Publication Date: Friday, June 11, 2004
ReaderWire
ReaderWire
(June 11, 2004)
Commending Kott
Joe Kott and the College Terrace Residents Association traffic committee should be commended for their extraordinary efforts to assure that each resident of College Terrace had an opportunity to have a voice in regard to the proposed traffic-revision plan.
Bette Kiernan
Williams Street, Palo Alto
Grocery observations
With regard to grocery size, please walk into a large grocery outside Palo Alto and look for variety. Large grocers may carry a wall-sized refrigerator of cheese, for example, but look closely and you'll realize it's all the store brand and virtually all cheddar or jack.
On Tuesday, June 8, I went in the Safeway in Mountain View to get half-and-half for my business. There was only the Lucerne brand.
If I prefer a selection that emphasizes factors other than simply low cost -- such as sustainable farming practices -- I have to go to Piazza's, Whole Foods or another "small" market.
Some Palo Alto residents might venture to neighboring communities to get deals on Tide and Cheerios, but there are plenty of people like my family who regularly shop Palo Alto's small markets to get certain fruit, dairy and minimally processed food items that are not available at our favorite, even-smaller Willows-neighborhood grocery.
Lori Hobson
Central Avenue, Menlo Park
Civil-rights issue
I would like to thank Don Kazak for writing so eloquently ("Our Town," June 9) about what seems so clear to all gay people in this country.
Of course gay rights is the civil rights issue of our time.
The parallels and even the arguments against giving us our full civil rights as American citizens follow the very same pattern and ignorant arguments that black Americans had to listen to for decades.
My life partner and I have just celebrated our 25th anniversary together and were finally able to get married at City Hall in San Francisco on Valentine's Day weekend.
When we promised to stay together in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad times, we meant it and had already proven our commitment beyond the shadow of a doubt. And yet our marriage and legal rights surrounding that are still in limbo and will be in civil courts for years to come.
Coming from the deep south (North Carolina and Virginia), I know the ugliness and hurt that surrounds being rejected and looked down upon as a minority. I thank God there are places in this country like the Bay Area where the "L" word is not disdained in public.
You can be a liberal and a lesbian here. What a relief.
Thanks again for applauding the Palo Alto PTA for doing the right thing. Perhaps there will be fewer teen suicides to deal with in our hometown.
Iris Harrell
Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View
Navy not to blame
In reference to Martha W. Bond's letter published in the Weekly (June 4), the Navy is not "responsible" for the Moffett Field Air Show. NASA controls Moffett.
The Navy departed several years ago. Regarding the Air Force Thunderbirds flying in the air show, the pilots flying the IF-16s are highly skilled professional military pilots. All generations in the United States should learn and remember that the United States was militarily ill prepared when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
The freedoms we all enjoy require a strong, highly trained military. All military pilots require a certain number of flying hours each month to maintain their proficiency. The price of a barrel of oil is not affected by these air shows.
I for one was at Moffett and watched the air show with tens of thousand of others -- we were thrilled by watching the Thunderbirds perform their flight demonstration and by their formation flying.
In my opinion, overpopulation is the main factor for polluting the environment.
Eugene J. Micek
East Meadow Drive, Palo Alto
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