Letters to the Editor 10/29

Congrats on sewer

It appears that SLO County has decided to locate the Los Osos sewer plant at the 38-acre Giacomazzi parcel north of Los Osos Valley Memorial Park instead of the 645-acre Tonini property. Some of the treated wastewater will be recycled to an aquifer using leach fields at the end of Broderson Avenue.

The rest of the treated wastewater will be recycled to irrigate crops, farms and schools. Other possible uses could be for community facilities such as public parks. There is a market for this supplemental recycling and revenue could be used to offset some operating and maintenance costs for residential customers. 

Let’s hope the location impact is negligible, further grants will be obtained, life cycle costs are minimized and the final sewer rates will be tolerable. An unbiased county life cycle cost report should be submitted to convince customers of the least costly solution. A final life cycle cost report prior to start-up should be submitted to check integrity of contractor expenditures, any changes and anticipated recurring costs.

Congratulations to Los Osos and county servants for setting an example by selecting a multi-functional approach that includes recycling to conserve water and resist saltwater intrusion.

Werner Koch

Cambria

Support water rates

Just a reminder, to the community of Paso Robles, to please support the right to purchase water from the Nacimiento Pipeline Project by voting “yes” on Nov. 3 for water rates. I’m thankful for a forward-thinking City Council and city staff for planning ahead, getting on top of anticipated water shortages in California, and securing our future water supply in Paso!

Christie Withers

Paso Robles

Festival a success

I’m always interested to see who gets bouquets and brickbats and was amazed when my name appeared on the bouquet list (Oct. 2) for chairing the 2009 Book and Author Festival. It made me a bit nervous since it was awarded prior to the event, however I can now happily accept it on behalf of the planning committee, the Foundation for San Luis Obispo County Public Libraries, Brian Reynolds and the library staff and all the volunteers, including the 3rd Platoon, Grizzly Youth Academy, who made the event happen.

Thanks to our sponsors, including Doc Burnstein’s Ice Cream Lab, Target, Impact Publishers, the City of San Luis Obispo, The Tribune, New Times, Central Coast Family News, KVEC and Coast 101.3, Rabobank, Charter Communications and Rotary of San Luis Obispo.

Special thanks to The Tribune’s own Bill Morem and his new best friend Spider-Man, as well as to Becky Juretic, who made sure everyone in the state knew the Central Coast Book and Author Festival was back!

The best news of all, with almost 70 exhibitors, we met our goal to celebrate books, reading and our public libraries as well as our financial goals.

Maryellen R. Simkins

Central Coast Book and Author Festival

From a pacifist

Greetings, comrades. I am a pacifist. A proud liberal and progressive. One who has the greatest respect for our fighting troops, one who dedicated 33 years of his life to public safety in one of the most dangerous occupations in the world, who feels a lump in his throat whenever he considers our military prowess in World War II, who understands the intellectual and technological excellence of so much of our martial might — our carrier groups, our nuclear submarine deterrence, our complete control of the air in any conventional war scenario, the expertise and abilities of our special forces — and who even understands the concept of mutually assured (nuclear) destruction and how it actually worked during the Cold War.

But why must America be constantly at war? And why must we spend so many billions of dollars annually, far exceeding the entire remainder of the world’s military expenditures, supporting a military machine which is so ineffective against an enemy armed with box cutters and improvised explosive devices? One which constantly has to arrange for missions for itself to the detriment of the world and ourselves?

War really is hell.

There is almost always a better way.

Michael F. Williams

Arroyo Grande

Loons of the left

When progressives feel threatened, they roll out the big guns. First, they attacked Sarah Palin with a vengeance, and now, all of a sudden, Glenn Beck is in their crosshairs. 

If Beck were all the vile things which they claim, few people would listen. And without a following, he would neither pose a threat to them nor merit a minute of their attention.

Yet, the loons of the left are out in force hurling their invectives at him in the blogs, on radio and television, and even on the editorial pages. This reaction is, of course, entirely predictable and is an indication of the fear he instills in them.

The progressives are as angered by his comments as they are flummoxed by the questions he poses. If this were not so, they would dispatch his comments with reasonable argument and answer his questions with equal aplomb. 

But it appears that this will never happen because their arguments are insipid and without sound reasoning. That leaves them with nothing more than name-calling and vapid proclamations of their supposed good intent.

Mike Vidaurri

Morro Bay

End the genocide

The genocide in Darfur, Sudan, started in February 2003. More than six years have passed and Darfur is still waiting for the world to act. It disturbs me that someone, let alone world leaders, can sit back and allow such an atrocity unravel at the leisure of the Sudanese government.

The president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, is the mastermind behind this ongoing genocide and he is walking free. He has expelled all international aid and relief organizations from the region.

It is our obligation as humans to end the genocide and to ensure peace and justice to the region of Darfur. Our president, along with other world leaders, must take action. If they continue to ignore these acts of genocide the blame will fall on all of us. We cannot allow our silence to continue.

First the Holocaust, then Cambodia, then followed Bosnia and Rwanda. And time after time we uttered the words, “Never again.” It is time we give these words meaning, as our world faces yet another genocide, this time in Darfur.

Jordan Hattar

Templeton

Successful ploy

Harris Ranch Chairman David Wood succeeded in “setting the agenda” of the intended lecture by Michael Pollan by threatening to withhold a generous contribution if Pollan lectured on sustainable farming methods that would be critical of agribusiness.

The subsequent change to panel discussion thus introduced the irrelevant issue of academic freedom, which Mr. Pollan, a Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley, naturally had to address in his opening remarks rather than the intended critique of agribusiness. Wood’s tactic worked perfectly.

Had he instead offered to come present a “real-life”rebuttal to Pollan’s lecture topic, disparagingly called a “forty acres and a mule” approach to feeding the world, Mr. Wood could have provided students a real lesson in academic inquiry where ideas are presented, then challenged, allowing listeners to form their own judgments, a concept of education one would have hoped Mr. Wood learned while a student at Cal Poly himself.

Then when the two “diverse views” The Tribune presented about the Pollan appearance also addressed academic freedom rather than the perils of agribusiness, Mr. Wood must have been reassured he had succeeded in his ploy, and President Baker should expect an even larger donation from Harris Ranch.

James Hedges

Paso Robles