Letters to the Editor 12/2

Buy American

The average person spends $700 on Christmas gifts, and if each of us spent just $64 of that on products made in America, we could create 200,000 jobs, right here in America.

ABC News has been running info on where and what to buy. When I went to the website, I only saw one entry on the entire Central Coast. I’m assuming people haven’t heard about it. I think we’d all like to make a difference, especially here.

So, I’m writing this in hopes of people locally supporting local businesses and buying products made in America. Even if your Christmas budget is not $700 — mine certainly isn’t — try to buy as many things made in America as you can. You may even get some ideas for gifts you hadn’t thought of. We have to stop relying on the politicians; they’re stuck on job creation, and not getting anything done. OWS is saying more than they’re doing.

This is one small thing that could make a big difference. So, are you in, Central Coast?

Nanci J. Pembleton

Orcutt

Millionaires for taxes

In case you missed it on national TV, a determined group of more than 200 American millionaires has demanded that Congress raise their taxes!

The Patriotic Millionaires are supportive of Warren Buffett’s proposal to raise taxes on himself and the ultra-wealthy as the patriotic and moral course of action during this deeply recessionary crisis.

Republicans scream, “Hell, no!” to a single dollar of increased taxes and have pledged against America’s best interests to never close a single corporate tax loophole or end a single GOP subsidy. That’s why we have mega-conglomerates paying zero income taxes and the largest corporation in the history of the entire world, Exxon-Mobil, still receiving billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money in insane subsidies year after year while the middle class and working poorface skyrocketing home foreclosures. It’s deliberate GOP fiscal insanity.

A recent survey by the Spectrum Group found that 68 percent of Americans with investments of $1 million or more support raising taxes on millionaires!

And Grover Norquist, who is surreptitiously destroying our federal government, has promised to obliterate the political career of any Republican who dares to cross him. None has and none will, and his plan is to continue to pursue Democratic lawmakers with the same ferocity now that he “owns” every (concealed-carry-armed) Republican legislator, lock, stock and fully-auto Glock.

D. Duane Wall II

Cambria

Support artisans

I want everyone to know that the Holiday Craft Fair in the Mission Plaza in SLO is happening this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Come out and support your local artisans. They are your neighbors and friends who make Christmas gifts from the heart.

Amy Mordan

San Luis Obispo

Abuse, anywhere

Penn State has been in the news lately because of the child sexual abuse that has been reported. What many people in our community don’t realize is that child sexual abuse happens everywhere, even in SLO County. In fact, 93 percent of survivors of juvenile sexual abuse know the perpetrators. Survivors often don’t tell about the abuse during childhood due to fears of retaliation, not being believed or blame. Not getting help healing can, in the long term, lead to depression, shame, anxiety, re-victimization, substance abuse, poor relationships and poor parenting.

If victims tell you that they were abused, it is helpful to convey that you believe them, acknowledge their courage in telling someone, let them know that it’s not their fault and that they didn’t deserve it.

If you are an adult who has been carrying the secret of being sexually abused as a child and would like to heal from it, please call the Sexual Assault Recovery and Prevention Center at 805-545-8888. Our phones are staffed by certified sexual assault crisis counselors 24 hours a day and our agency provides clinical counseling for survivors and their loved ones. You can heal and we’re here to help.

Vicki Pobor

Clinical counseling director, SARP Center of SLO County

Storage solution

Currently the government has no plans for storage of nuclear waste; there are efforts by nuclear sites (Diablo Canyon included) to recover costs and future expenses related to storing nuclear waste.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission headquarters, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville Md., might be the solution to the nation’s nuclear storage problem.

Instead of paying fines and fees to various nuclear sites, modify the NRC headquarters by using dry-cask storage containers and digging underground for additional storage caverns similar to the Onkalo storage facility in Finland. According to the Web site, the NRC is just outside Washington D.C.

I swear I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. It seems so simple.

George Sheffield

Los Osos