We love to hear from readers. If you’re interested in submitting a letter to the editor, please email editor Laura Hagar Rush at la***@so********.com.
Power for PDHCD
EDITOR: I am writing in support of Richard Power for the Palm Drive Health Care District board (Not to be confused with Dr. Richard Powers who has retired from the board).
Richard Power will help bring fiscal sanity and a clear-eyed vision to the financial difficulties facing the Palm Drive Health Care District.
Despite the best of intentions of many people, the health care district and the soon to be bankrupt Sonoma West Medical Center have not only failed to deliver on the promises made, but continue to drive the district into further and further debt.
I’ve known Richard for many years and he is a smart, insightful member of our community, who will take on this responsibility with the dedication and seriousness it deserves.
We have all read about the bankruptcies, the lawsuits and the overwhelming debt the hospital district faces. It’s time to move on from the past. It’s time for a change in leadership on the board. Richard Power is the only candidate who represents a fresh voice. Let’s stop the financial madness that has become the Palm Drive Health Care District. Please vote for Richard Power for Palm Drive Health Care District board.
Mike Bell
Sebastopol
Refelctions on ‘Shadow’
EDITOR: I enjoyed Gil Mansergh’s online article (Screenings) “Alfred Hitchcock’s Santa Rosa.” I had no idea Shadow of a Doubt was screened at Courthouse Square. Sounds like great fun.
My family rented the 904 McDonald around in 1964. I was a 10-year-old kid when we moved out in 1971. The garden plot now adjacent to 904 was a single property with the house. It had a large lawn, a wisteria arbor, and a barn (in the movie the garage where Theresa Wright was trapped inside).
Charlie’s (Theresa Wright’s) bedroom was eventually my parents room.
It has the same wallpaper as the movie and the same window overlooking a magnolia tree, which grew to be very large by the time I lived there. It was cut down about five years ago.
Yes, the exterior back staircase near Charlie’s bedroom was not there. But we did have back staircase inside a wall that led to the dining room. I hope it’s still there. Not sure if it would pass modern building codes.
Hitchcock’s technique changed the way the interior was perceived. In a scene with two people conversing, one actor might be at 904, the other in a Hollywood sound stage. Yet in the movie, it appears as though they are facing each other. Amazing stuff. Thank you again for the informative article.
Luke Walsh
Healdsburg
Essential contribution
EDITOR: Thanks for your editorial “Still too big to fail” on Sept. 20, 2018. As mega-wealth (and the clout it wields) is increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and more and more ordinary people struggle to get by, there are fewer resources and voices standing up for the large in number little guys. They (we) are not as organized, coordinated or strategic, and not nearly as well funded, as those you identified as too big to fail.
Your column called to mind a new book by a courageous local author, “Giants: The Global Power Elite,” by Peter Phillips, SSU professor and former director of Project Censored.
Attempts to address the major and seemingly intractable challenges of our time (such as spiraling housing costs and homelessness, hobbling debt, crumbling infrastructure, fraying social safety net, environmental degradation, modern slavery and chronic warfare) are applying Band-Aids to symptoms, while ignoring the wizard(s) behind the curtain. The Phillips book is an essential contribution to exposing the wizards, or giants, who make bank on our collective ignorance.
Thanks to you and your fellow journalists for all you do to keep the lights on in our ongoing experiment called democracy.
Elizabeth McCarthy
Sebastopol
Support incumbents
EDITOR: Sebastopol Tomorrow recommends you cast your vote to return Sarah Gurney, Patrick Slayter and Una Glass to the Sebastopol City Council. Our steering committee has observed the current city council working well as a deliberative and decisive group, holding our town on a steady, appropriate course. We believe that the leadership and experience of the three incumbents represents the bulk of the contribution to the work of the council. Their experience and their continued service are critically important to the city’s future.
Our steering committee also recommends a yes vote on Sebastopol’s two tax measures: Measure Q will continue our current sales tax rate and Measure R increases city revenue by taxing hotel visitors. We also recommend a yes vote for Measure M – Parks For All. This is a countywide sales tax to support the county’s parks. It directs one-third of all the money to be shared by Sonoma County’s cities to maintain and improve local parks.
Kathy Oetinger, Richard Retecki, Richard Nichols, Brenda Nichols, Kevin Dwan, and Bill Shortridge, for the Sebastopol Tomorrow Steering Committee
