Slow down, save the deer
EDITOR: Entreaty to all travelers on Mill Station Road, off Gravenstein Highway North; please slow down when driving either east or west on this road. Sadly, another deer was maimed and killed this morning, just past Martin Lane. She may have been pregnant; her body was still warm when I arrived at my house.
This is the third deer in as many years, and although they mangle the roses and foliage in the yard, it was such a treat to be able to see them and their offspring — at times — visiting us.
I realize that Mill Station/Ferguson Roads have now become bypass roads to avoid the unbelievable traffic we now experience in Sebastopol, but please, please slow down. The next thing you hit may be a human being.
Marian Fleming
Sebastopol
A less violent future?
EDITOR: I quite enjoyed Jonah Raskin’s March 29 commentary: “Marijuana madness and some sanity, too.” I agree with Tony Linegar, that the end of federal prohibition and creation of legal banking for the industry are keys to a less violent future. However I would add one more element to the conversation: there must be free trade/transportation across state lines added as well for the industry to fully mature and allow the artisanal growers to come into the light with some hope of a livelihood after taxes.
Jeff Mays
Sebastopol
Medicare for all
EDITOR: California legislators recently introduced a hodgepodge healthcare package they say will provide more residents with insurance coverage through a series of patches and tweaks to our already convoluted and inefficient system. Their proposals build on the ACA, a system that has tragically demonstrated that insurance coverage, with its huge out of pocket costs, forces many to skip care even if they are paying for premiums.
Why would we want to expand a system designed to enrich the health insurance industry by restricting and denying care to so many? It’s time for California to lead the nation by adopting the Medicare-for-all type system proposed in the Healthy California Act (SB562), sponsored by the California Nurses Association.
Critics of SB562 say it would cost too much. On the contrary, it would save billions and cover everyone, regardless of their economic or immigration status. It is our current healthcare system that costs too much. We pay far more than other nations and get far less, including poorer health outcomes and a reduced life span.
SB562 will save billions of dollars and save lives. We can and must do both.
Joy Metcalfe
Sebastopol
Misleading and maligning
EDITOR: I appreciate the good work you folks do at Sonoma West Times & News and I thank you for your efforts. That said, I strongly disagree with the headline, “Too damn poor for self-government?” that appeared on the website.
Right now we have a collection of interested citizens who are working to improve the quality of life in lower Russian River communities. They have a little bit of momentum, and they’re getting more people interested in civic involvement. Their efforts include exploring various forms of self-governance.
While incorporation has been presented as one possibility, the article’s headline (whether you intended to or not) effectively condemns self-government in any form — MACs or CACs or anything else that might give local citizens more voice.
Why would you run such a cynical headline — maligning today’s lower river communities atop an article about the way things were when Carter was in office — when there are people trying to improve things now?
I honestly appreciated the historical value of the research and a retelling of the story around the Zion report — we certainly need to pay attention to the past. But the headline is both misleading and unnecessarily maligning. While there are plenty of obstacles to self-governance, a bias against being “just too damn poor” shouldn’t be one of them.
Jason Weaver
Guerneville
Bruised by divisiveness
EDITOR: Once again I am impressed with the profound irony and hypocrisy in which the Indivisible groups operate. While espousing tolerance, respect and inclusiveness they make very clear their intent to flip representatives that are not of appropriate color out of Congress.
This obsession with “Blue vs. Red” and flipping all those out who may not agree with the respective party line out of office seems quite at odds with the alleged beliefs of tolerance, respect and inclusion. As an Independent I suppose I would be violet.
Sadly it seems the color of many in our country is bruised by this divisiveness. What happened to the America of very diverse politics but true respect for each other and the willingness to build upon shared values? An absurd wall is sought by the one side along our southern border. Yet equally absurd walls are being built in many other places and ways in our country.
Harry Martin
Cloverdale
