LETTERS
11/05/2009
Rattling tin cups
Pasadena Unified School District officials beg for a parcel tax to avoid teacher layoffs and close an $18.5 million budget deficit (“Do or Die,” Oct. 1).
“If voters are not open to parcel tax,” said Board of Education President Tom Selinske, “I think we would have to look at all options.”
According to the National Education Association, California ranks a respectable 29 — not an abysmal 47 — in per-capita spending on education.
The state might be in the top 20 if not for a politically incorrect factor in the equation: illegal immigration.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, DC, California taxpayers spend $10 billion a year (or $13 billion if you believe the latest report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform) on education, housing and medical care for illegal immigrants. But tell that to teachers and their unions.
In 1994, California teachers opposed Proposition 187, which would have denied benefits and services to undocumented immigrants. After US District Court Judge Mariana Pfaelzer ruled that the initiative was unconstitutional (based on her misreading of the 1982 case Plyer v. Doe), Gov. Gray Davis refused to defend it in federal court. Instead, he killed the measure in a backroom deal called “arbitration” and wiped out five million votes (including mine).
Fifteen years and $150 billion later, school boards and teachers rattle tin cups for parcel taxes.
~LES HAMMER, PASADENA
Remembering the words
For the critics who feel that President Obama does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize because he has not done something of “significance” and that actions speak louder than words, I say that before there are actions there are words.
Before slavery was abolished, there were the words of Frederick Douglass condemning slavery in his Fourth of July speech, and before the signing of the Civil Rights Bill there was the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King.
Obama’s speech in Philadelphia on race was the first important speech on race relations since the civil rights movement, his speech in Berlin had the echoes of John F. Kennedy, and his speech in Cairo was an important gesture to the Muslim world.
Words are important and they make impact. Long after the battles are fought and the dead are buried, we remember the words — the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg and the words of Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Yes, actions speak loud, but so do words.
~LESLIE PERRY, ALTADENA
A toothache trauma
A friend of mine recently had a traumatic experience with her dentist that needs to be publicized.
She went to a new dentist this spring, and he asked her what she wanted — a bridge or an implant; those were the choices. She selected a bridge because of the price. In June, he fitted a temporary bridge. A week later, she contacted the office because her teeth on either side of the temporary hurt continuously. The receptionist said it was normal and would last a week or two. On her next appointment, she mentioned the pain, and he said sometimes the pain lasts up to four months; and if it didn’t go away, he would have to do a root canal. She said a root canal on a perfectly good tooth? She would have the bridge removed.
The dental assistant showed her the bridge and said she didn’t know the bridge would cover her teeth. Her mother had one and it was one tooth on a strip and didn’t cover her other teeth. For several days, that side of her mouth hurt and she could not eat anything. She contacted her insurance provider — Safeguard — and reported that she had a bridge placed in her mouth and she could not eat due to the pain and asked if she should have it removed.
Safeguard told her that the teeth would have to be filed down to place the bridge and that if the bridge were removed, crowns would have to be made to cover the two teeth. She then began crying because none of this had been explained to her. She would not have had a bridge if the procedure had been explained to her and if she had known that two good teeth would be ruined.
She is devastated. How can it be legal for a medical professional to perform life-altering procedures without explaining the pros and cons? My friend is out more than $1,500, had two good teeth ruined and cannot eat. This is inexcusable!
~REED MIZ, VENTURA
Something we can do
Climate change poses an unprecedented threat to wildlife — changing, shrinking and destroying habitat, forcing wildlife to migrate or adapt, or even threatening their very existence.
The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change warns that if we don't take strong action to address global warming soon, 20 to 30 percent of the world’s plant and animal species will be at increased risk of extinction by 2050.
Fortunately, there is something that can be done.
This summer, the House of Representatives passed legislation to both reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that are triggering climate change and take steps to safeguard natural resources and wildlife threatened by the changes in climate already set in motion. Now the Senate is moving on similar legislation recently introduced by Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry.
However, reducing carbon emissions is not enough. Any comprehensive climate and energy legislation must dedicate 5 percent of the funding generated to safeguarding fish and wildlife and the natural resources on which we all rely. Our senators should know that their constituents expect nothing less.
~DAVID RHODES, LOS ANGELES
FROM THE WEB:
Re: “A new way,” Oct. 22.
“But a person is not just a fact-gathering machine” = best line.
I agree with what the author states in this article. I liked when the author goes on to talk about the difference between “citizen” journalists and mainstream journalists. I’d much rather read “citizen”-written articles than mainstream, which I do not trust. It is mostly their subjectivity that I don’t trust. Good article. Thank you for sharing.
— posted by caityscarlett
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