Wednesday's Letters to the Editor

<p class="bold allcaps">Obama’s travel</p> <p>EDITOR: One of your readers wants President Barack Obama to pay for the trip to Copenhagen to “beg that the 2016 Olympic Games be awarded to Chicago” (“Spending the prize,” Letters Monday). Maybe he doesn’t realize the trip was two-fold: the Olympic Games and a meeting with the top general in Afghanistan.</p><p>The idea of Obama visiting other countries brings peace and excitement to those nations, unlike the visits of our former president. And besides, the trip was a business venture (as so many CEOs enjoy) and information gathering for the war.</p><p>Lest the reader forget, George W. Bush made 77 trips to his Crawford ranch at taxpayers expense, which also included upgrading the ranch to take care of Secret Service and foreign dignitaries. I doubt the reader made any comment about these expenses. He should take some comfort in knowing Obama is donating the prize to charities. Bush would have enlarged his bass pond.</p><p>HAROLD R. KING</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>A smog issue</h3> <p>EDITOR: Harley “Hogs” is an apt description for those defending the outrageous noise their rides produce, but the noise is not the worst of it. According to the Air Resources Board, nearly 40 percent of the motorcycles on the road have modified exhaust systems. According to the ARB, motorcycles, which comprise only 0.8 percent of vehicles on the road, are responsible for 10 percent of the pollution. They are on average 14 times more polluting than an automobile.</p><p>Additionally, there is a noise law in California limiting all passenger vehicles to no more than 85 decibels. That is about what you hear from a lawn mower.</p><p>So danger is, indeed, an issue. But it is the danger that the 99 percent of us who do not own a motorcycle are exposed to when we are forced to breathe the toxic gases that they emit.</p><p>Fortunately, there is an easy solution: require motorcycles to go through the same smog check as everyone else, and there is legislation proposing just that. SB 435, sponsored by state Sen. Fran Pavely, D-Santa Monica, is working its way through the process. We should tell our representatives that we demand their support.</p><p>CARL PETERSON</p><p>Glen Ellen</p><h3>Prison conditions</h3> <p>EDITOR: I was drafted in 1965 and sent to Vietnam. We lived in tents. We slept on metal cots with mosquito nets to keep the rats from climbing on us at night. We slept in our boots so the rats wouldn’t bite our feet if we had to get up. Several men woke up with rats on their chests and were bitten, making rabies shots mandatory.</p><p>The shower for the camp was a filthy cement hut that pumped up the same gray water over and over again. Hundreds of men used the facility, which had signs warning against letting the water get into your mouth. The latrine was a wooden box about 10 feet by five feet with six holes cut into the top. There was no provision for washing. Our water supply was a two-wheeled portable tanker. The tank sat outside in the sun. Many times we had no water at all, and we brushed our teeth with stale beer, the only liquid we had.</p><p>Oh, and people were trying to kill us. </p><p>Our government had no problem sending three million of its kids over into that mess. And you want me to feel sorry for a bunch of inmates who chose to be criminals? I say make it worse, a lot worse.</p><p>DAVE HAYNES</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Salamander bridge</h3> <p>EDITOR: I am a 17-year-old high school senior, and I would like to thank the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for providing my economics class a topic of discussion: the waste of taxpayers’ money with regard to the tiger salamander roundup.</p><p>I have lived in the airfield neighborhood of southwest Santa Rosa for eight years. My parents are the original owners of our home, and in the time we have been here we have never seen a salamander. Now the city has decided to pay $50,000-$70,000 to move these non-existent salamanders across the street (“City attempts to relocate endangered species across road via ramps,” Monday).</p><p>I am almost certain that if they did exist in our area they have long since migrated, and why didn’t this issue come up when the houses were built eight years ago? I’m sure my teachers could find a better way to spend the thousands of dollars dedicated to this “salamander bridge” on items such as classroom supplies and textbooks.</p><p>It may be too late for me to enjoy a park and playground, but I hope there is still time for the sake of my younger brother and the other kids in my neighborhood and that eight years from now we are not still looking at an empty lot.</p><p>SHELBY FOSTER</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Not a level field</h3> <p>EDITOR: The Press Democrat’s two glowing articles on the success’ of the Waldorf schools are very misleading (“Unconventional theories spawn believers — and critics,” Sunday).</p><p>As a public school teacher, I would love to have up to $15,500 per student on top of the state funding. That figure means that they have approximately three times the amount of comprehensive high schools to spend per student. Likewise, when you cite their test scores, I would like to know what percentage of their students are special education, severely impoverished, English language learners, medically fragile, have parents who cannot read or write in English, or have drug or alcohol problems in the family.</p><p>Let’s face it, they are not playing on a level playing field. </p><p>RICK HARGREAVES</p><p>Hidden Valley Lake</p><h3>Farmers’ plight</h3> <p>EDITOR: In the Saturday article “County’s apples left to rot,” Staff Writer Robert Digitale did an excellent job of chronicling the sad state of Sonoma County’s apple orchards.</p><p>The most alarming news for consumer should be about the glut of Chinese apple concentrate that is sold here. While I have known about this for years through my farmer friends (also, most garlic sold here is from China), I would estimate that nine out of 10 people I have spoken with don’t know that the juice they are drinking comes from China.</p><p>What do we know about these apples? How much pesticide and other chemicals is applied to the crop? Are the pesticides banned here? Is any of the concentrate tested for pesticide residue? What percentage is tested?</p><p>The average consumer is going to buy the cheaper product without giving a thought to where the crop originated. What can be done to protect both the consumer and local farmers who are trying to make a living growing a more delicious, healthier apple crop here?</p><p>ALICE FORD-SALA</p><p>Santa Rosa</p>