Apathy Doesn’t Serve Our Students, Schools, or the Community
Editor,
I originally wrote this letter about a month ago, but held onto it hoping things would get better. After the story last week about student and parent complaints about having to do community service to graduate, and a complete lack of any patriotic activity by this school to celebrate Memorial Day I decided it was time to speak up.
On Thursday night, April 27th, I attended the open house a Ladd Lane School. When I went into my daughter’s first-grade class I noticed that Yankee Doodle Dandy was up on the board on a sheet of paper. I asked the teacher about this and she told me that “Patriotic songs are a California state standard in the first grade.” I was thrilled to hear that the state finally got it right on something.
It also make me think about the appalling lack of patriotism at San Benito High School. According to the Faculty Handbook, section 2-11, and I quote: “The flag salute is required by Board policy. It will be recited each morning at the beginning of the first or fourth period classes.” It also states “Teachers are encouraged to plan other appropriate patriotic exercises in addition to the flag salute.” This statement closely mirrors the California Educational Code which states, “In every public secondary school there shall be conducted daily appropriate patriotic exercises. The giving of the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America shall satisfy such requirement. Such patriotic exercises for secondary school shall be conducted in accordance with the regulations which shall be adopted by the governing board of the district maintaining the secondary school.”
I have spoken to the school board about this before and have conducted informal polls. My tally is that about 15 percent of the classes SBHS get the pledge or other patriotic exercise on a daily basis. Even if my poll is off by 50 or more percent, that still means less than half of the students are being exposed to any “type” of patriotic act at a public school.
This unacceptable. Apathy is not patriotic, to disagree is, to challenge things may be, but doing nothing isn’t. We read in the paper about elementary school students sending cards and other items to troops over seas, we see the Boy Scouts put flags up for Memorial Day, but when was the last time a San Benito High School student did something patriotic? There are a large number of our former students serving overseas in the military. I think the least we can do is honor and respect their commitment by saying the Pledge of Allegiance in all of our classes.
In Hollister every Friday night we get a great lesson in patriotism. On one side of town a group protests war and supports peace, on another side of town a group supports the war and feels it is a price of freedom. Are both patriotic? In my opinion, yes. Are there any young people out there with them? I haven’t seen any.
Parents, ask your child if they are reciting the Pledge of Allegiance or having a patriotic activity done in their classes. If Yankee Doodle Dandy can be a first-grade standard, then a high school student will not suffer by saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Because APATHY IS NOT PATRIOTIC.
Randy Logue
Teacher/Coach San Benito High School
Allowing Hotel in Tres Pinos is Unfair to Neighborhood
Editor,
Absolutely outrageous!
A hotel right in the middle of a residential neighborhood! Were the county to allow a hotel to be built adjacent to your home, you would feel our outrage! My wife and I bought a home in beautiful Tres Pinos hoping to raise a family, set our roots, and meet future neighbors. However, our hopes of living in a family-oriented neighborhood were destroyed with a proposed hotel right next door.
A zoning change is the crux of the matter. A hotel belongs in a commercial area where its impacts are minimal and easily mitigated, yet that is not the case. That is the problem!
Were the planning commission to approve a hotel and zoning change, the spillover effects would be numerous and drastic. Constant noise from a hotel that is open all day, every day would spill out into the neighborhood. Such is the case presently with the Cantina restaurant here and it is yet to be controlled effectively. Lighting from a hotel is far more intrusive than that of some homes. And traffic! Young children using the bike path, confused drivers returning form the wineries, constant speeders on Airline Highway, and a dangerous intersection with inadequate proposed mitigation are a recipe for disaster and poor planning. Parking by hotel guests, and banquet and reception goers would spill out from the largest hotel in the county. Patrons crossing Highway 25, inconsiderate guests, a chorus of motorcycles roaring a few feet away, and numerous other impacts constitute a negative cumulative effect on us here.
Perhaps the businesses would benefit, but the citizens in unincorporated Tres Pinos would not. We will bear 95 percent of the problems, yet we may receive perhaps 5 percent of the county’s financial gain. Where is the balance?
The hotel project with its spillover impacts on our property and quality of life are not acceptable and cannot be mitigated. It is unfair, unjust, poorly placed, and conceived from greed and blatant disregard for the neighborhoods in Tres Pinos. It belongs elsewhere in a developed commercial area. Our county possesses such sites elsewhere already. That is an undeniable truth.
Please contact your planning commissioner before Wednesday evening or attend the Planning Commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday night to support and protect our families, our neighborhoods, and our little town.
Ed Schmidt
Tres Pinos
