Letters for January 2, 2003

Motivation check, please

Re “Inside the Pyramid” by Heidi Kriz (SN&R Cover, December 19):

This is for all the Women Helping Women ladies:

Want the “excitement” and to feel the “attraction” of “helping other struggling women”?

I am a working student, with a cat in need of dental work and only an ’85 Dodge Omni on the street (no garage). Please send $625 to me at [address withheld by editors]. I promise I will never give you any money in return.

It’s perfectly legal. I’ll give it a month, and then I’ll tell Heidi Kriz how right she is about the motivations of the Women Helping Women participants.

Holly Calderone
Sacramento

Iraqi News & Review?

Re “George W., Let Them Work,” (SN&R Editorial, December 19):

Boy, are you duped again! The United States, the British and the United Nations all feel confident that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, but you choose to follow the idiotic ramblings of wishful traitors like MoveOn.org, who themselves should do the honorable thing and leave this country. The colonists who supported the Brits during the Revolutionary War did! (That they might have been shot might be part of the reason why they left and went to Canada and other places.)

Does somebody have to beat you over the head, or do people have to die before you believe?

Read the December 6 issue of the Wall Street Journal. I have a copy if you want to be enlightened. Get your head out of your ass and stop appealing to the counterculture and giving away free newspapers with lucrative, paid advertising.

How much do you make a year to sell your soul and your country down the drain for slimy money?

Too bad you live here and not in Iraq or North Korea or Yemen or some other controlled country.

Support the president. You should do no less.

Nick Schrier
Sacramento

Personal is global

Re “Steps to Peace” and “More Steps to Peace” by Joey Garcia (SN&R Ask Joey, December 5 and December 12):

This column continues to present a refreshing spin on the traditional advice column. In these two recent offerings, with originality and creativity, Garcia took another “step” toward advising not solely on a personal scale, but with global consequences in mind.

With regard for how our actions in our own worlds affect our actions in our larger world, she gave concrete “advice” to live by in these troubled times. What a good holiday present to us readers.

Bravo, SN&R, for your continued stroke of distinction.

S. Goodrich
Sacramento

Poindexter alert

Re “DARPA Grand Challenge” by Jackson Griffith (SN&R In the Mix, December 5):

So, the same people who helped John Poindexter set up the Information Awareness Office are behind a robotic race. Poindexter is the disfavored force behind the whole Iran-Contra absurdity, and he is now working to create a super computer storehouse of detailed information about all Americans.

This wacko should not be involved in any government work, yet he’s been given an enormous budget.

DARPA is a bad idea, and these vehicles reek of offensive military activity.

Randy McClure
Rocklin

Law, order and race

Re “A Down Market” by Chrisanne Beckner (SN&R Cover, December 5):

This is a factual article about Washington Market, and it’s a shame that it has increased an already negative “stigma” on the residents of Oak Park.

Oak Park is a very diverse neighborhood, and I believe that the majority of residents want to live in a safe and positive environment, but what I found most appalling was that the Sacramento police said they lacked resources to frequently patrol this high-crime area.

I do wonder: If this were a predominately white area, would they make this same statement? No! They would have eradicated this situation immediately. It’s time for the concerned and angry residents in this north area of Oak Park to put pressure on the police department, and for City Council member Hammond to take an aggressive, proactive approach to make this neighborhood safe for everyone.

Anthony D. Jordan
Sacramento

Good work on bats

Re “The Secret Lives of Bats” by Jeff Kearns (SN&R Cover, November 21):

I wanted to compliment SN&R on its article on bats. I thought it was really nicely done. It was well-balanced, with good information on the biology of bats as well as concerns about rabies. Great job!

Rachael Long
Farm Advisor, Pest Management
University of California Cooperative Extension