Do we care about this country's children?

Health care and a good education ought to be the birthright of every child in America. It could be so, if we cared enough about our children to demand that money wasted on wars be redirected to help our kids grow up healthy and empowered with the skills necessary to manage our great country wisely and justly. So long as this does not happen, the future is dead.

Jean Gerard

Los Osos

 

 

 

Kindly hold it in

Since I'll be paying "up to" $25,000 on my tax bill for the sewer, and somewhere between $100 to $300 per month in fees, and the residents outside of the prohibition zone won't have to pay anything for cleaner water, I have to kindly ask that those residents cease pooping into my groundwater.

Mike Stiles

Los Osos

 

 

 

You just don't want nuclear power to work

In his commentary ("'Too cheap to meter,'" Sept. 27), David Weisman from the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility chastises the nuclear industry for not finding "an answer to the problem of high-level radioactive waste."

Mr. Weisman, the answer is Yucca Mountain, but your group, others like Mothers For Peace, and the likes of Sen. Harry Reid have fought this commonsense solution at every opportunity. Your agenda is obvious. You don't want nuclear power to work anywhere. Outside the waste issue, your concerns seem to center on the non-nuclear issues of foundations and concrete.

In 10 years, Mr. Weisman, your solar panels and windmills will not be able to provide the power you need to charge your plug-in hybrid vehicle overnight. Nor will they power the energy-intensive process that will separate hydrogen from water to power our fuel cells. Our government needs to make a commitment that in 15 years, at least 50 percent of our energy needs are provided by a nuclear process. If it takes $100 billion in government loan guarantees, so be it. That is a lot cheaper than appeasing our current hydrocarbon suppliers. Activists will complain that there will be some people who will get rich from this plan. So be it. At least they will be Americans or our true friends.

Charlee Smith

Templeton

 

 

 

Thanks for the clear picture

What a pleasure it was to read Glen Starkey's coverage of Dennis Kucinich and his wife Elizabeth's campaign here in SLO County ("Not politics as usual," Sept. 27). It was an honest and accurate account of Kucinich's political career, what he has accomplished for his constituents in Ohio, and what he believes and stands for and works for now in the House of Representatives. It was a clear picture of who Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic candidate for president of the United States, really is and what we can expect from him as president: peace and quality health care for all, for starters.

It is really unfortunate that the SLO Tribune could focus mainly on his height and age difference between him and his wife, rather than what most of us are interested in: his platform and how he plans to make it happen. Thank you, Mr. Starkey, for bringing clear, honest, and accurate reporting to our community.

Lynne Levine

SLO Code Pink

 

 

 

I'm glad someone's talking about nanoethics

A roommate gave me your article on nanotechnology ("Small frontiers carry big possibilities," Sept. 27). I'm glad that at least some people are discussing its ethics and negative implications. But the mad rush is already underway, and we are already being exposed to nano-sized particles without our advice or consent.

The risks to humans are the accumulation of these microscopic particles throughout the human body, including the brain (see Nanotoxicology: An Emerging Discipline Evolving from Studies of Ultrafine Particles by G?nter Oberdàrster, Eva Oberdàrster, and Jan Oberdàrster). Obviously, that is a huge medical issue.

That Bush's FDA has decided that they require no product labeling, which would allow people to make an informed choice, is testament to our corporatocracy. If Mr. Lin is serious about wanting input from citizens and if his group has the influence, I suggest they start with immediate labeling.

Jude Calloway

San Luis Obispo

 

 

 

Technology can't restrain itself

I cringe when I think of all of the changes that humans are wreaking upon Mother Earth with "advances" such as nanotechnology ("Small frontiers carry big possibilities," Sept. 27). I'm no Luddite, but hey, we humans still barely understand ourselves, let alone all of nature. How can we know what all of the effects of our many changes will be?

We've gained our place in nature through a complex web of natural selections, which involves many other species thus any large-scale changes we make WILL have repercussions, and we have no idea what they will be. When I hear about "inexorable progress," I think of real-estate developers who endeavor to convince us that resistance is futile, and bit by bit one witnesses once-beautiful, even inspiring stretches of scenery paved over for the almighty dollar.

The article asks "If humans do access the secrets of immortality, do we have the right to pursue it?" and other questions. We already know the answers to many of the questions ethicists ask about these new technologies, and the answer is "No." So why do we ask them? Because we don't like the answer.

