Letters to the Editor 7/19

Don’t write off oil

Without question, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster unlike any other in recent history, and the ramifications will be long-ranging. However, now is not the time for knee-jerk reactions and political stunts, especially calling an expensive special legislative session to ban offshore drilling in Florida waters when a law that does just that is already on the books.

No form of energy generation is completely safe, and each has its own unique hazards. Even so-called “green” energy forms such as wind and solar power present threats to the environment and to mankind.

The reasonable and responsible thing to do now is to get the oil in the Gulf cleaned up, work together to minimize the risk of future recurrence and move forward on adopting comprehensive energy policies that allow our country to take advantage of all that is available to us, including oil off of our shores.

Gary Haas

Grover Beach

Doing it ourselves

Public services are not — I repeat, not — dependent on tax-and-spend politicians. “We the people” can and should provide for our local public service by forming community organizations to raise the money to fund needed services. It actually used to be done that way.

Who else can recall the listing on your property tax bill for the local fire, police and even public health clinics? All this ended with Proposition 13 and Medicare/Medi-Cal, as the state and the federal governments took over. Since then, even local taxes are funneled through Sacramento. Now, the money has run out at every level of government.

It truly does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that sending tax money to Sacramento (and Washington, D.C.) is a losing game, with our community being the biggest loser. It is time to just say no to politicians who want us to pay up or do without. We don’t have to do without if we simply do it ourselves.

Gail Lightfoot

Arroyo Grande

Please return rings

On July 11, I went to Cafe Andreini in Arroyo Grande. Grief-stricken over my mother’s recent death, I held dear the purse she gave me just prior to her passing. Sitting on one of the tall chairs, I hung my purse over the back of the chair. What a terrible mistake!

The chair being too tall, I moved to another table, forgetting to grab my purse. When I went back, it was gone! In my already heartbroken state, I was probably not as prudent as normal.

What is painful beyond words is that my mother’s wedding rings, along with her birthday ring and my grandmother’s original engagement ring were all in this little blue purse. I really thought I was keeping the most meaningful things close to me.

I cannot even put into words how heartsick I am over this. I just pray that someone will return my mother’s heirlooms to me. I hope that the misguided person who stole the purse will drop it off — or at least my precious heirlooms/tangible memories of my beloved mother — to the Arroyo Grande Police Department. Please, whoever you are, just do the right thing.

Laura Christie

San Luis Obispo

Obscene Poly salary

A $328,000 annual salary for Cal Poly’s interim President Robert Glidden is obscene (July 14). He is one man at one university. Taxpayers would not approve of such a huge chunk of their money being spent in this way. There are far too many six-digit salaries being paid for by taxpayers who earn less than a third of that.

It is especially appalling when such salaries are for “public service” jobs that could be performed by dedicated citizens with a heart to serve the public and not to fleece them.

Government pensions should be capped at a reasonable cost-of-living amount.

Francis Howard

Nipomo

Definition of insanity

Voters in California had a chance this June to send a strong message to Sacramento and take one small step toward breaking the political gridlock that has gripped this state for decades now.

Voters could have cast their ballots for one of several nonmajor party candidates, but the majority chose to vote for the Republican and Democratic candidates instead.

It’s remarkable to me that voters could be so blind. The two major political parties are two heads of the same monster, and that monster has jammed up the entire political process, failed regularly to get a state budget prepared on time and wasted countless millions (or maybe billions) of taxpayer dollars.

As always, candidates from both parties proudly declare that they will bring spending under control, end gridlock and reform state government. However, all are loyal members of their respective major political parties, and both parties are to blame for the out-of-control, wasteful spending that has become the norm in Sacramento. Republican or Democratic candidates and their political parties are the problem.

Voting for another Democrat or Republican is the epitome of Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Paul Jacobus

Morro Bay

Morro’s great Fourth

This year’s Fourth of July celebration in Morro Bay was great. It reflected all of the hard work and ingenuity of the dedicated group that put it on.

I commend the Morro Bay 4th Inc. organization and each of its members for a job well done.

Stuart McElhinney

President, Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce