Indeed A Problem

I READ THE LETTER from Julie Reiner ("Unhappy Ticketholder," June 25) about the scheme carried out by Santa Cruz city police in which they ticketed Julie, her friend, her friend's boss, an unidentified third person and Julie's other friend's 87-year-old mother, each for failing to stop at a stop sign. Based on Julie's experience, we can conclude that there is indeed a problem here: too many people in this town are running stop signs!It sounds like Julie and all her associates can consider themselves fortunate (along with the rest of us) that they haven't been injured or killed by all the careless drivers out there.

Gee, I wonder if there's anything the Santa Cruz city police can do to help reduce this problem before someone gets hurt. Perhaps if they issued more tickets, with bigger fines, the community would be safer and a few tragedies could be averted.

 Ronald P. Hughes,
Santa Cruz

Predictions Were Made

WITH ALL DUE respect to Save Our Shores, a group which has done so much to protect our precious coast, [Executive director Laura] Kasa's assessment that nobody in the conservation community saw the offshore oil drilling proposal coming is incorrect ("They Know the Drill," Nu_z, June 25).

People Power first printed a publication after the first Gulf War in 1992 in which the prediction was made, "due to our profound addiction to oil, we are likely to see new wars for oil. And increasing demand from developing nations will eventually boost the price of oil to the point where pressure will once again cause politicians to consider offshore oil drilling."

By all measure of reason, our society should have reduced driving dramatically when gas prices doubled in the last 30 months. But it seems that our addiction may keep us from ever facing the reality about the horrific manner in which we are squandering this nation's wealth and environment to maintain a hopelessly unsustainable mode of transportation.

Drive till you drop!

Ron Goodman,
Santa Cruz

A Dirty Trick

YOU MUST have a low opinion of your readers, that we neither recognize nor care about accurate English communication.

Regarding the article "Dirt on Obama" (Nu_z, June 18), the title implies that you have such an item, and will tell us what it is. Oh, no; you use it to let us know you're curious if there is any. And, "Obama's half-sister will hopefully be dishing the dirt when she visits."

You may have learned in school what this phrase literally means: "as the person dishes the dirt, she will do so full of hope." That's not a likely approach from a relative of the Candidate of Hope. What you're intending to tell us is that you're very hopeful she satisfies your curiosity. But you don't know how to express that.

Come on, take some editorial responsibility! Or hire some people who know better. Matching the dismal style of the Scotts Valley Scribbler isn't good enough.

Jud van Gorder,
Santa Cruz

He's Not Accusing, He's Just Saying

DO YOU remember when same-sex marriage was front-page news? Less than a week later, California is burning. Legal same-sex marriage licenses began to be issued after Monday, June 15. As of June 25, statistics from www.fire.ca.gov state there are 1,026 fires in California. Furthermore, on the same day, the Associated Press reported, "In less than a day, an electrical storm unleashed nearly 8,000 lightning strikes that set more than 800 wildfires across Northern California; a rare example of 'dry lightning.'" The city of Sodom was destroyed by fire from heaven for the sin of sodomy (Holy Bible, Genesis 19). The word "Sodom" means "to scorch" or "burnt" (Strong's Bible Concordance, entry no. 5467). Could there be a link between these events?

Roland Meyer,
Nevada City

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