Letters to the Editor

I don't know where to begin to respond to the faulty thinking in Karen Kennedy's letter of May 10. To begin with, she says "Be assured our military will investigate and take appropriate disciplinary action." Why should anyone be assured? Did she ever hear of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and its cover-up by the U.S. military? Why should any organization be entrusted to investigate itself?

Kennedy says "They (American media) take every opportunity to sway public opinion against our soldiers and the war on terrorism." Many people, myself included, feel just the opposite: that the mainstream corporate media in the U.S. has been biased in favor of the Bush administration's war on terrorism and war in Iraq. Most of the U.S. media has continually broadcast glowing statements by supporters and participants in the war, while refusing to show the collateral damage in Iraq and Afghanistan caused by our actions, including the deaths of thousands of Iraqis.

Kennedy also laments that "our newspapers and television channels have no allegiance to our country at all." If Karen had taken a course in journalism she would learn that a journalist's primary allegiance is to truth and to free flow of information, not to cheerleaders for a particular country or cause.

And do you really believe that our media should be censored from showing pictures of the war? Freedom of the press is one of our fundamental rights that makes our country so great. Without that right we're not much better than some of the totalitarian nations we condemn.

Bruce A. Mainwaring

San Mateo

City Council had wool pulled over eyes

Editor,

I think that the Sterling Downs Neighborhood Association should stop villanizing city staff for the traffic calming along Hiller Street.

Bill Dickenson, president of the Sterling Downs Neighborhood Association, said the submitted plan was ill-conceived and somebody should be held accountable. I agree. We the residents of Sterling Downs should be held accountable. We asked for help from the city. The city responded and made a good faith effort to develop a plan to address our concerns. I was part of that effort. I tried to get my fellow residents to become involved with the process. Where was Bill Dickenson? Was he even living in the neighborhood then? It seems everybody else was unwilling to set down their remote control to the television for a little while and participate in the efforts to develop a plan. Now they want to disregard that whole effort.

Wilma Kartman, former president of Sterling Downs Neighborhood Association, should be ashamed of herself because she was part of the process that now she claims never happened. I attended the same meetings she did. I don't understand how a few individuals playing Monday morning quarterback can lay any blame other than on themselves.

The more amazing fact is that council has had the wool completely pulled over their eyes by a few individuals. This is a program that affects over 600 homes in the area and only three people show up to complain. Wow! If that is a mandate then we would never get anything accomplished in this city. Sure they had a meeting that Bill Dickenson had selected the attendees to ensure that his biased and delusional perspective was supported. I attended this meeting as well. I sure wasn't going to speak up out of fear of reprisals from the group. However, I did note that there was not anybody living on Hiller Street in attendance. No, they were other residents in the area who zip in and out of the neighborhood using Hiller Street. God forbid that they have to actually stop at a sign and wait a few seconds to make a turn.

These selfish individuals want everything to go back to the way it was. Great! Now things are going to get worse again. All I can say is if anybody gets into an accident, I am going to tell them they should sue the city for reverting back to a bad situation.

John Smith

Belmont

The true cost of terrorism

Editor,

The Bush administration has used the Patriot Act as an excuse to trample all over the Bill of Rights. Now, it appears that basic principles of the Geneva Convention have been conveniently ignored in the battle against "terrorism."

Patriotism is all about standing up for the principles that truly matter, such as justice, freedom, fairness and accountability. Patriotism is not about blind obedience to an arrogant leader that lies about weapons of mass destruction, betrays government intelligence operatives, alienates our international allies and sends massive numbers of American soldiers to die in an absolutely unnecessary war.

Rob Doehl

Santa Clara