Letters

air quality ordinance?

Editor,

This winter we’ve already had 16 "Spare the Air” days, where particulate pollution has reached harmful levels. That’s the most days since 1991.

For two years the San Mateo City Council has been reluctant to enact an ordinance to reduce wood smoke pollution. Eight counties and 41 cities in the Bay Area have wood smoke ordinances. Why not San Mateo?

In the Bay Area, wood smoke accounts for one-third of the harmful particulate pollution in the winter months. In many neighborhoods, it is the major source of particulate pollution.

Clinical studies have shown that particulate pollution causes long-term damage to the lungs. It has been linked to an increase in serious respiratory diseases such as asthma, emphysema and lung cancer. Further, particulate pollution has the greatest effect on small children and the elderly.

Our city government should focus on more than just fiscal and infrastructure issues. Where possible, the mayor and City Council are also responsible for working to improve the health and welfare of San Mateo’s residents.

It’s time for San Mateo’s City Council to take action and approve an ordinance making it illegal to burn on "Spare the Air” days. Cleaner air — it’s for everyone’s benefit.

You can find out more by visiting the Bay Area Air Quality District web page at www.baaqmd.gov.

Julio Focaracci

San Mateo

Golf carts in Foster City

Editor,

I have to agree with Gladwyn De Souza’s letter in the Jan. 9 edition of the Daily Journal. I just returned from two weeks at The Villages in Florida where golf carts are the norm.

There are golf carts in use everywhere. They are used to go to the post office, to the recreation centers, for shopping and, of course, to the 20-plus golf courses in the area. At the downtown area called Spanish Springs, I was amazed at the number of golf carts parked there. There must have been well over 100. Automobiles are relegated to the outlying parking lots and the golf cart users are asked to park to one edge of their parking space to allow for two carts to every space.

The roads are clearly marked for golf carts and vehicle drivers give them every courtesy. Most of the homes have a separate access and garage space for them and they are recharged overnight. I think Foster City would be an ideal place for their use.

H. Clark

Redwood City

Gang-bangers as terrorists?

Editor,

In international areas of conflict (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, The Philippines, Sudan, etc.), Al-Qaida, the criminals and the warlord militias are designated as "terrorists,” and government police or armed forces set out to kill or capture those designated terrorists.

What would your readers think if our police forces, and maybe the National Guard, set out to capture or kill the gang members in San Francisco, Richmond, Oakland, Hayward, and other bay communities? Aren’t these gang members really just terrorists? Or are they?

Tom Elliott

San Mateo

Peace in Israel

Editor,

It’s hard to fathom the criticism of Jimmy Carter’s book "Peace not Apartheid.” The search for root causes lead me note that when one population invades and displaces another not allowing the victims to return to their ancestral homes, that group has created for itself an enemy; nothing new there. Then to continue during the course of subsequent conflicts to place settlers in conquered territory and provide them with privileges denied the natives such as unlimited access to water, power and infrastructure, the native population which suffers the discrimination will harbor resentments tending to lead to violence; nothing new there either.

For good people who wish prosperity for the State of Israel to state that little can be done in seeking peace as long as violence is used against it seem to have lost all focus on what lays the groundwork for such violence. There was little conflict on the West Bank for 20 years after the ’67 war as the natives felt they may well gain a better life under the democracy of Israel than under the archaic rule of the Jordanian monarchy. Unfortunately when increasing numbers of privileged settlers showed little desire to treat the natives as equals then and only then did trouble commence. No need to reinvent the wheel here. Try a few excellent sites (Yesh Gvul .org, Btselem.org, Taayush.org, Gush Shalom.org and Combatants for Peace.org) to see what righteous Israelis and Palestinians are doing for a real solution.

Mike Caggiano

San Mateo

Double standard

or kaleidoscope?

Editor,

David Kensinger in his Jan. 13 letter to the Daily Journal called "Criticism of Israel cannot be tolerated” makes liberal use of examples of Arab civilians being killed by Israeli guns, shells and bombs to illustrate how bad the Israelis are. Like former President jimmy Carter, he then blames the thousands of Israelis killed and wounded deliberately, in each and every case by Arabs, for their own misfortune.

This is not just a double standard; this is a kaleidoscope. Since World War II, the United States has massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians, often very carelessly. Think about Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki for openers. The bottom line is that everyone has innocent blood on their hands. Countries can change their policies of murder and oppression. Japan and Germany did, after being destroyed by the Allies. Anyone who willfully continues to shelter murderers is likely to get caught in the crossfire, one way or another. Until Arab governments and their people follow the rules of democracy, the blood-letting will not stop. If Israel had to behave the way the United States did in World War II, their problems would likely have been solved decades ago.

Israel’s military is the envy of the world with its pinpoint accuracy and avoidance of civilian casualties. Accidents happen and innocents die. These deaths, when caused by Israel, are not deliberate. They are generally part of a calculated risk or a serious mishap. On the other hand, it is the policy of Arab terrorists to kill Israeli civilians. This is supported by a clear majority of their people. In this context, real estate details about who owns what aquifer are largely irrelevant. This is about the survival of a country in a very dangerous part of the world. Our own troops in Iraq know all about this.

Desmond Tuck

Palo Alto

Constitutional

restraint needed

Editor,

By rejecting every point of the Baker/Hamilton commission, President Bush demonstrated again that he is incapable of learning the basic point about this war — that it is a mistake of the first order to pursue at all. Yes, Iraq is a mess and we are culpable, but the genie’s out of the bottle and a huge majority of Iraqis want us out, so we should make plans to leave.

Because of the long-term health care needs of our 200,000 Iraq and Afghan veterans, over a third of whom suffer from stress disorders, the known cost of Bush’s war projects to a trillion dollars. Congress needs to stop throwing good money after bad and recognize this situation is akin to the gambling addiction it is. That means restraining President Bush by whatever constitutional means are at its disposal.

Kenneth King

Half Moon Bay