians.” Later in that same column, she stated her opinion about the relationship between nuns and the Vatican and punctuated that opinion with “And doesn’t that just sound like some religious right politicians.”
My letter summarized Ms. Swartz’s above statements as her defining the Bishops as a wing of the “religious right.” I leave it to the reader to judge whether my statements relative to her column are “twisted and false” or a concise and accurate summary.
While recorded history does document that some Catholic laity, Catholic clerics and even some Bishops supported slavery in the early days of the church, the official teachings of the Catholic Church as promulgated by the Vatican through many Papal letters have never supported involuntary slavery. The human failure of the laity as well as some individual clerics and Bishops to understand or follow the teachings of the Church neither defines nor alters those teachings.
Mr. Stone claims that the Bishop of the Diocese of Santa Rosa doesn’t have the same free speech right as others citizens to express his own opinion on tax-supported public property. Denying that right simply because he is a Bishop is a very selective definition of free speech. Such a denial is ludicrous and counter to all of our republic’s founding principles.
I doubt that Mr. Stone would deny (nor would I) free speech on private property to the “Occupy Wall Street” protestors.
Mel Amato
Healdsburg
Issues on the table
Editor: There seem to be few issues those running for the City Council are discussing so I thought I just might put a few on the table that many have asked me about.
Water rates, according to Ray Holley and many others are excessive. This has caused maybe one house in five to abandon watering their yards with a resulting impact on neighborhood property values. Other backyard veggie growers like me question the economics of their gardens and orchards.
The question many ask is why are rates so high and can they be reduced. The answer is yes if elected officials have the courage to cut expenses and restructure others in an appropriate manner.
To answer the broader question one must first go back to 1978 when the voters passed  the Gann Initiative which said no taxes could be used to subsidize utilities and that utility rates must reflect the actual cost of providing the service.
For the next 20 years or so most cities kept their utility rates low for fear they might be sued by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association. Some cities were sued and others tended to be cautious. During my tenure Healdsburg was always careful and abided by the law.
All changed in the early 2000’s when pressures on City General Funds increased as pension costs skyrocketed and wage demands driven by high housing costs escalated. Things got worse in 2008 when the financial bubble popped and traditional general fund revenues declined. Widespread shifting of primarily general fund expenses for City overhead to Utilities occurred. This violated the Gann initiative and may yet result in sizable legal expenses for Healdsburg and other cities doing the same thing.
Some today say the shifting of costs to water and other utility rate payers has reached an extreme. I don’t know for sure but the mere suggestion for example that virtually all street maintenance is charged back to water rate payers is scary. Council candidates and incumbents alike should seek the answers and discuss their ramifications with the voters.
Kurt Hahn
Healdsburg
Help the library
Editor: Many people have voiced concern lately about the impending review of the Library’s Joint Powers Agreement. The JPA is the document underlying the governance of the Sonoma County Library system.
A small but powerful faction of the Library Administration has been spreading a campaign of fear. They variously claim that if the JPA is revised at all, the whole agreement will be gutted, the Library’s funding will be jeopardized, the County Supervisors will take over the running of the Library, and the Library will be laid open to censorship.
Last week members of SOCOSOL (Sonoma County Save Our Libraries) met with Supervisors Mike McGuire and Efren Carrillo; both Supervisors offered complete assurances that the Library funding is not open for discussion in the current review of the Joint Powers Agreement (JPA). Both Supervisors agree that there was never any intention to rewrite the section of the JPA governing the Library’s funding.
Furthermore, the Library Commission is well aware of this fact, because the Supervisors personally informed the Chairperson to that effect.
All the discussions of the subcommittee reviewing the JPA will be open to the public.  Underlying the fear that any revision of the JPA will wreck the library is the unspoken assumption that the library cannot get better; it can only get worse. Now is the time for concerned citizens to come forward and make their suggestions for improvement. The library can get better. Make your voice heard.
Karen Guma
Retired Reference Librarian
Heros in foster system
Editor: Your columns on Foster Children and the problems with funding and finding foster parents is very valuable. As a retired Child Welfare worker I hope that you will cover the four different heroes who are involved in this very difficult work.
