Letters for July 20, 2006

God made gays perfect!

Re “Role reversal” by Rachel Gregg (SN&R News, July 13):

So, am I to understand that 18-year-old Nadia Chorney fled Ukraine to escape religious persecution, came to the United States seeking religious freedom and now has the nerve to complain because we believe in equal civil rights for our citizens?

She is quoted as saying about gays, “Some people say they are born that way. That is not true. God never makes any mistakes.” Only one part of that statement is true: God never makes any mistakes. He made all gays just perfect!

I’m going to go ahead and say what everyone else is thinking: If you don’t like America, go back home. Buh-bye.

T. Hendershot
via e-mail

A few more secrets of Sac music

Re “Secret history of Sacramento music” by Jackson Griffith (SN&R Feature Story, July 6):

This was a fascinating story.

I wanted to add a few recollections. Joe Craven recorded and gigged with Jerry Garcia and later joined the David Grisman Quartet, which has played all prestigious festivals in the region.

I recall Uncle Rainbow, which had an incredible, culture-shocking run at the Shire Road Pub in the early ’80s. Maybe the finest band to ever play this city at the club level. They turned into Bourgeois Tagg, who had an incredible run at Melarkey’s in the late ’80s and produced two fine albums, one of which had the hit single “Mutual Surrender.” They opened for Heart but died at that level.

Mumbo Gumbo has played every major festival in our region, including the prestigious Strawberry Music Festival. Charlie and the Night Cats toured the entire country after being signed by Alligator Records, a major blues label. You have Cake, which scored a contract with Capricorn Records. They sold a lot of records and toured for years.

Mick Martin played well enough to tour Europe and the entire region. Charlie Peacock recorded an album for a major label, which didn’t go far. Uncle Harlan’s, which had a great run at the Fox & Goose, played a gig at the Fillmore.

Steve Artz
via e-mail

How’d they break the sunrise?

Re “After the flood” (SN&R Guest Comment, July 6):

Kimberly Edwards wrote in her commentary, supposedly about a flood experience, that workers “broke the sunrise six days a week with power tools and Spanish.”

I want to know how a language can “break the sunrise.” This seems to me a racist and derogatory remark aimed at Latinos. Our language has nothing to do with this commentary, other than to point out [the author’s] dislike of anything foreign.

I empathize with her experience, but she needn’t take out her frustration, anger or ignorance on Latinos.

I’m sorry you don’t like Spanish “breaking your sunrise,” but you could have kept that comment to yourself.

Joseph Romero
Sacramento

Cheap labor, high costs

Re “How low can they go?” by Steven Mikulan (SN&R News, July 6):

It’s the “I got mine, my friends got theirs, now screw you” syndrome. I am so tired of the lost-jobs and higher-prices fear tactics!

We don’t care what Lowe’s or Nordstrom’s pay their employees; we are willing to pay their inflated prices. What sector of the community do we not want to get a raise? Fast food, restaurant and hotel workers? People in convenience services? We want the convenience; we just don’t want to pay for their services!

And what happens when the fast-food chains have to pay a raised minimum wage? Maybe they do raise their prices. Then one of them, followed by the others, comes up with a new sandwich design at a lower price, and the price wars start, and the prices go down. That’s the effect of competition, the “invisible hand.”

In a press release, Rob Haswell, candidate for state Assembly from District 4, said: “According to a May 2004 report by the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California Berkeley, and the National Economic Development and Law Center, if all workers in the state earned a minimum wage of $8 per hour then public assistance program costs would be reduced by $2.7 billion.” So, your cheap burger is costing you more than you think!

My vote goes to Haswell. He cares about the good of the community as a whole, not just certain sectors!

Linda C. Hall
Rocklin

If you don’t like the pay, change jobs

Re “How low can they go?” by Steven Mikulan (SN&R News, July 6):

I wanted to share my experience with minimum-wage employees in response to the article on the lack of annual mandatory increases, generally known as indexing.

I recently moved from a state that indexes the minimum wage. I taught money-management skills to the community, including many people who earned the minimum wage.

First, automatic increases in the minimum wage provide no incentive for workers to actually earn a raise. I have heard minimum-wage earners brag about not having to do more than show up for work because of their “guaranteed” raise at the first of the year. Combine that with the difficulty of firing slackers, and you have raises going to those who don’t deserve them, with less money available for those who should be rewarded.

Second, the minimum wage is not designed to support a family. If a person is in that predicament, there is a serious lack of planning on their part. It is not their employer’s, co-worker’s or customer’s fault, though they will share in the financial burden.

Third, if a person can only get minimum-wage jobs, perhaps they need to improve their education/skills or actually look for a job that pays more. Automatic increases take away that incentive.

I have no problem with the federal or state government setting a minimum wage to protect entry-level workers from exploitation. I personally worked at minimum wage for about six months when I was 16, before taking my skills to a higher-paying position.

If a person isn’t happy with the size of their paycheck, they have no one to blame but themselves.

Matt Peter
Sacramento

Stop the cell-phone madness!

Re “Short fuse” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R News, July 6):

Bravo to the judge who threw out the cell phone.

Cell-phone (ab)users are unconscious, disrespectful, discourteous and obnoxious. Public transportation, doctors’ offices, theaters, restaurants, checkout lines, just about everywhere—they’re in their own dream world walking in the street or “driving” their cars. Their business becomes everyone’s business. They are unable to bear silence or be by or with themselves for a moment, remaining totally oblivious to—and inconsiderate of—their neighbors.

Cell phones will be as ubiquitous in airplanes as they are in places where we are all held captive. These (ab)users ought to be relegated to their own soundproof cabin, compelled to suffer one another’s inanities for the entire flight. On trains, I guess we are all stuck with these insufferable boors.

I, and hopefully those who share these feelings, will give our business to the airlines that have the sense to ban cell phones.

Emanuel Molho
New York City

Truck-man doing service for gays

Re “'I would do it again’” by Rachel Gregg (SN&R News, June 22):

If you can take just one more letter on the subject, I am grateful to SN&R for telling this story.

I have seen this truck on many occasions parked around the state Capitol. Like Jack Tocco, I was angry at first but realized that people who choose (and that is a choice, but one’s sexual orientation is not) to place such images of hatred, intolerance and bigotry actually do a service to gay people.

When I say that gay people are ostracized, detested and hated for being gay, I can point immediately to the moving billboard as a resounding example of what we face every day. And if someone says they don’t get it, thanks to this guy and his hate-mongering position, I just escort them to the side of the truck and tell them to read on. He makes it easy to demonstrate my point to those who believe that gay people are no longer victims of bigotry and hatred. I appreciate people being so demonstrative of their hateful positions. Keep up the good work; you are doing a service to gay people everywhere!

R.C. Yadon
West Sacramento

Correction

Re “This ain’t yo’ mama’s Crocker” by Matthew Craggs (SN&R Scene&Heard, July 6):

We mixed up the schedule of Crocker Contemporaries summer events. Forum discussions will take place on the last Thursday of each month, with film screenings on the following Saturday. Fashion is the subject for July, punk for August, and hip-hop for September. For details, visit www.crockerartmuseum.org/contemporaries/index.htm#popculture. We regret the error. This has been corrected on the Web site.