Letters

In March 2000, the voters of California overwhelmingly approved

What's with the

I would like to thank you and the person who wrote the

Dear Editor,

Amid all the small business failures and bankruptcies, worse

It's taken awhile, a little more than five years to be precise,

Welcome to Anzar High School. It can be difficult to find your

Picture this. Your child is autistic and non-verbal. School has been a real challenge through the years but your child just finished the seventh grade, and had a very good year. This seventh grade class was tailored to the student’s needs. They used technology every day to improve their learning and to help them communicate. They had a school-wide recycling program to help raise money and teach the students life skills. They were in the kitchen learning about cooking and more life skills almost every day. In fact, the district remodeled the kitchen basically for this class. The class had frequent field trips. The teacher was consulting with the high school, where many of these life skills would continue, to prepare for a smooth transition after their eighth grade. Possibly the most important part is the class had an exceptional teacher that understood these students’ needs and the classroom instructional aides were some of the district’s most experienced and compassionate people. You were truly looking forward to having a great final year of middle school for your child. There was no reason to think otherwise. No one knew what was about to happen. This class was going to be dismantled. However, the district found no wrongdoing!

The lines are more sharply drawn in this election than at any time since the Civil War. And there are similarities between the two periods. In Civil War times the Republicans were the party of freedom for the individual and the Democrats were the party of slavery. Today, once again, the Republicans are the party of individual freedom and the Democrats are the party of an all-powerful central government trumping individual rights.

There is more to water softeners than just soft water. Water softeners reduce the “hardness” of the water, which can have several benefits for consumers: smaller amounts of soap and detergents (non-synthetic) are necessary for laundry and cleaning processes; reduced staining, spotting, scaling; bathing and showering feelings; increased fabric life; and energy saving in water heating due to less scaling.