Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Letters

DeCinzo reaction doesn't fit crime

Once again I must set pen to paper in defense of our beloved, but recently much maligned, town cartoonist DeCinzo. Both the "victim" of DeCinzo's transgressions and an oh-so-concerned citizen of some 35 years' residency (almost a native) have leveled the most serious criticism against him. DeCinzo stands charged with lack of impartiality and waging a "personal vendetta," so mighty is his pen! As to the charge of impartiality, suffice it to say that the very essence of the political cartoonist is to be partial. That is the very heart of satire, for goodness sake.

As to the "personal vendetta," the charge is totally inappropriate for the alleged sin. When public officials are quick to bask in the favorable publicity of, say, being so very tough on crime (a rare enough commodity in Our Town), these selfsame officials should be able and willing to withstand the awful heat from a mere 2-inch-square cartoon.

Now come on, fellas. Surely bureaucrats and concerned citizens alike recognize that the better course is to ignore and not lend further credence to satire by self-important attacks on our one and only political cartoonist. After all, that concerned 35-year resident had to put up with years of sheer boredom before DeCinzo graced us with his wit and satire. Bravo, DeCinzo!

Steve M. Zientek
Los Gatos

Name had unfortunate historical connection

Surely I wasn't the only reader to be taken aback by the huge headline reading "Andersonville" on your front-page article about the nice guy with his nice animals at the happy A to Z Tree Nursery.

Someone at your paper must not know the connotation of the word "Andersonville," a word synonymous to many of us with a really ugly part of Civil War history: the Confederate prison in Georgia where thousands and thousands of prisoners died.

I like Mr. Anderson and his nursery, and am happy he brings his animals down from the ranch for us to enjoy. But I still have a creepy feeling about the unfortunate choice of headline.

Greta Ray
Los Gatos

Once again, the community came together to help

Operation Reindeer 1997 served more than 85 families in the Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cambrian Park and Campbell areas. Each family received a huge box of food, individual presents for each member of the family, and scrip for perishable foods in a local market. The boxes were delivered the Friday and Saturday before Christmas by a fleet of drivers.

Operation Reindeer has been active in the Los Gatos area more than 20 years, though the name has evolved. At one time it was known as Project Help, and all the food was first gathered, then sorted into individual boxes. It has always been a Red Cross project, but in recent years the boxes have been filled by individual real estate offices from the Los Gatos-Saratoga area. The PenWest Realty Board now coordinates directly with the West Valley Advisory Council of the American Red Cross' Santa Clara Valley chapter, and both Realtors and WVAC volunteers do the footwork.

Names are first gathered from the school nurses at Los Gatos schools (both elementary and high school), Union School District, Live Oak Day Care, the Family Services Agency and the Jewish Community Center. Each family must give permission to receive, and the names are treated confidentially. No realty office knows recipients' names.

This year, the boxes were delivered to the Stewart Title building on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road for final sorting. The entire room was filled with boxes in festive wrappings, and the care and enthusiasm given by each office was very evident.

Packages for children up to age 16 were delivered from the third-grade classes of Mr. Kropp, Ms. Benjamin, Mrs. Adams, Ms. Kath, Mrs. Mayer and Mrs. Bersano, plus Girl Scout Troop #274 (Susan Mason, leader) at Blossom Hill School; and the fourth-grade class of Bridget Sheehan at Dave Avenue School; and these were added to appropriate family boxes. (There were so many wonderful packages that when the boxes were filled to overflowing, the overflow packages were taken to the family shelter downtown.)

Special thanks are in order to the West Valley members of PenWest, who, it should be noted, continued this yearly custom during the lean realty years, too. Also, our thanks to the school nurses who spent a tremendous amount of time checking with each family: Linda Bortolussi at LGUSD, Bonnie Knopf at LGHS, Ruthellen Oveland at USD; also, to Kaye Davis at Live Oak, Kris Jensen at Family Services and Avital Agam at Jewish Community Center. June Smythe coordinated names from these agencies, and Joan Donlon was my right-hand aide at PenWest. Dyer Stickney and his crew of volunteers delivered under sunny skies this year.

To all the volunteers who came out that last week to work with the boxes and deliver them, our special thanks. It was an extremely busy time for everyone, and they somehow found the time to be involved in this very worthwhile project. Also, we really appreciated having Stewart Title allow us to use their large conference room for the entire week.

To the Realtors and their staffs who filled the boxes with their personal donations, thank you for making Operation Reindeer 1997 a huge success.

Frank Blaisdell, chairman
Operation Reindeer

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