Letters

Two and a half years ago San Benito County got a wakeup call that the enhanced petroleum extraction juggernaut that has swept large areas of the US can happen anywhere, even here. Mysterious giant thumper trucks showed up in our neighborhood on the western edge of San Benito County, and it soon was revealed that they were prospecting for oil. Neighbors were concerned, and a grass roots effort was launched, Aromas Cares for the Environment or ACE. We educated ourselves about petroleum extraction, and learned that there are new technologies such as fracking being widely used in other states. We also discovered that San Benito County’s regulation of oil drilling was almost non-existent. ACE set out to do something about that. We worked with the Board of Supervisors for almost a year, culminating in the passage of a new County ordinance that brought some scrutiny to the process of obtaining an oil drilling permit here. The ordinance doesn’t have all of the protections that we wanted, but it was the best compromise that could be approved at the time.

I am writing this letter in response to the guest view in which Ray Rodriguez accused the administration of San Benito High School of racism based on having separate presentations in both English and Spanish that were related, but not the same, and your response to it in the paper. While I agree with neither of you, I do agree with both of you in one sense: the time has come for all people of all races, colors, religions, physical abilities and ethnicities to be treated fairly and equally and to have equal opportunities and access to all our society has to offer. I have a simple suggestion as to how we might achieve this. It has to do with getting rid of one small punctuation mark that will forever cause race to be an issue in this and all countries, THE HYPHEN.

I read with interest the article in the San Jose Mercury News regarding the leasing of 27 acres for commercial development by Evergreen Valley College. The persons who wrote the article live in the San Jose ­ Evergreen Community College District. They felt that this decision would have long-lasting, negative impacts on Evergreen Valley College. They cited many legitimate concerns for opposing this lease. It is ironic that the leasing of these 27 acres will also have a long lasting negative impact on the voters/taxpayers of San Benito County. Because the police academy was located on the 27 acres, the academy would have to relocate to another location.