Letters for January 30, 2003

Intimidation in and out of prison

Re “Who’s Guarding the Union,” by Jill Stewart (SN&R Capitol punishment, January 23):

Having been a prisoners’ rights activist in the Sacramento area for some 20-plus years, this commentary by Jill Stewart is absolutely the best to come along in a long, long time.

It is high time that the California Correctional Peace Officers Associaton and Don Novey were labeled as the corrupt gang they really are.

I have spoken out against these Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization violators for many years: to legislators, three governors, the inspector general’s office, three presidents, the FBI and anyone else who would lend an ear while I climbed on my soapbox.

Ms. Stewart has said it all in her very intelligent, succinct and truthful article on the CCPOA. They should be disbanded, and the higher-ups should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity—not just for the prisoners that their members abuse, but the visitors to the prisons that they equally abuse on a regular basis, as well as the taxpayers of this state and all of the educational and social programs that this group is adversely affecting through its methodology of intimidation and fear for the sake of more money in their own pockets.

I would like to see SN&R keep up the good work in exposing people who feed off the taxpayers year after year after year.

Teri Berry
Sacramento

Let them live

Re “It Takes a Different Village” (SN&R Editorial, January 16):

Your editorial gave me great hope. The main message that those of us experiencing homelessness usually get from our community is that we should not exist. This message comes from the fact that there are not enough shelter beds or affordable housing for all the homeless, and yet the city has made it against the law to sleep outdoors.

There are many community members and organizations trying to solve this housing problem, but immediate solutions are not in sight. And chances become slimmer as the economy worsens, budgets are cut and the city continues to subsidize luxury rental-housing projects with funds meant for affordable housing.

The tent-village concept, though officially denied, has received support from some of the officials within the denying offices. Your support, their support and the support from the community will be necessary before any ordinance or code can be changed to meet our emergency need—the need and right to exist on this Earth.

Paula Lomazzi
Sacramento

Hello Stewart, goodbye Martin and Conklin

Re “Wanted: Dems with Guts” by Jill Stewart (SN&R Capitol punishment, January 9):

Wow, I can’t believe the great article by Jill Stewart and the cartoon by Roman Genn. It’s probably the first thing I’ve read in SN&R that I actually loved. I hope you’ll have regular stuff from them.

On the Nevada County front (SN&R Bites, January 9), in spite of your best efforts, Izzy [Martin] went down in flames, and it was because of her extreme arrogance. Once she was elected, she opted to listen only to her Green friends and ignored the concerns of the ranchers, working people and those in construction or logging.

It is still a democracy, so we kicked her butt out.

Izzy and Bruce [Conklin] had zero interest in talking to anyone outside their comfort zone, and the rest of us got shut out of the process. Goodbye and good riddance Bruce and Izzy.

Heather Donesky
Nevada City

The patient game

Re “A Valuable Escort Service” by Shauna Heckert (SN&R Guest comment, January 16):

I have always wondered why clinics such as the one Ms. Heckert describes don’t use an interesting old military tactic.

If a clinic (or local group of clinics) deliberately shared and scheduled a range of services so that a high percentage of the people walking in any particular front door were legitimately going in for a non-controversial procedure, any protester would be wasting a lot of time accosting totally uninvolved people—not to mention some interesting legal implications.

Just a suggestion.

Rudy Iwasko
Sacramento

Free speech isn’t just for those whose speech you like

Re “A Valuable Escort Service” by Shauna Heckert (SN&R Guest comment, January 16):

As a former resident of Sacramento and someone who spent time sidewalk counseling in front of Women’s Health Specialists in the past, I read Shauna Heckert’s article with great interest, especially the following sentences: “This is nonsense. Free speech does not mean anyone should be forced to listen. What the anti-abortionists do not want to face is that our clients have no interest in hearing what they have to say.”

I am still trying to figure out how anyone is being “forced to listen” to anything, any more than I am forced to listen when any other group has an issue that is being publicly presented. I can’t recall ever seeing a clinic patient hogtied and force-fed info. Clients can simply plug their ears and walk into the clinic if they so choose.

Heckert’s interpretation of intimidation and harassment pretty much includes offering women (and sometimes men) going into her clinic literature on abortion and alternatives to abortion, and asking them to let their baby live. If they cannot handle that much while going into the clinic, how will they deal with it when they have already had an abortion and cannot go back?

If First Amendment rights were limited to public expression to be delivered only to those who wanted to hear the message, how much longer do you think it would have taken to get civil-rights messages of the past heard and acted upon. If one cannot ever be “forced” to hear messages they do not wish to hear, then perhaps someone can start enjoining those who want to print expletives on their T-shirts or who speak loudly in vulgar terms in public places.

However, Heckert is the one who is not willing to admit that occasionally someone does want to hear what we have to say—sometimes because they are looking for a way out and sometimes just for a good argument—but they do show interest. Some women may come in and not think they want to hear what is being said, but leave smiling, saying that they changed their minds about the abortion. That’s who the sidewalk counselors go out for. And that is what the First Amendment and, yes, even freedom of choice, are really about.

The courts have given Heckert the right to run an abortion/reproductive-services clinic. The Constitution gives protesters the right to object, whether or not anyone wants to hear the message.

Melanie Taylor
Clearfield, Utah

Men and slapstick

Re “When Women Attack” by Deidre Pike (SN&R Cover, December 26):

One cannot deny the facts that are recently being discovered about women and domestic violence. But to say that this phenomenon or the laws that ignore it are negative byproducts of feminism is outlandish.

The lack of resources for men and the unfair treatment they receive from the legal system are caused by the distinctly chauvinist idea that women are weak and men are strong. (Did no one read the introductory quote used for this article?)

As for the examples drawn from modern comedies—scenes of women hitting or slapping men, and the audience finding it funny—are not reflective of some sadistic humor found in the men’s pain. People find it funny simply because it is a role reversal—a well-known comedic device. Why do you think so many comedies involved men in drag?

Of course, sometimes there is an undertone of “Good for her! She’s standing up for herself!” or something similar. But the audience never sees malevolence in it because they simply do not believe that the woman character could—or would—hurt the man character as much as he could or would hurt her, and that is no act of deference to the woman, I can assure you.

Among feminism’s goals is to usurp the idea that we are destined to be physically inferior to men, as well as the patronizing idea that women are meek and incapable of wrongdoing, for these ideas deny us our humanity by denying our variability. We want equality of the sexes, not a legal upper hand.

My dear men, don’t fall into the same line as the self-victimizing made-for-TV movies on the Lifetime Channel (a network as representative of feminism as a pebble is of Mount St. Helens). Pick up your signs, fight for your rights and blame no woman but the one who hurt you.

Nicole Hernandez
Sacramento