I read with great interest the April 2 article in the Courier regarding Lieselotte Kalvelage's passion for peace. There are, however, a couple of comments that seem appropriate. Having lived under Hitler, she surely must understand that negotiations with people like Hitler, Stalin and Saddam are usually to no avail and that force is the only method they understand for solving disputes.

Having lived in Britain, I can assure her that we did not enjoy the daily bombing by the Luftwaffe any more than she enjoyed being bombed by the Royal Air Force or the U.S. Air Force.

Her statement that most Germans did not know of the atrocities committed in the concentration camps does not ring true.

Those camps were established soon after Hitler's rise to power, and prior to the outbreak of war, they were all over Germany.

Camps like Dachau, Buchenwald and Mauthausen, to name a few, were all located next to major cities such as Munich and Frankfurt.

The prisoners in those camps were divided into groups like "politicals," Jews, homosexuals and gypsies. All of them were worked to death, starved to death, beaten to death or shot.

War is not pretty, but it may be necessary to prevent a repetition of the unspeakable crimes that have been committed by dictators in the past.

—Jan Black, Gardena Drive


Supporting troops means no to illegal invasion

Bravo to Lisa Kavelage! With a war under way, antiwar activists are being told we must "support the troops." I don't know what that means. I certainly don't support the troops in their overall mission to invade a sovereign country and overthrow its leaders. Nor do I support their specific activities, which include killing innocent civilians and equally innocent Iraqi soldiers, who are guilty of nothing more than defending their country against an invasion by foreigners.

I'll be glad to support those troops who follow their consciences and heed the words of Bishop John Michael Botean, bishop of all Byzantine-rite Romanian Catholics in the United States. He has instructed his flock that participating in this war is a "mortal sin" and that anyone participating in it will be guilty of "murder."

I'll be glad to support those troops who refuse to disobey the laws of the United States by participating in a war that has not been declared by Congress as required by the Constitution. (The "authorization" for this war notwithstanding, the Constitution can only be amended by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, not by a vote of Congress).

I'll be glad to support those troops who do not wish to be called before the International Criminal Court for participating in a war that violates the charter of the United Nations and international law, as made clear by Secretary General Kofi Annan.

And I'll be glad to support service members like the three British soldiers who were sent home for refusing illegal orders that would have killed civilians, or any pilot who refuses similarly illegal orders to bomb targets like Iraqi television stations, orders in clear violation of the Geneva Convention. (Does anyone really believe the stated rationale that military orders were being broadcast openly on television?).

If George Bush, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and the rest of our elected and selected "leaders" in Washington really want to support the troops like I do, they can give the order today to withdraw the troops immediately and bring them home. If they don't, the deaths of American (and British and Iraqi) soldiers and civilians are on their heads, not on the heads of those of us who are doing our best to stop this criminal slaughter.

—Steven Patt, Cupertino


Plans for corridor should be restoring woodlands

Cupertino residents often lament that our city does not have a quaint "downtown" retail shopping area like Los Gatos, Saratoga and Los Altos. People like these kinds of charming shopping areas, and many of our residents go to the other cities to enjoy the atmosphere for shopping, dining and hanging out.

The controversial "Streetscape" plan is an attempt to create a "downtown," but many don't think it is possible to convert Stevens Creek Boulevard into a pedestrian-friendly environment. Plus many residents like the open feeling and view of the mountains that our current business district affords.

Although it doesn't have an old-fashioned downtown, Cupertino does have something these other cities don't have, and we can make it even better. We have a rare, partially intact creek and riparian woodland ecosystem with 60 acres of publicly owned land protecting it on each side. And we are now in the process of planning its future.

We can make our Stevens Creek corridor parklands a quieter, more natural, more wooded, pastoral place for both wildlife and people alike. Native plants and animals are also residents of Cupertino, but they have not been included in the development of this city, and they deserve priority now.

We can incorporate some of the historical uses of the lands, but in a less intensive, more environmentally sensitive way. Activities like picnicking, old-fashioned games like softball or horseshoes in the historically significant Blackberry Farm, as well as renovating the existing orchards for education and production and an integrated-pest-managed (IPM) nine-hole golf course are examples of keeping some old uses for ourselves and posterity.

But emphasis should be placed on restoring the riparian woodland and the creek habitat, eliminating massive car entrances to the lands and creating lots more environmental, nature and historical interpretation, programming and hands-on experiences.

Not only should we prevent any new paving (for a road or a bicycle trail), we can remove existing paving, particularly in Blackberry Farm and in the creek bed itself.

We have paved over enough of this valley and we have "compromised" away enough wildlife habitat. Now is the time, during the Stevens Creek Corridor planning process, to rectify, restore and reclaim a community treasure that is "downtown" for a vast array of Santa Clara Valley plants, animals and other organisms.

Please visit www.fobbf.org for more ideas on what we have in mind and how we can achieve it.

—Deborah Jamison, Friends of Blackberry Farm, Cupertino

Connecting with our hometown troops

As a weekly newspaper, The Courier does not have a fast enough turn around time nor the resources to be covering the Iraqi war and the controversy surrounding it in a timely way. We are, however, the community's newspaper and want very much to reflect in some heartfelt way what residents in Cupertino are experiencing as this war wages on. In that vein, we would like to print names and short profiles as well as pictures of anyone from Cupertino who is serving in Iraq. You are certainly welcome to use our letters-to-the editor section as a forum to express your pride and your concerns about the war. We will make every effort to print them all.

—Sandy Sims, Editor