Letters to the Editor 1/3

Thoughts on rail

Today, I decided to research the proposed high-speed trains being built in California. What I first saw excited me (L.A. to San Francisco in two-and-a-half hours? Incredible!), but the more I found out, the less practical it became for me. I am all for public transportation, and whether for the environment, community or economy, the benefits are clear. However, the trains will “rival the best known systems already operating around the world.”

I’m currently living in Switzerland, and being only 16, I have never had to ask my parents to drive me somewhere; in fact, we don’t even own a car. One of the reasons the trains here work so well is they are used in combination with other forms of public transportation that also serve smaller towns.

Bakersfield being the nearest place the high-speed trains would stop, I would still have to take the train from SLO (five hours), and the bus from Los Osos to SLO (one hour). Considering it’s only about five hours by car, for most in SLO the choice would be clear.

The systems here will never be as widely used if they are still impractical for the average person, even though public transportation is just as if not more important in ending our car crisis.

Emma Sturm

Los Osos

Money in the crowd

While viewing the Kennedy Center Honors (which in my opinion is by far the classiest award show on TV), I kept thinking how ironic that at least 99 percent of those in attendance were part of the 1 percent that the other 99 percent are complaining about. A few billion dollars of net worth in that assemblage.

If the “occupiers” were there to protest, they were kept well-hidden.

Patrick Thomas

Pismo Beach

Stick to the issues

One of the most shocking — and I assume racist — letters that I have ever seen appeared in Wednesday’s (Dec. 28) Tribune, written by Ralph Bush. This was one of the most disgusting letters that I have had the displeasure to view.

Imagine someone questioning what classes the president of the United States took while he was a student. Would those same questions be raised if the president was not born in Hawaii? Or perhaps if he was not partially black?

What a cheap shot. The record clearly shows that Barack Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with a BA degree, and then subsequently obtained his Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1991. Additionally, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

There is no mystery here, and to pretend that there is flies in the face of rationality and is an insult to any reasonably intelligent person.

Let’s focus on the issues and avoid these cheap shots and red herrings.

Dan Rich

Atascadero

Dedicated Hughes

On behalf of Camp Fire USA, I would like the community to know that not only did Ira Hughes dedicate his life to Boy Scouts, but he also strongly supported his wife Joey Hughes as the executive director of Camp Fire USA for 12 years.

Ira helped raise funds, donated bikes for auctions each year, and worked side-by-side supporting Joey and their daughter Tasha as director of Camp Natoma. We not only want to thank the Hughes family for their dedication to Camp Fire boys and girls, but also to their commitment to the youth whom they supported for so many years.

Dorothy Truesdale

Former executive of Camp Fire and volunteer