War takes money from schools
The prior Pinnacle editor published (weekly sidebar),
information pertinent to stressed taxpayers. I was in the habit of
referring to it in each issue even before checking headlines and
lead story. That piece of the puzzle missing from the confused
questioning taxpayer was the amount of money sucked directly out of
San Benito County to fund the war in Iraq. At that time the last
amount reported was over 148 Million and counting each week from
San Benito County taxpayers only. Just think if that money stayed
home, how it would improve our schools?
Currently we support the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan,
and the war in Pakistan plus bombing in Yemen and now Libya. Do we
really prefer killing others or do we prefer providing education
for our children?
Mary Zanger
Hollister
War takes money from schools
The prior Pinnacle editor published (weekly sidebar), information pertinent to stressed taxpayers. I was in the habit of referring to it in each issue even before checking headlines and lead story. That piece of the puzzle missing from the confused questioning taxpayer was the amount of money sucked directly out of San Benito County to fund the war in Iraq. At that time the last amount reported was over 148 Million and counting each week from San Benito County taxpayers only. Just think if that money stayed home, how it would improve our schools?
Currently we support the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the war in Pakistan plus bombing in Yemen and now Libya. Do we really prefer killing others or do we prefer providing education for our children?
Mary Zanger
Hollister
Parents disrespectful at HSD board meeting
I was in the audience during the Hollister School District’s last board meeting on March 8. I feel compelled to write this letter to express my opinion of what took place during the meeting and the misinformation that was bantered around as truths by many of the speakers to the HSD Board of Trustees. I was disappointed and frankly stunned by the disrespectful and surly behavior of the parents and administrators of the public schools who are not in the HSD attendance area. Their calling out and interrupting Board members as they tried to talk, was disheartening to watch. To me, the most disturbing actions by these parents were how they were teaching their children how to behave in a public meeting. Somehow, there was a total loss of civility and respect to public officials and the decorum that is needed by participants in a public meeting. Who can shout the loudest is not a way to teach your children how to behave in a public setting.
Parents at the meeting stated numerous times that their children were never students of the Hollister School District School district attendance boundaries are determined by your residence. To those parents who proclaimed their child was never a Hollister School District student, yes, your child is a student of HSD based on your residence. If you wanted your child to attend a different public school, then consideration by the parents should have taken place before settling on a residence in the HSD attendance area.
I have closely examined the Interdistrict Attendance Request Form that each parent was required to fill out annually. The form clearly states that the transfer was for one year only and can be revoked. I suspect that the angry parents who attended the March 8 meeting were truly angry with themselves as they were the ones who put their child in a precarious position year after year as to where they will attend school. There is “no guarantee of maintaining a permanent transfer status” and the transfer form clearly states that the interdistrict form they filled out last year will expire on June 30, 2011.
As a parent I understand the passion that one feels for their child’s education. It is unfortunate that the passions these parents are expressing are not for their neighborhood school in which they reside. Imagine what a positive affect these parents could bring to their neighborhood school and how much they could help improve and enhance the Hollister School District by being involved in the neighborhood school in which they reside.
Jan Grist
A Proud Teacher of the Hollister School District
Neglected animals need support
We are a retired couple who enjoy our travels in the state, and come frequently to your lovely area. We enjoy the golf, the history, the hillsides and the people we meet there.
On our last visit, however, we noticed discarded cats around our hotel. We wanted to help the little family of cats, so we contacted All Creatures Great and Small in Hollister, and those folks trapped the family and neutered the mother cat. We drove back down to adopt one of the kittens. We feel it is the least we can do to help these forgotten pets.
The reason I am writing is that we soon saw this was not an isolated case. We began to notice more discarded and unneutered cats in the area. I walked to the City Hall in San Juan Bautista to try to get some help for these animals, and was told simply that “we have so many cats because of the chickens.” I don’t quite get that connection, but I do know that we all have a responsibility to our pets. That means keeping them at home, neutering them, and helping any discarded or neglected pets that we notice around us. To be indifferent to their suffering, their hunger, cold, disease and ceaseless breeding seems unkind and nonproductive to me. And I do not feel that killing the cats is the solution. We need a shift to personal responsibility for all our pets and domestic animals.
Yes, there are many human travails and human suffering to address. But our pets, like our children, depend on us to care for them. We owe it to our humanity to do so. Even the Christian Bible says, “Man shall be a shepherd unto them.”
Our word “tender” comes from the word “to tend,” to take care of. Isn’t that what we need to do to our animals, to tend to them, to be a good shepherd?
I hope that Hollister realizes what a gift you have in All Creatures Great and Small.
We feel fortunate to have met the group, and we are inspired by their efforts to help all the animals in your region who are otherwise ignored.
Alice and Gene Sakanari
Sacramento
