Letters to the Editor

Gosh, bands draw ‘those’ people
The Gilroy Dispatch recently wrote in an editorial that 72
percent of Gilroyans want better music and name-bands at the Garlic
Fesitival. Yet the Dispatch is against it.
The editorial goes on to say the bands would damage the town and
the reputation of the festival. I say they are dead wrong. It’s bad
enough they have a column writer, Cynthia Walker, that bashes every
liberal in sight, but now this. It’s ridiculous.
This town is moving too far to the right, if you know what I
mean. It is run by rich people and Republicans who want to make the
town bigger and a cash cow so they can line their pockets.
The people have spoken (about the bands), so give them what they
want, and the politicians
– get rid of them.
Daniel Garcia
Gilroy
Gosh, bands draw ‘those’ people

The Gilroy Dispatch recently wrote in an editorial that 72 percent of Gilroyans want better music and name-bands at the Garlic Fesitival. Yet the Dispatch is against it.

The editorial goes on to say the bands would damage the town and the reputation of the festival. I say they are dead wrong. It’s bad enough they have a column writer, Cynthia Walker, that bashes every liberal in sight, but now this. It’s ridiculous.

This town is moving too far to the right, if you know what I mean. It is run by rich people and Republicans who want to make the town bigger and a cash cow so they can line their pockets.

The people have spoken (about the bands), so give them what they want, and the politicians – get rid of them.

Daniel Garcia

Gilroy

Police harassment

If you thought the Independence Day weekend police harassment was bad last year in Hollister, check this out:

On Saturday, I spoke to the ladies at Boutique De Lingerie.  The police went up to them and in an intimidating manner demanded that they take their pro-rally posters down!  They refused to do so.

On Friday, my neighbor and I arrived in downtown Hollister in the afternoon.  Within less than 15 minutes, several officers surrounded me and asked me to step outside the Hot Leathers tent.  From me they took the items I was going to buy and my camera, and then frisked me (without permission).  They asked me if I had any weapons, to which I truthfully responded “no.”  I was told that if I did not show my ID, I would be arrested. (One doesn’t have to show ID unless under arrest, and I was not.) They let me go, and returned my items, after confirming that I was the person for whom they were looking (but did not arrest me) for making alleged “threats in the past.”  These were not threats (if they were, they would have gladly arrested me), but letters in 2005 taking Sheriff Curtis Hill and Police Chief Jeff Miller to task for their lies about the 2005 Rally.

Some of you who don’t like the rally, or the other items I write about, may cheer.  This is not about the rally; this is about our Constitutional freedoms – specifically, our First Amendment right to take people like Miller and Hill to task.  And to my fellow bikers, if you were in Hollister this weekend and were harassed by the badged thugs, call 800-ON-A-BIKE.  Let’s get a class-action lawsuit going. 

Alan Viarengo

Gilroy

Two Americas

I enjoyed reading your story about the experiences of immigrants in the United States. It showed the complexities of the decisions that immigrants have to make in order to live in this country. However, I think it is important to note that Mexicans and Chicanos (Mexican Americans) share common historical and social experiences.

I was born in the United States. My father was a Mexican immigrant and my mother is a Chicana and was born in the United States. Am I Mexican or American? My mother had to think about the culture and language issue, because she was mistreated in school and faced discrimination throughout her life and she thought that if my brothers and I learned to only communicate in English that we would escape discrimination.

However, race, ethnicity and language are inescapable realities of U.S. society. Growing up in the U.S., I resided in a segregated world, attended segregated schools, received a substandard education and lived in poverty. My life was trapped in a vicious cycle that had a lot to do with the historical social, economic and political relationships between people in this country. I was the heir to a tradition of oppression and resistance to oppression. It did not matter how American I thought I was.

In reality, I am a Native American who is also Mexican and American.

I am bilingual and bicultural in a nation that is intolerant of anything that is not narrowly defined as “American.”

Joe Navarro

Hollister

Say no to mills

Most people never realize that the majority of dogs for sale in pet stores are the product of “puppy mills.”

Puppy mills are institutions of cruelty often hidden from public view. It is not unusual for hundreds of dogs to be crammed together in filthy pens and cages. The dogs are bred repeatedly, and if their reproductive capacity wanes, they are often ruthlessly killed.

Thousands of dogs, unloved and starving; thousands of puppies, heartlessly shipped across the country like merchandise at too young an age; thousands of consumers, unknowingly buying sick dogs: these are the grim truths of the puppy mill-pet store trade.

The power to close down these inhumane facilities lies completely in the hands of consumers. By adopting from animal shelters and refusing to purchase dogs from pet stores, individuals can put an end to the vicious supply and demand cycle of puppy mills. Dogs are not commodities. They should not be sold. Millions of beautiful, healthy animals sit in shelters across the country, facing death for lack of a good home. Adoption not only puts inhumane puppy mills out of business, but also saves the lives of animals so desperately in need of a loving, permanent home.

Colleen Gedrich

Throop, Penn.

Free speech is being corrupted

Marvin Jones, you have your opinion (Pinnacle, June 25, 2006), and I have mine. I do not believe that taking away another’s free speech by killing, torture, prison, wiretapping even, gives me mine. In fact it diminishes mine.

Martin Richman, the biggest enemy lurking in our own country is intolerance, and of course intolerance of others who hold opinions different from yours.

I believe I need to exercise my free speech in order to keep it. I believe the corruption of free speech (corporate control of the media, threatening journalists, lobbying Congress) headed our country in the wrong direction, and the misuse of free speech (labeling and fear-mongering) keeps us there.

I protest the waste of our youth, the waste of our resources, the horrible expense and the destruction of our planet. There is nothing right about this war. It relies on lies and propaganda. I reject the false notions that prolong this nightmare.

Mary Zanger

Hollister

The letter proves the lie

In the ongoing debate on whether or not bloodshed was involved in obtaining and protecting our freedom of speech, Martin Creek wrote, “the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights [were] framed and approved without bloodshed.”  This is a shortsighted view that tries to win a debating point by parsing history into day-by-day events while ignoring the whole picture.  History does not function that way.

Obviously, there could be no U.S. Constitution if there were no United States and we gained our independence through armed conflict.  One fact flows from the other, which is how history works.  He also failed to address my point that the constitution was defended by armed force on several occasions.  I put to Mr. Cheek the simple question I put to Mary Zanger, does he believe that we would have the same protections of free speech if we had failed to use armed force to defeat the Nazis and Japanese militarists in WWII?

Since Mr. Cheek attacked the administration on this issue I want to point out that his own letter puts the lie to his claim that his freedom of speech has been subverted.  He wrote it, signed it, and sent it and he’s not cowering under the covers afraid of being arrested for his views.  In a totalitarian society he’d be on the run or already in jail.  If there were no bloodshed, there would be no independence; with no independence, there would be no constitution.

Martin G. Richman

Hollister

Lots of visits

I would like to thank your reporter, Patrick O’Donnell for the very nice article he wrote about Virginia Snead.

I would also like to make it clear that my sister, Virginia Bradt, visits our Aunt with the same frequency attributed to me.

Carol O’Brien

Hollister