Letters to the editor

Editor,

In the future, when you are in a line of traffic on El Camino blowing your horn and blood pressure rising, think about how you may have voted for the incumbents to the San Mateo City Council, or maybe you did not even take a moment to vote them out.

If you are in a long line at the store tapping your foot and quietly cursing to yourself, think about how you may have voted for the incumbents to the San Mateo City Council, or worse, stayed at home on Election Day. It will be a long two years, be a good citizen in 2009 and vote to save what is left of the quality of life we expect in San Mateo.

Al Pellizzer

San Mateo

Smoking ban

Editor,

I agree with Andrew Peters in his letter to the editor "Belmont will not suffer from smoking ban,” published in the Nov. 7 issue of the San Mateo Daily Journal, except for one thing: Realtors did not oppose the ordinance because of possible "lost sales” nor lesser home values as affected by the no-smoke ordinance. The ordinance will not affect the number of sales nor overall home values. Absolutely not.

Instead, I believe the action of imposing this ordinance causes us (city) to look like we are trying to control what goes on inside someone’s home. Realtors speak up in support of protecting, not abusing, property rights.

If this matter had been made part of Belmont’s nuisance ordinance, it would have had no opposition. I would wager on this.

Adele Della Santina

Belmont

The letter writer is a

former Belmont councilwoman.

Vile letter

Editor,

I nominate Pat Gray’s letter "Speier can do more for district than Lantos,” published in the Nov. 13 issue of the San Mateo Daily Journal as the most vile "letter of the year.” I wanted to take a shower after reading it. Her animosity toward Lantos is no excuse for the Daily Journal to publish such a hateful letter. I had to hide the paper so that the children would not see the depths to which a supposedly intelligent paper could fall.

By the way, they do not eat bacon in Israel.

Phil Smaller

Palo Alto

Cheap shot at Lantos

Editor,

Under cover of an attack on Tom Lantos, Patricia Gray attacks the flow of federal money to Israel. Cheap shot. Even assuming it were true that "federal funds flow ceaselessly to Israel,” which it is not, Israel happens to be the best investment the US can make in Middle East security. As the only real democracy there, it is the only reliable ally in an increasingly scary region where our other "friends” are part of the problem.

Take Egypt, which gets almost as much aid from the United States as does Israel; it is a police state where sooner or later, the Islamists will likely get the upper hand against the Mubarak regime that brutalizes them. Take Saudi Arabia, which funds Islamic terrorism and gave us Osama.

With friends like that, we need real friends like Israel. Lantos may be pro-Israel but he is not a "one-issue” candidate. In any event, Israel is not the issue. Experience is.

Desmond Tuck

San Mateo

Would Ms. Gray

prefer more terrorism?

Editor,

Patricia Gray’s letter "Speier can do more for district than Lantos,” published in the Nov. 13 issue of the San Mateo Daily Journal claims that Tom Lantos’ funding of Israel, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are needless. Perhaps Ms. Gray would prefer Islamic terrorists to have the ability to foment violence in the Middle East and to attack America at will. The fact is that both America’s support for Israel and our war in Afghanistan severely cripple the ability of terrorist groups to perpetrate violence against us and our allies. At this point even the war in Iraq must continue if we are to prevent Islamic fundamentalists from gaining a foothold there. Ms. Gray is simply being naive; our country has the funds to support our allies, support our troops overseas, and support San Mateo County residents. In fact, I would argue that supporting the war on terror directly helps to meet the needs of people here at home. We cannot take our freedoms for granted.

Steve Fisher

Atherton

Smart investing

Editor,

The real estate mess that is happening now is not as bad as well hear on the news. When I look in any real estate section in the newspaper or magazines, I see the word "remodeled” on most of the ads. People just need to be smarter: Look up information, talk to city and county people, as well as banks, loan officers and brokers. If we are smart about how we do investing, we will all benefit in the long term.

Greg Rouleau

Redwood City