Nov. 3 Letters to the Editor

<p class="bold allcaps">Uninsured, unsafe</p> <p>EDITOR: The anger and criticism toward police for impounding the vehicles of unlicensed driver’s is misplaced (“Immigrants protest car seizures,” Sunday). The major point that supporters seem to be missing is that if you don’t have a license you can’t be insured. The city and police department take on a huge and unnecessary liability when they release these vehicles.</p><p>Daven Cardenas said unlicensed drivers simply abandon the impounded vehicles, buy a new one and return to driving. Well, that is an inconvenience I am willing to have them endure. Maybe some will not be able to just buy a new one, and they will be off the roads that I travel with my family.</p><p>Santa Rosa and San Francisco better hope that an unlicensed driver they released doesn’t hit me. I’ll have a great lawyer before the cars can even be towed from the scene.</p><p>HEATHER FEGAN</p><p>Petaluma</p><h3>Lights and noise</h3> <p>EDITOR: I have been following what people are saying about the proposed stadium lights for Piner High School. I have talked to parents selling hot dogs in front of a local grocer to raise money for lights, and they admit it’s not the lights that are the problem. It’s the noise.</p><p>So the huge and overwhelming attendance that Meri Gasiak talks about is the problem (“For the kids,” Letters, Wednesday). Sure it’s great for the booster club to bring money in, but what about their neighbors? Who cares, you might ask. I would like to give you a heads up. Noise, you say? Welcome to our world in Rincon Valley.</p><p>It’s not the players who make the noise level surge, it’s the spectators who stomp their feet on the bleachers, yell and blow air horns, scream and clap, and don’t forget the pep band (Cardinal Newman’s is the best). Ah yes, football season is upon us once again, and I love football.</p><p>But the field is not only used for football. We have soccer played at night as well. So the five games with lights that one of our local radio personalities talked about at the one and only school board meeting he ever attended is wrong. Don’t be fooled by the people who tell you it’s not that bad, it’s only football.</p><p>G.P. SMITH</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Public finances</h3> <p>EDITOR: Thank you for the Sunday article “State tax withholding increases today” and the Monday article “SR may benefit by extending trash deal.” In Sunday’s article, we find that the state has mandated to itself a large no-interest loan of $1.7 billion from every taxpayer’s paycheck. In Monday’s article, we are told that our Santa Rosa leaders haven’t decided yet whether they will put the garbage contract out for bid or accept a bid from the current provider that kicks back to them $1.7 million a year (in addition to the current $2.4 million kickback per year) at our expense.</p><p>Please continue to expose our government, at all levels, to help keep it honest and to help us, as voters and taxpayers, to make informed decisions.</p><p>SHIRLEY WHITNEY</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Bad attitude</h3> <p>EDITOR: Once again we are subjected to a letter from an officer in a teacher’s union asking us to believe that there is no way to measure the job performance of teachers (“Bad company,” Letters, Saturday).</p><p>I am reminded of a time I spent in the teacher’s lounge of a grammar school in the Sacramento Valley where I was to do staff training. There were three or four teachers sitting there talking. I was witness to an unceasing onslaught of negative and demeaning talk about their students. I was amazed that these people thought they were going to get up from their chairs and go into a class room, face those same children and try to do a credible job</p><p>As one who has been a corporate manager, the first category I would evaluate for those teachers that day is “attitude.” I would check the “poor” or “needs attention” column for them. I realize the teacher’s union is one of the most powerful lobbies in Sacramento, but I wonder how long we will buy the idea that teachers are above it all. Attitude is measured by watching and listening. </p><p>There, you see, we have already found a measurable category for evaluating teachers in California. Surely there are more.</p><p>ROGER GOOD</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Car impounds</h3> <p>EDITOR: In response to your Sunday article “Immigrants protest car seizures,” I find it almost comical that these mostly illegal immigrants, as the story stated, feel that they have the right to protest anything let alone think that they should be allowed to drive without a proper license. In the same edition, there is a story in the Empire section about a 26-year-old woman who was killed by a drunken, unlicensed driver in Healdsburg. If only his car had been impounded in time, she would still be alive and her family not grieving. So my suggestion to these illegal unlicensed drivers is to please leave our country.</p><p>MARK MATHENY</p><p>Healdsburg</p><h3>Water’s worth</h3> <p>EDITOR: I read John Duffy’s letter (“Water vs. cable,” Oct. 26) stating he will not tolerate the “never-ending cycle” of water conservation leading to raised rates that induce more conservation leading to even higher rates. He even laments that his water bill has become higher than his cable TV bill.</p><p>Oh my, what a wonderful, teachable moment. The following facts are what Duffy and a number of the public have forgotten:</p><p>• Water, an indispensable commodity, is far more valuable than all of the electronic media combined, and logically we should expect to pay much higher prices than we do now. </p><p>• The human need for water is minuscule compared to how water is needed in nature to perform hugely more important functions than meeting our domestic and agricultural needs. </p><p>• It has long been known that civilizations dwindle or disappear following long-term mismanagement of water resources where more effort is put into moving water to the people than moving people to the water. Read authors such as Wendell Berry, Wallace Stegner and Marc Reisner to be reminded of what you have forgotten.</p><p>There is much more for politicians and their critics to comprehend about the value of water before they draw conclusions about water’s worth and its distribution.</p><p>FRED M. MARTIN</p><p>Sebastopol</p><h3>Drive a car</h3> <p>EDITOR: Please allow one more voice on the subject of noisy motorcycles. I’m subjected to loud motorcycle noise daily on my narrow street. I make no generalizations about people who ride these vehicles except that they are irresponsible about the pollution they create. “Loud pipes save lives,” you say? If motorcycles are that dangerous, drive a car. Your choice of noisy vehicle is an option. I have no choice but to listen to, and be disturbed by, your noise pollution.</p><p>MIKE ACKER</p><p>Boyes Hot Springs</p>