Letters

Editor,

Can someone please help me understand why rides on SamTrans buses were free? Every SamTrans announced "FREE RIDE” on its windshield marquee. So much for revenue. But not to worry. The state will pick up the tab.

The county’s transportation agency seemed incredibly flamboyant today with my tax dollars as the result of a fuel tanker truck accident miles away. Understandably, the early Sunday morning incident will put great pressures on Bay Bridge commuters and many others for weeks ahead.

And the governor made a decent decision to declare an emergency. To get reconstruction work going, an emergency declaration removes the contractor bidding process. Open-ended checks can be handed to contractor’s lobbyists with the prettiest smiles to get the job done fast. Job done fast. That isn’t my concern today.

What is my concern are those free bus rides around San Mateo County. Why didn’t people who ordinarily take the bus pay for their trip today? Weren’t routine riders traveling from the East Bay, or anywhere else for that matter, prepared to pay their fare before Sunday’s East Bay melt down?

Why should I subsidize someone else’s ride to work? No one helped pay my way to work this morning.

The governor certainly didn’t extend the state’s emergency generosity to help pay gasoline costs for those of us who are unable to use public transportation. Public transportation is an excellent idea, but it has its short comings here on the Peninsula.

The governor’s office made a wonderful offer to help, but it wasn’t very well thought out on short notice. More like a loose cannon in shallow pockets of someone else’s money.

Here’s the bottom line of having a job so the bills can be paid. Somehow people lost the concept of job responsibility. Here are the important points:

First, you are responsible to arrive at work Every day on time. Second, the boss doesn’t care how you do it (nor does the general taxpaying public).

You have a job? Yes? Good! You pay your own way to get there tomorrow! Or borrow bus fare from friends or family … Not from me or the state of California.

The free ride just spent millions of taxpayer dollars — North to South. Think of that next time an unfilled pot hole sucks $249-plus from your savings account to re-align your cars wheels or buy a new tire. Today’s free ride might be a costly reminder tomorrow.

Why did everyone get a free ride whether needed or not? Beats me. I didn’t.

G. Kaminsk

San Mateo

Praise for

well-executed story

Editor,

Emanuel Lee’s story on "Losing A Loved One”in the April 13 edition of the Daily Journal was well done. This heartbreaking, yet heartwarming story about Carlmont baseball player Eric Shibata and the sudden death of his father was touching and inspirational. Carlmont coach Rich Vallero and the Carlmont baseball players have been a great source of comfort and support for Eric. Anyone who has lost their father knows the pain Eric has suffered. Thanks to Emanuel Lee for bringing this story to our attention.

George Metropulos

Belmont

Save the track

Editor,

I’ve enjoyed your coverage of Bay Meadows. I’m a big fan of the race track and would like to see it kept open. Thanks for the coverage, and save Bay Meadows!

Charles Rapp

San Bruno

The fraud that is psychiatry

Editor,

I read the article on the Virginia Tech massacre the morning of April 19. Throughout the day, I reflected on the lack of help and the fraud that is psychiatry.

This boy was sent to get help and, by the looks of it, was prescribed a powerful, mind altering, psychiatric drug. How much longer are we going to stand for psychiatry offering "treatment” that results in violence and psychotic killing sprees?

Lauren Sweetland

San Jose

Clean up our water

Editor,

This nation is supposed to have freedom of the press, and we don’t. We were told our Congress and Senators voted that mercury polluters don’t have to clean up the bay. We were told that it was the dentist flushing dental fillings down the drain, the 1849ers gold mining that polluted the bay, and don’t forget those thermometers! Now we read only in a few newspapers that oil companies making gasoline use 3,700 pounds of mercury a year, and it’s unaccounted for! They are going to take two years to study the disappearance. Will it take losing 7,400 pounds more before they figure it out? How stupid do they think the public is? Those government officials need to be voted out! Chlorine manufacturers pollute too, we can disinfect with alternative technology. How much money did those Senators and Congress get?

City councils get pollution credits from industries and allow new homes to be built on toxic land, like Hercules. They don’t use the money for cleanups! City councils have representatives on water boards allowing more desalination plants to be built. More children will have autism. A Senator from the tri-cities wants more money for special education. I want the water cleaned up! Where is the fire department’s union, which advertised Prop 84 was the clean water initiative to take toxins from the water? Prop 84 passed, and many firemen got raises because it was money from special interest groups. Is it corruption or a cover-up?

Wynn Grcich

Union City

War over?

Editor,

I must have missed the announcement. The "War on Terror” is over. It must be as Luis Posada Carriles the accused mastermind of the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner killing 73 persons has been released from jail. In fact he’s not even charged with the terror incident at all. I guess al Qaida et al. can stand down as we appear to have called it all off. Bush and Company have added yet another impeachable offense to their long list: Bogus signing statements, illegal eavesdropping, forging documents and lying in order to start an illegal and useless war making us poorer, more hated, and less safe than before. To all this he has added refusing to abide by our treaty obligations to prosecute terrorist activity in cooperation with other treaty signatories. It appears this rogue administration knows no bounds nor will it be encumbered by pesky rules of law.

Mike Caggiano

San Mateo