Letters

Editor,

Kudos to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for a plan that will ultimately provide San Mateo County with state money for a new jail. Such a facility is sorely needed, according to a recent grand jury report. We’re particularly delighted that the governor is ready to partner with local interests to get the job done. That, folks, is the GOP way.

Anne Sobczak

Millbrae

Forty years of

San Mateo service

Editor,

Robert Bacon doesn’t know which side of his bread the butter is on.

Sue Lempert has lived in the city of San Mateo for close to 40 years. She has been elected and re-elected to public office for most of that time, including elementary school board, high school board, city council and mayor. It was she and others who replaced the real estate developers at City Hall with a sane, balanced approach to development in San Mateo. Mr. Bacon doesn’t say how long he has lived in San Mateo, but if it’s longer than Sue Lempert, he must be losing his memory.

Marvin Polinsky

San Mateo

Garage ‘stuff’ forces

cars to the street

Editor,

Belmont considering neighborhood zoning changes because streets are overcrowded with cars is indicative of the "my stuff” syndrome afflicting neighborhoods everywhere ("Packed Belmont streets prompt zoning change” in the July 12 edition of the Daily Journal). It would be interesting to know what percent of homes actually use their garages for a car. I would guess that at least half are filled with "stuff,” you know, Igloo coolers the size of coffins, that extra fridge/freezer packed with tri-tip from Costco, an old-but-not-running Harley, three sets of golf clubs, four bikes, two bookcases crammed with old college text books, five cases of Pennzoil, and a cord of Charmin. Maybe the City Council should pass an ordinance declaring that garages can only be used for cars. Wait, that won’t work, the Ford Expedition won’t fit.

John Ummel

Redwood City

Clergy sex abuse

Editor,

In the report about Cardinal Mahony’s Sunday apology to clergy abuse survivors, one day after a $660 million settlement was reached, cathedral parishioner Vivian Viscarra reflected that the news made her re-evaluate her views of whether people in the ministry should be married. She reportedly said, "People do have needs.”

If American priests received as salary, the $2 billion that have been spent so far, cleaning up the crimes and sexual messes caused by errant priests and the incompetent bishops that oversee them, priests, their wives and children could afford to wear sable underwear.

It is time to follow St. Paul’s teaching in his letters to Timothy and Titus: allow marriage for diocesan priests, deacons and diocesan hierarchy, now.

Ronna Devincenzi

Palo Alto

Reform Farm Bill

for small farmers

Editor,

Some years ago there was a book called, "Everybody Poops.” I loved this book for its ability to show our commonalities, not underscore our differences. The beginning of that process is that everybody eats; and so everybody who eats should care and be informed about the Farm Bill. Once every five years the Farm Bill comes up for review. This is our country’s opportunity to evaluate what we subsidize and how that impacts us here in the United States, as well as abroad. This bill affects our health (note the rise of American obesity), our environment (via the overuse of pesticides and fertilizers) and immigration (see the impact of NAFTA and the ethanol boom, causing corn prices to seesaw, and driving rural Mexican farm workers north). The current Farm Bill encourages American farmers to overproduce and flood world markets with corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton sold at artificially low prices, making it almost impossible for small farmers at home and abroad to sell their own crops. And what about the small farms? As the current green thinking goes: buy locally. Shipping our food around the world wastes energy, pollutes our already over-burdened environment and hammers the small farmers, who need our support as much as we need to support them. These are the folks most desperate to reform this bill. But we should all be equally invested in how this bill is reformed — it’s not just about farming, it’s about what we eat, who can afford it, how we poison our environment and how we, as a superpower, impact small farmers around the world. Since we all eat, and poop, shouldn’t all of us get informed and write to our elected officials who take on this task of reforming the Farm Bill? It would do a lot of good, more than watching Live Earth.

Anita Lindsey

San Francisco