Friday’s Letters to the Editor

2022-07-29 07:12:58 By : Ms. Amy WU

EDITOR: There is a day of reckoning coming up for the people who run the city of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. The major water sources for the area are Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino. Both are about half full without much relief in sight. We are going to be rationing soon — that is for sure.

At the present time in Santa Rosa, several projects are under construction, mostly prefabricated multistory apartment buildings with hundreds of units. Planned projects will add thousands of new apartments and houses. These are not low-income units. Each apartment will have five or six people and three cars, minimum. Clean up after work, and that’s 10 showers a day per unit. That is dishes and clothes for five. Where will the water come from? Where will all of the cars park?

Student Government Day isn’t going to pass for success when the water is all gone. The Board of Supervisors and city don’t care what we think. Supervisor Chris Coursey wanted to build a Taj Mahal so they could have nicer offices. If you want to see how it should be done, drive down to Marin County and look around.

EDITOR: This is in response to John Wise’s letter (“A pardon for Trump,” Letters, July 20). Repeating President Gerald Ford’s mistake of pardoning Richard Nixon is a flawed approach. Nixon deserved to have the full weight of the law and prison time for stealing an election — not unlike the twice-impeached, disgraced former president. The Nixon pardon did not heal the country, nor would a pardon now.

Donald Trump almost became this country’s fascist dictator. There is nothing forgivable about that. Ideally, he will be convicted and locked up, and the key will be thrown away.

The disintegration of this country under his presidency and the Big Lie need to stop — a pardon is not the way. All those who committed crimes in relation to the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, must be held to account — no exceptions.

The Jan. 6 committee is doing work key to keeping this country moving forward as the democratic republic it was founded to be. Any sort of pardon will continue to leave this country severely divided.

EDITOR: The many elected Republicans who still proclaim that the 2020 election was “stolen” have shown no thanks that they were spared from having their own elections stolen by this masterful scheme by Democrats. They do not want to credit Democrats with having the ability to conceive and implement a nationwide plan. They have been outsmarted and are not good losers. Can we expect the same contentious behavior when a Democrat loses an election? The precedent has been set.

EDITOR: I recently attended a fundraising dinner for Athena House, a residential drug treatment program for women and their children. They serve primarily low-income women. It will soon close because of mounting costs.

This is a model program that has treated hundreds of women over the years. Many graduates have gone onto college, become employed and reconnect with their families. And we’re about to lose this valuable resource.

The staff and former graduates are waging a campaign to “keep hope alive.” They need to raise $2 million to purchase land. The powerful stories I heard that evening were inspiring. Buckelew, a nonprofit corporation, is accepting donations on their behalf (buckelew.org).

Tell others about Athena House and consider writing our Legislature to help find funding. Did you know that Sonoma County is third in the state with the highest death rate from overdoses? Yes, we need Athena House.

EDITOR: Two months after moving to Sonoma in 2014, I found myself volunteering for Transcendence Theatre Company in which Broadway artists perform under the stars at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. Little did I know that this would spark my soul to create art, poetry, lyrics and ideas for them. I was inspired by their service to our community, and I felt welcomed and part of a family. Now, Transcendence finds itself, like many companies, trying to recover from the pandemic. They need our help. If we want to keep this imaginative, creative and vibrant theater company in Sonoma Valley, we need to support them.

Go to bestnightever.org to learn about their upcoming show, “Hooray for Hollywood,” and purchase tickets. Just as Transcendence helped keep Jack London State Historic Park from closing in 2012, we need to help keep Transcendence alive for many years to come.

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

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