Equal pay for work

This letter is to thank Bob Cuddy for the article about Equal Pay Day. I appreciate that he took the time and effort to cover AAUW’s cookie distribution and the reality of inequality that the cookies are intended to highlight.

It is amazing, isn’t it, that so much time has passed and still women don’t have parity in the work place. Sometimes I feel, as Iam sure many other older women do, that we have fought this fight before and thought it was finally won and yet we are fighting it still and again.

I don’t know why it seems to some that a woman can live more cheaply than a man or that her work is less valuable. I have not found that to be true. Way back in 1960 when I had to go to work because I had three children to support, I didn’t find my housing or utility bills or food or my children’s clothing or our transportation less than that of the families in the neighborhood which were supported by men. I enjoyed my job — when I finally found one — but it wasn’t a hobby; it was work. That has not changed.

Carol Dover

Co-President, AAUW, SLO

Garage sale hints

OK, I admit I am a garage sale addict.

But you must admit garage selling is the ultimate recycling: from your garage to mine. It’s also fun, and it’s like an intriguing treasure hunt!

Here is the problem: garage sale signs! If the signs are left up after the sale, it is confusing for us addicts and a serious detour from the current garage sales.

Also, please, when removing the signs, take down the staples, push pins, tape, etc. Good people who never think of littering leave this stuff up. Possibly not realizing all of it is littering.

One more little hint: big colorful signs with big arrows, put on each turn, get us there. Writing a small address on your sign just makes us a road hazard trying to read it while driving by.

A great option is Craigslist, where you can list the highlights of what you have for sale, and it’s free. Then for sure offer Mapquest and I can find you! Otherwise, I might need garage sale rehab.

Helen Saulsbury

Arroyo Grande

No moderate party

Today’s moderate Republican is facing an unfortunate truth: Their party is gone. Their party has been surrounded by an unreasonable fringe that has worked its way to the center.

If you are a middleclass American, to vote Republican today is to vote against your own best interests. You will vote for lower taxes on the obscenely wealthy while you will pay more for less. You will opt for destruction of programs which keep people in your income bracket afloat: Medicare, support for education, affordable health care for everyone, women’s rights, to name a few.

You will admit to believing the propaganda fed to you by those politicians, commentators, lawmakers and lobbyists bought and paid for by the rich who wish to remain so. You will respond to the waving flags, the patriotic oratory and the religious hyperbole without ever seeing the hypocrisy behind it all. And sadly, you will consider yourself good citizens in support of your country.

Mary Ross

Cambria

Just get along

Regarding this flap between Hilary Rosen and Ann Romney:

I wish women could stop sniping at each other over their life choices. Every woman’s life has value no matter what she chooses — whether to have children or to stay childless, to stay at home or hold a job outside, career or not, or of some combination.

Can’t we just all get along?

Pat M. Berger

Arroyo Grande