Anyway, even if we all decided that nanotechnology was not something we

should pursue, I doubt that there would be anything that we could do to stop it. The conundrum of technology is that it is inherently unable to restrain itself. This is because the human psyche has not yet evolved to the point of species self-actualization it hasn't grown up yet.

We're still blowing ourselves up in idiotic nationalistic wars, for crying out loud. Thus we are as children playing with a loaded gun. Even if some were to decide that we should limit it, once the technology is out, others with little or no scruples will exploit it for personal gain.

The article mentions Moore's Law. Another law might be: "Anything that can be developed, WILL be." Science, that which has shattered many of the demons of our past, sadly may also well be our end.

Robert Stevens

San Luis Obispo

 

 

 

Watch out for Dickens' dark ages

The adoption of the amendments to the zoning regulations in SLO City limits to allow the construction of tall buildings to the heights between 60 feet and 75 feet in downtown SLO has received all kinds of pros and cons ("Downtown SLO's tall building rules adopted," Sept. 20).

It is sad no one is looking at the existing state of affairs in the downtown area bounded by Osos Street on the east, Nipomo Street on the west, and Palm Street on the north, and Pacific on the South.

The streets are narrower in the main corridor of this bounded area, especially Higuera and Marsh streets. With the new amended zoning rules, the most affected area will be on these two streets. Forget the sunlight or other possible environmental issues just reflect upon the possibility of thrusting this area into the dark ages described by Charles Dickens in England.

Yes, revenues play an important role, but aesthetics lost is the destruction of the very foundation of human endeavor to promote the beauty of life that is already in jeopardy on the streets of SLO's downtown. The trend to copy taller buildings as the ultimate in the architectural designing to make use of limited space as has been done in New York, Chicago, and even in Los Angeles is flirting with disaster without the requirement to make all the streets in downtown SLO at least twice in width from the present narrow dimensions.

Brahama D. Sharma

Pismo Beach

 

 

 

I want to rent your family

I recently saw an advertisement for a dining activity that read: $10 per member, family is free. I looked in front of me, in back of me, and from side to side. I was the only one standing. I am my family, and a darn good harmonious one at that!

This activity has me paying $10 for my family (just me) and my member friend paying the same $10 for him, wifey, and three kids (three teens who require frequent feedings).

Hmmm I pay $10 for me for the same amount on my plate as him, his wifey, and three rug rats. For the same $10, they pay $2 each. Once again, being single by choice on this day doesn't seem as though I'm getting the same bang for my buck as "Mr. Family Member."

I, myself, have one income to pay for my mortgage, gas, my habits you get the picture. "Mr. Family Member" has a wife who works (makes more than he does YEAH!). The families appear to be getting all the breaks. Maybe the paying, rented husband will know of a nice, smart, financially set, spiritual, emotionally fun loving, monogamous, available guy friend or brother who he might introduce me to.

Es Ellee

Arroyo Grande

 

 

 

The red zone is for emergencies only

I am hoping that parents of Fairgrove Elementary School (aka north Oceano) will read this letter.

My child is enrolled in an after-school program, requiring me to pick him up after normal school hours. Imagine my disgust when I pulled into a practically empty parking lot to see four cars parked along the clearly painted red/emergency zone. Are these people so lazy that they cannot park their cars in a normal parking spot 15 feet away? Are they so special that the possibility of a legitimate emergency that may necessitate our firefighters, ambulances, and policemen means nothing to them? Shame on you, folks!

These red zones are there for a reason. Please respect their purpose and the safety of our children. I imagine you are the same blockheads who don't pull over when you hear a siren. I often wonder how these people would feel if their loved one did not get the urgent emergency service he or she needed because of a car blocking a red zone or someone too "busy" to pull over.

Molly Kight

Arroyo Grande

 

 

 

Local men, get back in the garage

Whenever the issue of shopping comes up in the paper or on the radio, men are the primary interested parties. Is this some desire to be close to their feminine side?

Why are Central Coast men so passionate about not only providing new shopping, but championing such projects?

A hundred different ways to buy a can of paint? No thanks. To many of us, this means the wife wants us to paint the house when we want to wrench in the garage.

Men of the Central Coast, look into the not-so-distant past and rekindle your passion for mechanical pursuits. Help give birth to the next Jake Zemkes, Gene Romeros, and Marty Dickersons. Please don't let the Central Coast turn into one big shopping center and boutiqueville wrapped in a pink bow with perpetual wine tasting.

Malcolm Roe

Santa Margarita