Letters to the Editor

<p>Write in Hillary</p><p>EDITOR: In his Sunday column, Ruben Navarrette Jr. said non-Obama supporters "don't like him, don't trust him, don't relate to him and don't think he's ready to be president." That about sums up my feelings. However, unless these feelings change, I am not planning to "skip the top of the ballot." </p><p>I'm feeling bummed with all the headlines of the Democratic convention throwing it in our faces all the ways that Hillary Clinton was dissed. Not consulting her about the vice presidential choice, dissing her donors, etc. At this point, I have still not been convinced that I can relate to Barack Obama. Unless that changes, I will be writing in a vote for Hillary for president.</p><p>I'm not sure everyone really gets why voting for Obama is not the same as voting for Clinton. Women helped with the civil rights movement in the 1960s, with the understanding they would get help afterwards, but in the 1970s nobody helped women push through the Equal Rights Amendment. Or you could go further back in history. How many decades was it when men of color could vote but no woman could? If anyone thinks Obama is the final frontier, they are sorely ignorant of the sad, sad truth.</p><p>But we can make a statement. Voting for "anyone but Bush" (or his ilk) just isn't good enough anymore. Write-in votes for Hillary might just be the ticket.</p><p>DEBBIE COLLINS</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><p>Age issue</p><p>EDITOR: Sonoma State University President Ruben Armiñana appears to favor lowering the legal drinking age below 21.</p><p>Let's suppose it becomes 18. Does this mean that 18-year-old SSU students will be allowed to enter the Rohnert Park casino and order drinks? Then, will it also be OK for these 18-year-olds to gamble at the casino at the same time?</p><p>It seems this would possibly cause great anguish for the students' parents, who might be helping them pay tuition, fees and living expenses. Think about those consequences in Armiñana's university. Not so good to contemplate, I think. CSU and Santa Rosa Junior College administrators have a sensible opposition to the bad idea being floated.</p><p>Does the fact that Station Casinos of Nevada has made donations through the Graton Tribe to SSU have anything to do with this loose attitude? Also, if the under-21 students are now using fake IDs, what will we think if 16-year-old high school students produce fake IDs to bluff their way in? Does anyone think we are headed down the wrong road?</p><p>ROBERT AHERNE</p><p>Rohnert Park</p><p>No on Prop. 2</p><p>EDITOR: In these tight economic times, why do we want to take one of the most versatile food items and make it more expensive to buy?</p><p>Having been raised on a chicken ranch in the 1950s, I know a little of what it takes to raise chickens. We had 15,000, which is small by today's standards, but that is quite a few chickens.</p><p>To take chickens out of cages and let them be free, even in barns, would be costly. Egg prices would go higher than anyone expects. Poultry operations would possibly move to other states, or we will be getting our eggs from down south.</p><p>We live in America, the land of choice. I say let us keep choices. Just as there is organic fruit and vegetables, beef that is hormone free, milk that is hormone free, let there be eggs that are cage free for those that want to pay that price, and let those of us who do not see the harm of cages have affordable eggs.</p><p>MARY DESJARDINS</p><p>Ukiah</p><p>Greed and profit</p><p>EDITOR: Although the Aug. 19 rally for clean energy in Petaluma didn't achieve the turnout we hoped for or expected, we still consider it a striking success. Hundreds of motorists honked and waved, and those disparaging us only numbered a handful.</p><p>During these troubled times of our dependence on foreign oil, and the ongoing wars to continue our addiction, we found it refreshing to gather with enough kindred souls to get the message out: Change is desperately needed now, in order to save our planet. We are squandering not only a precious, finite resource, we are diminishing and demeaning the legacy we leave to our heirs. And for what? Greed and profit.</p><p>To me, this is not the country our forefathers entrusted to us and expected us to do wonderful things with. We have been captured and held hostage by big oil, big business and the military-industrial complex that President Dwight Eisenhower warned us of. God help us if we cannot or will not extricate ourselves from this situation because of negligence, apathy or ignorance.</p><p>DENNIS COLE</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><p>Happy memories</p><p>EDITOR: I would like to give a huge thank you to Santa Rosa Parks and Recreations Department. This summer they gave three camp scholarships per week to homeless children. This experience for them was precious.</p><p>It lifted their spirits, allowed them to relax, play and just be children. Homeless children spend much of their days and nights by their mothers' sides. The mothers are filled with worry and preoccupation of how to get through the next day and night. The children pick up on all this anxiety and feel responsibility to help their mothers.</p><p>All children deserve happy summertime memories, and Santa Rosa Parks and Recreation made this possible for our city's children. I am very proud to live in a city where a very vulnerable group of children are shown kindness and generosity. Thank you, Santa Rosa Parks and Recreation Department.</p><p>BEVERLY WEST</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><p>Loving quick fixes</p><p>EDITOR: My brother is an artist who gives workshops throughout the U.S. and Europe. He told me recently that in the U.S., people generally sit politely and listen, even when they've paid rather substantially to attend his workshops. In Europe, it is very different. People ask many questions, they even challenge the information he presents.</p><p>He tells me that often he finds his audiences in the U.S. boring, willing to take anything they hear as gospel. In Europe, his audiences are stimulated, far more interested and, seemingly, learn more.</p><p>We don't hold lies against anyone because we forget very easily that they lied to us. We would rather think about the next sale, vacation, party -- anything but the hard stuff, such as 4,100 Americans dead for a lie or a country that may be too prejudiced against a half-black man to vote for something different from the disastrous last eight years.</p><p>We don't want anyone to tell us we don't have the best medical coverage in the world or that our education system has fallen behind most other industrialized countries.</p><p>We love the fantasies, the lies that keep us thinking, "We're the best." Well, at one time we were, but now we just fool ourselves into complacency and open another beer.</p><p>SUSAN HIRSHFIELD</p><p>Forestville</p>