Letters to the Editor

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation's decision to build a medical center on Industrial Road is huge for our community. I live in the Laureola neighborhood and go by that area every day on my way to work. Unfortunately, Industrial Road is not very attractive right now. I think this medical center is going to be a very attractive facility and help to revitalize the area. It should be a great entryway into our community from Highway 101.

Connie Barton

San Carlos

Place power lines in watershed

Editor,

Thank you for your excellent coverage of the matter relating to PG&E's determination to run its 230 kilovolt power line on Trousdale Drive.

It is my understanding that a power line of this strength is 2,000 times the strength of electrical usage common in our homes and offices. This would be running at 2,000 times common electrical usage 24 hours per day forever within less than 70 feet of the average living space along Trousdale Drive.

PG&E ignores the input from our elected officials who have expressed concerns about the proximity of this high power line to homes, schools, etc. PG&E has surveyed the street for its construction. Trousdale is 64 feet wide from curb to curb, only a few of the 116 homes may have setbacks of 24 feet, most are much closer to the curbside. The living space of most homes will be within less than 70 feet of the proposed power line, many of the apartments will be 60 feet or less.

Many of the existing service lines which bring water, gas, sewer lines, etc. to homes, schools and hospitals are made of materials that can adversely react to the EMFs from such a proposed high-voltage line. This fact was pointed out by a civil engineer at the public meeting in San Mateo before the CPUC presiding judge.

Our watershed lands belong equally to all of us, not just to the exclusive use of unique snails, bugs, weeds and rocks. Human inhabitants of the area would benefit greatly by burying any power lines within our watershed lands where the disruption to wildlife and unique soils would be less long-term and non-lethal.

Thank you for keeping this matter in the public eye and making more persons aware. Hopefully many of your readers will join us on the June 7 City Council meeting.

Evelyn Clayton

Burlingame

Civil rights take backseat to politics

Editor,

Isn't it horrible that once again the rights of so many across the state are taking a backseat to Legislature politics?

Assemblyman Mark Leno has shelved the "Marriage License Nondiscrimination Act" (MLNA) more than likely due to one of three reasons: either he has other legislation in his pocket that would suffer if the MLNA as to be brought to the floor, or he's just too lazy to put in the time and effort to convince the conservatives that denying a gay couple's right to legalize their union is just as discriminatory as denying a gay couple an apartment or a job.

Honestly, when is California - and the United States for that matter - going to be able to look at gay couples and genuinely say, "There's nothing wrong with you?" Do we deny black couples the right to marry? Not since we stopped selling them as slaves. Or how about Jewish couples? Catholic couples? Elderly couples? Handicapped couples? Of course not. Why? Because discriminating against someone based on a trait that is beyond their control is morally ignorant. It's that kind of thinking and discriminating that blacks and women had to fight against to earn the right to vote. Now, the upside to that thought is that, like both of those groups, gay couples will one day be allowed to legally marry; the sad part, however, is that it will be at least a year before such rights are even considered.

All because Assemblyman Mark Leno doesn't want to face the possible controversy. The U.S. Constitution says "...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..." Doesn't that include marriage?

Mel Ellis

San Mateo

Cure homosexuality, don't condone it

Editor,

Homosexuals have finally won the right to receive benefits due for domestic partner. Now, they are seeking the status of marriage for gay unions, which is illegal, ludicrous, a violation of God's law, the natural law, and a ruthless attack against the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.

Well, to receive legal status, you have to qualify. Could two men or two women produce a human life biologically? Could our society that depends on population replacement continue to exist if monopolized by homosexuals?

In reality, gay unions are negative to our society. Their perversion of sex only contributes to dissipation, corruption, and sexually transmitted diseases to our society.

Our government must not bow down to the homosexual demands for legal status of marriage and benefits. It would be like legalizing child pornography, child prostitution, bestiality and drugs for any use.

Lastly, homosexuality is not genetically acquired. It is an acquired habit, a vice like alcohol or drug addiction.

Instead of the homosexuals seeking for undeserved marital status and benefits, they should be seeking out a cure for their uncontrollable addiction to perverted sex. Organizations like Exodus International and Courage San Francisco have had a lot of success by using therapy and religion to cure many homosexuals of their perverted addiction.

Instead of catering to hard core radical homosexual demands, let's try to encourage and help the homosexuals who, with a sincere heart want to be cured.

Ross Foti

Belmont

Bombs won't bring peace

Editor,

In response to the commitment to years of continued military presence in Iraq and throughout the world, as per George W. Bush according to The Project for A New American Century and agreed upon by U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo. How many more people have to die before we recognize that war can never build justice and real peace? We cannot end terrorism (or any form of war) by answering violence with violence - violence only and always breeds fear and hate and more violence.

Arms and armies make war, not peace; soldiers are trained to fight, military weapons are designed to kill, military alliances maintain power - which is always rooted in inequalities that breed still more violence. World War I, the "war to end all wars," set the stage for World War II.

From Columbia to Iraq to Afghanistan, U.S. bombs and missiles have killed thousands (including people working for peace and justice in desperate situations) and shattered the lives of millions and left the land poisoned with land mines and depleted uranium. The only way to see a world at peace is for the people to demand an end to war.

Debra Schaffer

Burlingame