Letters to the Editor

A summer of slapping

A s SLO city policemen ride around on their motorcycles and enjoy their outrageous new salaries, I hope they will think of us who are being plagued by mosquitoes because the city could not afford mosquito abatement this year.

E. A. Johnson

San Luis Obispo

Don’t cross solid lines

It happens every day. Someone’s in a hurry and makes the arrogant decision to cross over a solid line to pass.

It is clearly a conscious decision and takes dedicated effort to cross over that line and drive down the road going in the wrong direction. And for what? Just to get a few cars ahead or to clip off a few extra minutes of driving time?

Is it worth it to make another driver become startled enough to pull over? Or worst-case scenario, to take a precious life?

Nobody has the right to pass. And nobody should make such a selfish decision. The solution here is very simple. Just don’t do it!

Cindy Rattigan

San Luis Obispo

Booze, cars don’t mix

The San Luis Obispo County DUI Task Force and “AVOID the 14’s” goal is to warn people of the dangers and consequences of driving while impaired. Every 39 minutes and nearly 40 times a day, someone in the United States dies in an impaired driving-related crash according to research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

We are reminding everyone this Fourth of July that buzzed driving is drunken driving and to designate a sober driver before the celebrations begin. Don’t let your Fourth of July end in an arrest — or even worse, death. Make smart decisions. Plan ahead, so you can ensure a safe way home.

Whether you’ve had way too many or just one too many, it’s not worth the risk. Don’t ever get behind the wheel of a vehicle when you are impaired or get into a vehicle as a passenger when the driver has been drinking. Be safe, be smart and arrive safely to your destination.

Erin Taylor,

San Luis Obispo County DUI Task Force/AVOID the 14

Poorer without plays

Shame on Brian Getz and the governing board of Bellevue- Santa Fe Charter School for its 11th-hour decision to deny use of the school’s campus for the Central Coast Shakespeare Festival.

As a local high school English teacher, I know the importance of live performances to engage students in Shakespeare’s plays. Every year, when school starts, my students and I share our reactions to whatever Central Coast Shakespeare Festival plays we saw over the summer. I’m heartbroken that my students and I will not be able to see “The Tempest” this summer (a play I teach in my sophomore honors English classes) for “safety reasons.”

Perhaps our community will be a tiny bit safer, but it will be infinitely poorer for this misguided decision.

Diane W. Mayfield

Templeton

A way to cheaper gas?

Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (Viewpoint, June 17) solution to the huge rise in fuel prices follows the standard right-wing line: Allow future drilling for oil everywhere and remove regulations that restrict current practices of oil drilling and refining. A swift, sure path to ecological cataclysm.

Expert testimony before a U. S. Senate committee a couple of weeks ago showed conclusively that supply and demand were only part of the problem and that a large portion of the increase in fuel prices was the result of the current administration easing regulation on commodity speculation — in particular, oil futures.

This lack of regulation has resulted in a small group of extremely wealthy speculators reaping enormous profits at the expense of the rest of us. Expert witnesses from all sides of the political spectrum opined that if regulation was put back to pre-2002 levels we would see an immediate reduction in fuel prices of at least 25 percent with no environmental impact whatsoever.

I have two questions: Why hasn’t this been done, and why isn’t Mr. McCarthy supporting it?

Hugh Gilson

Oceano

Gift to SLO’s homeless

T his month we witnessed an amazing finale to a collaboration of classroom and community.

It took three vehicles to transport the results of a community service project by Cal Poly psychology class students Laura Escobar, Staci Fabulich, Angela Forney, Marie Hughes, Adriana Ramirez and Ashley Shoals to Prado Day Center on June 4.

The six-member team delivered $1,076 and 2,411 food and merchandise items collected in just a few weeks. These contributions will provide nutrition and assistance for many weeks for the homeless and working poor who come to Prado Day Center for aid.

These students were articulate ambassadors who increased awareness of local homeless issues. Support from the community was terrific.

Hundreds contributed from their cupboards or shopped from “wish lists” the team distributed on campus and locations throughout SLO County. Trader Joe’s donated bags to hold items collected; Wal-Mart let the women set up a table outside the Arroyo Grande store; Cal Poly’s bookstore donated backpacks. We also thank Cal Poly students who are traditionally broke by June. They contributed half the cash!

The project was a final assignment for the Cal Poly Group Dynamics class taught by Shawn Burn, Ph. D. What a great assignment. Our thanks to everyone for this A+ event!

Dave Smiley and Marilyn Mayor,

Friends of Prado Day Center

Beware pseudo-science

In a June 9 letter, Robert Natiuk asks, “Can’t the evolutionary theory stand up on its own two feet under academic scrutiny?” Yes, it can based upon a huge collection of hard-won field and lab data. What it has trouble with is pseudo-scientific scrutiny that glosses over that data under the influence of a belief that we were created from scratch.

Forty or so “Fellows” at the Discovery Institute’s Seattlebased Center for Science and Culture are behind much of an ongoing effort against evolution. Their internal Wedge manifesto (on the Web) holds science’s materialistic emphasis responsible for a long list of evils, making it imperative that we instead assume a Christian outlook in science (à la medieval times). The center has aggressively advanced and backed efforts to move in this direction by slipping some pseudonym for God past the courts, into the classroom. So far, “Scientific Creationism” and “Intelligent Design” haven’t made it, but stay tuned.

Bill Schwennicke

Cambria