The first heroes are the Child Welfare field staff. There are two general responsibilities: the Intake and Emergency Response workers are the first responders who take the calls and then go into the field to interview the children and those taking care of them to determine if the child is safe and to arrange for services to prevent the child from having to leave the home if possible. Those with the other set of responsibilities are the workers who work with the family and children to make the home safe for the child to either stay in or return home.
The second heroes are the children who have faced sometimes unthinkable hardships in their short lives. They become heroes! when they can overcome their history and become responsible productive adults. It always surprised me how resilient these children are.
The third group is the parents of these children who choose to change their lives so they can become effective parents. Not all succeed, but those who do are certainly heroes too.
The fourth group is the foster parents who live with the children everyday. Not only do they live with children who have multiple problems, they more often than not have to supplement the inadequate stipend they receive.
All are heroes.
Name
Healdsburg
Felicitaciones
Editor: Congratulations to the Healdsburg Museum and to ALL involved in presenting the Mexican Ancestry Day on Sunday, September 16 in the Town Plaza. I am a native Californian but happy to say with Mexican heritage. This minor event which featured cultural music, dances and food promoted fantastic goodwill between the Mexicans and Americans who attended this free event. It was terrific to meet a lot of the longtime Mexican families who have helped to make Healdsburg the beautiful town I love living in and enjoy inviting friends to visit.
The preparation and organization was more than evident in the overall atmosphere of fun, happiness and enjoyment of everyone present.
Congratulations, Felicitaciones.
Sharon Cowley
Healdsburg
Yes on Prop 30
Editor: This college educator is hoping that there are still registered voters who, at about a month before the elections, are still undecided on Proposition 30, Gov. Brown’s measure that would stave off some truly Armageddon-style cuts to the State budget by adding a quarter per cent to the state sales tax for 4 years and raising taxes on those making over $250,000. I urge you to vote Yes.
If passed, Prop 30 will direct 89% of the funds to K-12 schools and 11% to community colleges, like our SRJC.
It’s hard to imagine our state educational system getting worse, but it definitely will, when the cuts go into effect if Proposition 30 fails. They will be immediate and severe, make no mistake. Governor Brown is not bluffing.
With 30 years and counting at the SRJC, it is harrowing to witness the damage that past budget cuts have already inflicted on our colleges—or, to be more specific, on the future careers of so many students: parents, children, grandchildren. These cuts have made many longed-for careers impossible, through higher tuition, eliminated courses, and pruned programs, semester after semester, year after year. It’s a slowly-growing, mostly silent tragedy that will stunt our local community for many years to come.
Although I don’t at all like increasing a regressive sales tax that unfairly impacts those with the least income, I am willing to spend more in taxes in order to spread to our community the wonderful benefits of a first-class, affordable educational system truly available to all. Despite the shop-worn, silly slogans of the reactionaries, and the howls that we will likely read here next week, we are not taxed particularly heavily in this state. And dragging in waste and fraud, big government, recent CA state parks system malfeasance, the high-speed rail boondoggle, blah blah blah, won’t stave off the draconian cuts.
I think the choice is simple: Hold your nose and vote Yes, or strangle our children’s future.  
Dave Henderson
Healdsburg
Crafters
Editor: In response to the Living feature on folks who knit and sew for charitable causes, ‘One Square at a Time,’ August 30 – September 5, 2012, it is wonderful that there is the energy, time and dedication to do so among many members of our community. “It takes a village” to take care of the needs of so many in these challenging times. I wish there had been space to mention that crafters get a considerable break on the cost of materials by shopping at The Legacy in Sebastopol, which is a nonprofit thrift store for knitters, sewers, dollmakers, button collectors, decorators, lace and trim lovers, crocheters, spinners, felters, patternmakers, tatters, painters and makers of books and scrapbooks. Did I leave out a craft? This unique thrift store is a Sonoma County resource that every crafter and artist would want to know exists locally.  
Natalie Timm
Sebastopol