Letters to the Editor 11/5

Honoring teachers

Nov. 1 through 7 is a week to honor our many retired teachers of San Luis Obispo County. Some may have been your teachers in elementary, junior/middle or senior high school. Some of our retired teachers may have taught your parents and in a few cases, your grandparents.

Take a moment to remember the teachers who helped you become the person you are. It might have been a drama teacher who provided you a chance to become a character very unlike yourself. It may have been your sports coach who worked with a group of individuals to help create a team. It could be an English teacher who assisted you in understanding Shakespeare.

Retired teachers continue to benefit our community by volunteering their time and talents. Some provide help with local nonprofits, join community service organizations, volunteer in schools or become mentors for students and newer teachers alike.

With new technology, you should be able to find that special teacher from your past. When you do, write them a letter letting them know how you have turned out and of your memories with them from school.

A great bumper sticker says, “If you can read this, thank a teacher.”

Steven M. Click

California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA)

Support for KUSC

Kudos to John Brannon and the editorial staff for urging support for KCBX, which has added so much to the cultural life of our community.

What many of the readers of the editorial page may not realize as yet is that we are now fortunate enough to have two public radio stations broadcasting in our area.

For the past few months, the exceptional KUSC, a 24-hour, commercial-free classical music station based in Los Angeles, has been available at 99.7 FM. Like KCBX, its existence depends on listener support. In fact, its fall drive ended just last week.

A Southern California institution for many years and nationally recognized as one of the best of its kind, KUSC includes in its programming complete productions of the Metropolitan and Los Angeles opera companies, concerts by the great orchestras of the world, perceptive interviews, BBC news and a music education by a knowledgeable staff of announcers and commentators.

Any lover of great music should not only be tuned into KUSC, but should pledge support in order to keep it broadcasting in San Luis Obispo County.

Tom Bauer

Morro Bay

Wasteful spending

We bought two pounds of candy and only one trick-or-treater came by. Last year we had two trick-or-treaters.

Next year we don’t want to waste money on candy. Our local schools and youth services are scrambling for money, why not give the candy money to those organizations?

Wasteful spending doesn’t help those in need. Prior to Halloween, a list of local youth service charities could receive our dollars wasted on candy.

Would anyone like a candy bar? Stop by, we have bowl full.

Paul and Jill Dubois

Los Osos

History repeating

Read Vietnam history from 1963 if you want to know what is going to happen in Afghanistan. President Karzai is playing the role of Diem. His drug-dealing brother is playing the role of Nhu. The Obama administration is wearing the shoes of a frustrated Kennedy administration.

We should heed the lessons of history. We can not win hearts and minds when our soldiers go into their houses.

Stephen Kniffen

Cambria

Differences

If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one. If a liberal doesn’t like guns, then no one should have one. If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat. If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants to ban all meat products for everyone.

If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy. A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good. If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him. If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down. If a conservative is a nonbeliever, he doesn’t go to church. A liberal wants all churches to be silenced and God removed from public view.

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A liberal demands that his neighbors pay for his. That’s it.

John Canaday

Shell Beach