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closeCats need help
Pounce volunteers have been rescuing cats (and sometimes dogs) for 13 years. Funds are always needed, especially to aid our latest effort to save a large colony of abandoned cats at Kettleman City.
We have climbed over rocks at Morro Bay, hunted in hills for lost cats, climbed into caves when we heard a distressed meow and searched the creeks in Cayucos for cats and kittens in need of help. And then we discovered on a recent trip north, all the starving and abandoned cats living on whatever they could scrounge from garbage cans near fast-food restaurants.
Pounce President Julie Olson has traveled the four-hour round-trip and trapped about 25 cats who will never again go hungry.
Donations are scarce because we do not mail out expensive newsletters; we prefer to use funds for our needy cats. In April we received one $10 and two $30 donations. In May we received two $50, one $30 and one $25 donation.
It is difficult to buy dry food, wet food, pay vet bills, litter bills, medicine bills and bills for injured cats without help from the community, and we appreciate those who have generously helped us in the past.
For volunteers who would like to donate their time to Pounce, our address is P. O. Box 6075, Los Osos, CA, 93402 or call 528-2917 or 529-7326.
Marje Legerton
Pounce volunteer
Chaos hasn’t happened
I am responding to David Young’s letter (“Sex ... must be cooled,” June 11).
He asks us to name “one major religion or system of moral philosophy that defines marriage to include same-sex couples.” I am a Reform Jew. In Reform Judaism, same-sex couples have been celebrated for years in commitment ceremonies. So my assumption is that marriage in my religion does include same-sex couples.
Many Reform Jewish congregations are led by openly gay or lesbian rabbis. I’ll bet that the members of those congregations are celebrating the fact that the families of their rabbis will now be legally recognized.
Young and many others believe that same-sex marriage devalues traditional marriage, yet no one has ever said how this happens. My heterosexual married friends believe that our ability to be married just underscores the value and strength of marriage.
Young quotes the historians Will and Ariel Durant who state that sex must be constrained “if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group.” I’m wondering what chaos has befallen Massachusetts, Canada or any of the other places that now allow same-sex marriage. I have not seen any news stories reporting chaos and expect that if this had occurred, it would have been headline news.
Sari H. Dworkin
Pismo Beach
Not in the Bible
There are so many points in Sue Schimmels’ letter (May 28), that I’m not sure which to address. I guess I’ll begin with her statement that the Bible advocates cutting off hands.
Sue, I’ll assume you didn’t read the Bible and someone gave you this information, but I can tell you with full confidence, it’s not in the Bible. In the Old Testament under the Mosaic Law there were sins which were punishable by stoning, but there’s another part of the Bible called the New Testament that has the two greatest words you’ll ever read, grace and mercy.
Your letter makes it sound like we should be judging people by the Old Testament law. No thank you! Christians aren’t to harm anyone; we aren’t even suppose to judge a person. Our instructions are to share the good news that a sinner, even as bad as I, can be rescued by grace.
Sin is sin, no matter which sin it is. You can paint it with beautiful colors, make it sound reasonable, just and noble or encircle it with the word “love,” but it’s still wrong.
You stated, “No society ever crumbled from too much love.” True statement if it is a Godly love; otherwise pick up a history book on the collapse of ancient Rome.
Stan Fluitt
San Luis Obispo
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LETTERPOLICY
Not so small-town
In response to Lee Perkins’ letter of June 19, am I to understand that the purpose of the Atascadero Shield Initiative, according to Perkins, is “protecting the rural, small-town character of this unique city of the Central Coast?”
I had no idea that “rural” and “small-town,” and don’t forget “unique,” meant having a McDonald’s, Burger King and virtually every other fast-food restaurant known to man. And don’t forget the Starbucks all over the place.
Rural? Unique? Small town? Hmm.
Mike Moreno
Creston
Adopt the shield
The Atascadero Shield Initiative is not just about Walmart. It’s not knee-jerk reaction but supports the existing Atascadero zoning. One hundred and fifty thousand square feet would be larger than Costco in San Luis Obispo, the largest building in the county. This is not about Wal-Mart, but about community standards that help business move forward throughout the county.
Every other city in the county has a big-box ordinance. Omitting this fact makes it seem as if the shield would prohibit Wal-Mart. It does not. The grocery provision ensures that any retailers coming in pay their fair share of retail taxes to the city’s coffers.
Read the UCSB Economic Forecast Project by Bill Watkins before drawing conclusions. Local press cites Watkins’ conclusion that Atascadero is in trouble because of local decisions. Read the actual data and compare with Paso Robles and Arroyo Grande before you come to the same conclusion.
Adopting the Atascadero Shield Initiative puts Atascadero in line with the rest of the county. Let’s gain order in our city so that we can go on to promote businesses and tourism that our community needs.
Nora Trentacoste
Atascadero
What the town needs
I am in favor of Wal-Mart and think this should go to a vote. If the majority does not want Wal-Mart, then so be it. This town needs a boost, and I feel that is the ticket.
Don Curl
Atascadero
Enough shopping malls
Since the Atascadero Wal-Mart controversy is again in the news, I thought I would take a little run up El Camino Real and see just how our shopping-mall world is doing. To my surprise, I realized that Atascadero has 11 malls, large and small, in the approximately five miles between Spencer’s in the south and Home Depot in the north. And they all seem to have vacancies, which indicates to me that we do not need another shopping center.
The thrill of the new would have people rushing to the proposed Wal-Mart center and surrounding shops for a year or two while creating more vacancies in the other malls. We need to improve our existing malls, not create a new one.
As a corollary thought, I also believe that Wal-Mart is fixated on Atascadero because of its desire to drive Kmart out of business. I, for one, find the Atascadero Kmart to be a friendly size, and our four supermarkets offer all the groceries I will ever need.
Clement Salvadori
Atascadero
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