Letters to the Editor 2/10

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• Letters to the Editor 1/16

  Letters to the Editor 1/16

  Truth about ID laws

  President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have been accused of trying to “scare up some votes” by opposing the voter suppression movement by the Republican right wing across the nation in this election year. Here are the facts to counter the half-truths and outright lies used to justify the new voter ID laws passed in many Republican run states.

  First, The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN, never committed “voter fraud” as the right wing suggests. A few of their paid registration form gatherers submitted their material, ACORN checked the forms, “tagged” the ones found fraudulent and submitted them all as required by law. The Republican propaganda machine called this Democrats’ “massive fraud and corrupt practices.”

• Letters to the Editor 4/6

  Letters to the Editor 4/6

  Americans and death

  There is a haunting reality to the U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales story. A weird dynamic gets linked to the American psyche when the horrors of war occur, especially when it concerns the boy next door. It brought to mind My Lai in Vietnam, torture at Abu Ghraib, the family at Haditha in Iraq, 16 innocents in Afghanistan murdered by a U.S. soldier.

  This act seems to have shaken the American public; good that violence can still shake us up. The inescapable question, if contemporary war is viewed objectively, is: What makes such an incident a crime? What makes it different from large-scale civilian killings ordered by military action? What makes My Lai different from aerial napalming of entire villages? What makes Haditha different from the untold thousands of Iraqi civilians, including children, who died as “collateral damage”? The half-million children under the age of 5 who died as a result of Americaninspired U.N. sanctions, and the scores of civilians killed by drones?

• Letters to the Editor 1/23

  Letters to the Editor 1/23

  Home is a sanctuary

  A person’s home should be his or her sanctuary. I live in the peace and quiet of a Cambria neighborhood with the sounds of nature. When there is occasional loud music disturbing the peace, I can stand it because I am hoping it is temporary.

  If I had to listen to constant piano (or any loud musical instrument) from my neighbor or while in my yard, I would be less than thrilled and also upset. Thank goodness the SLO City Council revoked the piano lesson permit (“Council tunes out piano teacher,” Jan. 18). Thank goodness a person can be allowed to enjoy the home he or she chose.

• Letters to the Editor 12/5

  Letters to the Editor 12/5

  Oppose tar sands

  Two massive Canadian companies are pushing to clear out much of Alberta, Canada’s unique boreal forests in order to reach the world’s dirtiest oil. One project will send oil by pipeline to a port in British Columbia, where it will be pumped into 220 massive tankers which will then navigate a very dangerous route before proceeding west. A spill here could very well cover the entire British Columbian coast.

  The second company, Keystone XL, is also planning a pipeline, which will run from Alberta south through eight states to Texas. This line would run over the huge Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies water for hundreds of thousands of people. According to Jim Hanson, the Obama administration’s climatologist recently remarked that this pipeline and the full development of the Alberta tar sands would be “essentially game-over for the climate.”

• Nipomo pipeline project expensive but necessary

  Nipomo pipeline project expensive but necessary

  Property owners in the Nipomo area soon will vote on whether to increase their property taxes to pay for a $26 million pipeline to import water from Santa Maria.

  The question isn’t so much whether the water is needed; even opponents of the project acknowledge that it makes sense to have another source of water. Rather, the debate is over whether Santa Maria water is the best source. Those opposed to the tax measure point to other projects — especially desalination — as better alternatives.

  We recognize that the pipeline will be expensive. If approved, Nipomo-area property owners will not only see their taxes increase, they’ll also pay higher water rates.