Thursday's Letters to the Editor

<p class="bold allcaps">Traffic jammers</p> <p>EDITOR: I guess I’m confused. While the Bay Bridge was closed, I saw a TV shot of the San Mateo Bridge approach. Traffic was stop-and-go in two lanes with a few commuters in the diamond lane. Why wasn’t that lane opened and, more important, where is the saving of time, fuel and CO2 when a few cars can go fast while hundreds go 5 or 10 mph?</p><p>The contrast is just as great here in Santa Rosa where for every car in the commute lane there must be 50 barely moving in the other lanes. Again, where’s the saving?</p><p>If you really want to save CO2 and fuel, allow through trucks to use the commute lane. I’ll bet that’ll never happen.</p><p>Another question: Why do “out of service” buses, including school buses, stop at railroad tracks? Buses that come and go to their routes from the bus terminal off Standish Avenue in Santa Rosa must cross the railroad. Why do they stop? Added up over all the buses that stop day after day, what a waste of time and fuel.</p><p>Speaking of buses, why do passenger buses with only the driver on board get to drive in the commute lane? And, for that matter, why do they get to go faster than everyone else?</p><p>DON WALTENSPIEL</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Time to speak out</h3> <p>EDITOR: I hope the outcry over closing the Sonoma County library is as vociferous as it was about the threat to close Annadel State Park (“Library to close for 10 days,” Wednesday).</p><p>MARY JENKINS</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Loss remembered</h3> <p>EDITOR: Watching President Barack Obama saluting coffins of the men killed in Afghanistan took my thoughts back to Oct. 31, 1972. I was working on the leeward side of Maui when I was called to the phone. The message was that my son Dave had been killed. Dave was crew chief on a helicopter that was shot down with 17 young men who had just arrived in Vietnam. Dave had two more weeks before he was to be transferred home.</p><p>Nine days later, Dave’s mother, his wife April, his sister Trudy and I waited as an Air Force cargo plane landed and our son’s coffin was escorted to a waiting hearse.</p><p>The president must have felt deep hurt for those boys, but no one can feel the loss like the moms, dads, wives and children. When I saw the TV and newspaper pictures of him saluting, I again felt the pain and wonderment of what hell my son and those young men went through before they died. I cried not only for my loss but for every family that has had to endure this gut-wrenching pain.</p><p>The coffins are there, but what occupies the interior? I thought that at the funeral I could at least say goodbye to my son. Not so, the coffins are closed and the contents are worse than any imagination you could conceive.</p><p>DAVID WISCHEMANN</p><p>Chief warrant officer,</p><p>U.S. Coast Guard, retired</p><p>Sebastopol</p><h3>Carinalli stories</h3> <p>EDITOR: I am offended by The Press Democrat’s incessant vexation of Clem and Anne Marie Carinalli and their financial misfortune. I have known the Carinalli family for more than 20 years and count them among the most loving, generous and forthright people on earth. Desist, Press Democrat.</p><p>AARON MEYERS</p><p>Guerneville</p><h3>Abuse of office</h3> <p>EDITOR: My wife and I voted for George Barich. It was concerning to learn that he sent a letter under our city’s letterhead to President Barack Obama denouncing his policies. It seemed he had misused the power of his office, although I had not seen the letter or his explanation.</p><p>So I visited georgebarich.com. He describes himself as an independent moderate. However, the Web site seemed right-wing Republican. I chuckled that not only does Barich share the same initials as Glenn Beck, but seemingly some of his philosophies.</p><p>He had a very legalistic response to his use of the letterhead. His lawyer acknowledges Barich cannot use the actual city letterhead, but he claims due to a legal technicality he can make and use his own virtually identical letterhead. </p><p>I had to go to the recallgeorgebarich.com to find his letter. It was formally addressed to the president and denounced his policies in a derogatory and non-supportive manner. It was under official-looking city letterhead, and I was embarrassed to think the president believed he received it from our city.</p><p>Barich has the right to express his opinions, but doing it under fake city letterhead was as if he signed all 6,700 of our names to his letter. We must recall George Barich.</p><p>JACK CZAJKOWSKI</p><p>Cotati</p><h3>Unfriendly City Hall</h3> <p>EDITOR: The new Rohnert Park City Hall has been criticized as dull, ugly and unfriendly, but it has a much bigger problem, one that is someday going to cost the city a large amount of money. That is that there are no automatic openers to open doors for the handicapped, neither interior nor exterior. </p><p>Anyone who is frail or in a wheelchair has to struggle with heavy doors to get in the front entrance and into meeting rooms and restrooms. I am appalled at this lack of sensitivity for the needs of Rohnert Park citizens.</p><p>There are disability activists who make a nice living suing cities and businesses for lack of handicapped access, and perhaps soon Rohnert Park will be facing well-deserved Americans With Disabilities Act litigation and fines. Shame on Rohnert Park.</p><p>MARTHA SCOTT</p><p>Rohnert Park</p><h3>A model program</h3> <p>EDITOR: The recent protest staged by illegal immigrants against the state of California impound program is without merit (“Immigrants protest car seizures,” Sunday). This is state law, and the police departments of Sonoma County, as well as the Sheriff’s Department, are sworn to uphold the law. </p><p>The impound program was started by former Santa Rosa Police Chief Sal Rosano, and I was a member of the committee that put together the grant that established the program. This same grant also began the adoption of sobriety checkpoints. These programs ran concurrently, and, as a result, the Santa Rosa Police Department ran the test program that was adopted by the state of California and is now a nationwide program, upheld by the courts.</p><p>We must remember that driving a vehicle is not a right. Look at the number of fatal and major injury crashes in Sonoma County that are caused by drunken and unlicensed drivers and drivers with suspended licenses.</p><p>Those who are representing the protestors should make better use of their time and energy to educate the folks they represent, so that someday they may legally drive in California.</p><p>RODNEY SVERKO</p><p>Retired, Santa Rosa Police Department</p><p>Santa Rosa</p>