.Letters to the Editor: May 14, 2014

The Drought, Marc Levine, Efren Carrillo - and Mr. Pickle (again)

Drought Thoughts

Whether it rains or not at this point, we Californians are in a drought. Nonetheless, you still see bright green grass and sprinklers watering away in the middle of the hot midday sun. Seems people either don’t want to believe we’re in a drought or they must have forgotten.

The problem is that currently we are on the honor system, but the fact of the matter is that people are still wasting water, and a great deal of it. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying to not water your yard; just be more aware when the sprinklers come on and for how long, and turn them off when it rains. Watering your lawn really should not be this complicated.

We are in this together and all need to do our part to save what water we do have. It’s going to get worse before it gets better with summer quickly approaching. So when you are out with the kids running in the sprinklers this summer, think to yourself: maybe I should buy a kiddie pool.

Santa Rosa

Money and Politics

When the votes are counted in early June, the most closely watched results in the North Bay will be for the state Assembly in District 10, which includes all of Marin County and much of Sonoma County.

Right now, the incumbent, Marc Levine, hasn’t outgrown the mega-business interests that boosted him into the Assembly.

Levine has never given a satisfactory answer to a question asked by the Sacramento Bee last year, when he abstained from a final vote on whether to give the California Coastal Commission more teeth: “Why did Assemblyman Marc Levine take a walk on coastal protection?”

He was in the same grim groove on an important bill for protecting farmworker union negotiations. Levine opted for “not voting” on the bill (SB 25) and earned a public thank-you from Western Growers. The big-agriculture group pointed out that—from its vantage point—”not voting” was as good as voting “no.”

Now keep in mind: Levine was elected in 2012 with help from upwards of $250,000 spent by “independent expenditure committees” controlled by such agribusiness giants as Western Growers.

Individual political ambition and principles often have an uneasy relationship. But what should matter is that communities are vulnerable, lives are at stake and the environment is at risk. With those values, I believe that Diana Conti is the best choice in the Assembly District 10 race.

We need to be much better at safeguarding the health of our society. The best way to respond when politicians embrace the power of big corporate money is to strengthen the ability of the body politic to fight off such opportunistic infections.

Co-chair of the Coalition for
Grassroots Progress,

Inverness Park

Irrational Responses

As a long time resident of Montgomery Village, I too have been outraged by the people displaying the offensive Hitler/Obama comparison in front of the Montgomery Village post office (Letters, April 30). On two different occasions, I have expressed to them their rights to freedom of speech, but asked them if the Hitler mustache on a picture of Obama was really necessary. The response both times was so irrational I found it useless to converse any further. I was somewhat reluctant to even comment on this issue for not wanting to give any more attention to the people involved, but I think it’s important to expose them for what they really are: ignorant, hateful and racist.

Santa Rosa

Go Boho

Nicolas Grizzle’s “No Peeking” article, Laura Gonzalez’s Open Mic “Where Is the Outrage?” on Efren Carrillo, and Jonathan Greenberg’s news brief “Occupy Palm Drive Fizzles” (April 30) were by far the best articles in any publication on these two most important West County issues. May the renewed Bohemian continue to publish such excellent articles.

Sebastopol

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