Letters to the editor

Editor,

We are told to live our lives to the fullest, to make a difference as, after all, we are only here once and we need to do our best. This means that it is important for us to make good decisions. Right now we have the opportunity to protect and save the wildlife of our beautiful planet.

If we don’t implement change soon, we may witness that by 2050, the effects of global warming may have caused 20 to 30 percent of our plant and animal species to become extinct. We must do our best to ensure that this will not happen. Any proposal that would be effective in addressing these changes, that we need to make, must include the dedication of at least 5 percent of generated funding to safeguard our wildlife and the natural resources that we rely on.

We only have a short window of opportunity. Let’s make the right choice, now.

Tarra Symons

San Carlos

Domestic cats not meant for the wild

Editor,

After reading the front page article on Thursday Oct. 22 about Belle Air Elementary School trapping cats, I wanted to speak on this subject. First of all, since there is no law that prohibits the so called "responsible” cat owners from keeping their cats confined and under control like us dog owners have to do, I think the school, like any resident, has the right to take control of a situation that effects its quality of life.

Our daughter was severely scratched by a "stray” cat that was wandering her grade school property. I expect school staff to maintain a safe school from predators, whether human or animal. So if trapping a neighbor’s cat because they refuse to keep it in their own yard is what it takes, then so be it. As for feral cat colonies: Why do we allow these cats to live wild? Their species is called "Felis Domesticus,” or domestic house cat. Domestic cats are not intended to live in the "wild.” I think the things that groups like PHS and Homeless Cat Network do to rehabilitate the feral and find them good homes is great — but letting these cats run wild to forage is inhumane. So keep up the trapping and owners should spend the $15 and chip their cat or put a collar on them. I am sure that if the school traps a cat with a collar, they release it just like the animal control people do.

Marco Gonzales

San Mateo

Why is Menlo Park’s draft resolution causing a stir?

Editor,

The Redwood City council is ticked off by Menlo Park’s "early meddling” into the proposed Cargill Saltworks project.

It seems quite puzzling that Menlo Park’s draft resolution caused such a stir, since previous cases of early meddling by outside groups did not seem to upset the Redwood City Council in the least. Here are some examples:

1. Early last year, SAMCEDA (of Belmont) and the Bay Planning Coalition (of San Francisco) both endorsed Cargill’s massive project.

2. The Cargill Corporation (Minneapolis, Minn.) is continuing to fund a multi-year, multi-million-dollar public relations blitz to convince Redwood City voters that filling in more of the San Francisco Bay for a massive housing project is a good idea.

Apparently the council only considers outside groups to be meddling if they voice opposition to the proposed Cargill development. So why is the council surprised that people see it as being in favor of the Cargill project?

Joel Jensen

Redwood City

Health care

Editor,

If anyone is confused about the proposed health care bill, let’s clear up the confusion. We’re going to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose head says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, signed by a president that also hasn’t read it, and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese and financed by a country that’s nearly broke.

Does everyone understand it now? Jimmy Carter said it right, "Americans must learn to accept less.”

Joseph Locasto

San Mateo

Not in the spirit of the city

Editor,

Those overbearing commercial signs perched near the tidelands and hiking paths east of Highway 101 in San Carlos and Redwood City are a blight to the preserved lands they stand on and are not conducive to quality living in the City of Good Living.

Jerry Emanuel

San Carlos

Responsibility? Where?

Editor,

Susan Morris takes a stab at Keith Kreitman but she should expand her reading just a tad ("Kreitman takes a page from Obama’s book,” Oct. 26 edition of the Daily Journal). She wrote "Conservative talkers and writers have the right and responsibility to present well-researched opposing views.” Susan, Susan, I agree with you that they should be responsible but I am still waiting for it to happen. I could fill an entire week of Daily Journals with examples of irresponsible and non-researched samples from conservative talk mouths but I will give you only the most recent that I found this past Sunday in The New York Daily News. "Even when conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh runs with a fabricated story, he doesn’t apologize for the error. Limbaugh, who seizes on every opportunity to blast Obama, ended up with egg on his face when he read an Internet satire piece that claimed President Obama dissed the Constitution in his college thesis at Columbia University.” If, by "well-researched” you mean "fabricated” then I need a new thesaurus.

Alice Barnes

San Bruno