Monday’s Letters to the Editor

Forest protests

EDITOR: Forest “demonstrators” have an element of selfish elitism generally associated with the filthy rich. In an area with thousands of acres of state-owned forests, these folks (mostly pale people like myself) have not participated in the public comment component of project reviews, but after the fact they have done their utmost to stop projects.

Our area has a wealth of public forests dedicated to recreation. Stopping approved projects that took years of planning is self-serving. Unsaid is our forest imperialism will involve importing forest products from other areas.

People come to the coast to cool off and have fun, and the argument that preservation of the state forest will provide economic benefits is specious. Ask the good people of the economic powerhouse that is Orrick, home to Redwood National Park.

Most of the men who work in the woods are Spanish-speaking men who are paid a living wage for arduous seasonal work. These men are hard workers and good citizens. Timber harvest keeps men working in manufacturing in Fort Bragg, Willits, Ukiah and Cloverdale.

Is including the Jackson Demonstration State Forest and Cal Fire people and having a civilized conversation about forestry a reasonable position?

TOM KISLIUK

Westport

Politics and history

EDITOR: The partisan politics going on in Congress brings to mind two events in our recent history. The Abscam sting of the 1970s and the Army McCarthy hearings of the ’50s. In Abscam, members of Congress (by the way, mostly Democrats) were filmed accepting bribes. When confronted with the visual evidence they professed innocence. As I remember the standard joke of the day was, “I didn’t do it, it never happened.”

Now, members of Congress (by the way, mostly Republicans) see film and live coverage of rioters breaking windows, climbing the walls, attacking police — we’ve all seen it — and by and large say they were just peaceful patriots looking to tour the Capitol.

It’s time to look back to the Army McCarthy hearings and have someone like Joseph Welch chide our representatives and senators who are subverting the truth of what we all saw: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency.”

IRA LOWENTHAL

Santa Rosa

Dangerous celebrations

EDITOR: From the first formal celebration of July 4 in 1777, annual Independence Day festivities have included dangerous traditions. Guns, cannons, flare rockets, simple fireworks and bonfires were primarily used in the early days. After the War of 1812, fireworks started to replace the guns and canons because they were considered safer. Today we are faced with the dangers associated with fireworks, not just in our region but far beyond.

The U.S. Department of Labor maintains a list of goods produced by child labor or forced labor. The most recent list, which was updated June 23, confirms the use of child labor in the manufacture of fireworks in China, El Salvador, Guatemala, India and Peru. China, the country that exports the most fireworks to the U.S., including the “safe and sane” ones, is confirmed to use adult forced labor as well.

Celebrating the Fourth of July with a practice that sustains an industry that is known to use child and forced labor is not a true celebration of independence or American values.

Please vote yes on D if you live in Rohnert Park, and generously support the nonprofits that have made the responsible decision not to sell fireworks.

BONNIE L. BLACK

Rohnert Park

Money over seniors

EDITOR: Clearly Rich Coombs values money far more than the people who lived in Bill Gallaher’s senior care facility (“Gallaher facts,” Letters,

Aug. 5). They were abandoned by staff and would have certainly died if others hadn’t come to move them out before the Tubbs fire destroyed the building. My guess is Coombs didn’t have anyone staying in that senior care facility.

KAREN COOPER

Hilo, Hawaii

Seniors and evacuation

EDITOR: The “flee to friends and relatives” recommendations given by the city of Santa Rosa in event of fire evacuation orders could pose a real problem for seniors here. Many live alone, rely on public transportation, have mobility issues and friends their age with the same limitations. Relatives often live out of state. What are the plans for them in case they are told to evacuate? Please don’t say neighbors, as neighbors will have their own concerns in the event of a crisis.

NANCY GALLOP

Santa Rosa

American oligarchy

EDITOR: The American system of government is not democracy. Please stop calling it that. The American system of government is oligarchy. In a democracy, all votes count the same. In America, votes count more or less than others depending upon the population of the state of the voter.

In all matters concerning the Senate (legislation, confirmation of judges, Electoral College, trying impeached presidents, etc.), votes in Wyoming (population 578,000) count 68 times more than votes in California (39.5 million), because each state, regardless of population, elects two senators. All senators’ votes count the same, no matter how many voters they unequally represent. Rule of the many by the few is the definition of oligarchy.

Democracy is the only fair and just system of government, and it should be the ideal. However, we have not yet achieved democracy. In the meantime, please stop calling it that. To wrongly call the oligarchy a democracy is counter-productive in that it begets a false sense of security, and therefore diminishes the motivation to actually achieve the ideal.

JAY CLEM

Santa Rosa

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.