Letters

Thanks for support for Lions' annual cioppino feed

On behalf of the Los Gatos Lions Club, we would like to thank the many local businesses that donated so generously to our recent Cioppino Feed Auction and Raffle. The Lions netted over $13,000 which will be returned to our community through all the activities and scholarships that the Lions are involved in in Los Gatos.

Each year our Cioppino Feed is held during the height of the crab season. Lion Ray Bortollusi actually buys the crabs at 4 a.m. the day of the dinner. The high school auxiliary club of the Lions, the Leos Club, contribute their helping hands as do most members of the "Best Service Club in Los Gatos."

The following businesses should be commended for their continued support of our club and the Los Gatos community: Lunardi's, Thomas Kincaid, Campo di Bocce, Tapestry, Garden Inn, Los Gatos Lodge, Los Gatos Tire, Kings Court Barber Shop, Willow Street Wood-Fired Pizza, Los Gatos Bar & Grill, Lindsey's at the Summit plus all the businesses owned by Lions. Please patronize them. Maybe you can join us next year.

Bob Skubis
Chairman, Cioppino Feed

Sales tax should apply to Internet businesses, as well

Sometimes I wonder about our politicians. I heard today that several, including California Gov. Gray Davis, were in the White House debating Internet sales taxes with our president. Is this a serious question, really?

How are all the retailers supposed to stay in business and pay their overhead when the online sellers have this 6 to 8 1/2 percent competitive advantage? Do these politicians think, ever? Let's keep all the ecommerce businesses healthy, while we retailers who occupy all this space in all the stores and malls service ever-decreasing numbers of customers.

Half of us now are in business to service merchandise the customers bought online and cannot operate or assemble, or perhaps they broke it 20 minutes out of the box.

And, just who do you suppose they scream at when they find out they need to pay to have it fixed, or that we will not exchange it? And just who is going to pay the people to service these reluctant and unprofitable customers? I have even had people tell me they bought it in my store, until I prove that I do not sell that which they brought in for repair or exchange.

Hey folks, this is a slam dunk. If you do not ultimately collect sales taxes, you are going to have to plow under one third of the shopping malls in this country and find work for several hundred thousand people who earn their living serving the retail trade.

I cannot believe there is even a discussion about this. Also, unless I am mistaken, most states that have sales taxes have the enabling legislation drafted as sales and use tax.

Apparently, the investment community is not the only sector of this nation suffering brain cramps about the Internet, and ecommerce.

I am not aware of any item on any agenda anywhere that is more foolish. You cannot continue to provide this level of competitive advantage to one class of business and expect the other class to survive intact.

Alan Caras
Los Gatos business person

Parking garage could be a simple matter

Let's fantasize! The parking garage can be built in five months. Let's build in back of Mountain Charleys. Grade is about four feet below the present ground level. The parking deck and piers are precast concrete and trucked in.

There are two levels above ground. This would be a lease-back with full town ownership in 20 years. One million dollars would be structured in to give a better financial rate. The $1 million would be fully refunded to the town.

If there is no parking within three years there will be a total parking mess or sooner. We have missed the market. Old Town will be sold. There could be many lawsuits against Old Town and the town of Los Gatos. The taxpayer has lost!

Bill Meyer
Los Gatos

Neighbors paid their respects to the 'mayor'

On the morning of Feb. 26, a sullen sky pierced by a distant bolt of lightning encompassed Los Gatos. But when a hole in the cloud cover appeared over Johnson Avenue, it was like a sign from heaven approving and assuring some 50 or more street residents--and former residents, of which I am one--that our assembly to mark the passing of Herman (Hank) Wipfle would not be marred by rain.

And it wasn't.

While we waited for Mrs. Wipfle and her daughter, Heidi, from Chico, we reminisced about former days when Hank lived among us, and how much his memory means to us.

The occasion was to dedicate a new bench on Johnson Avenue as a welcome rest stop for walkers climbing the steep staircased hill from the end of E. Main Street up to the beginning of Johnson Avenue.

Speeches were made, informing those who might not have known, how more than $700 was contributed by Johnson Avenue residents, and others who knew him, to pay for the new bench bearing a simple plaque in honor of Hank Wipfle, "A Very Special Man Who Will Long Be Remembered as 'The Mayor of Johnson Avenue.' "

Enough money was left over from the bench purchase to contribute $280 to the Los Gatos Library, and another $280 to the Los Gatos Adult Nutrition Center.

When Esther Wipfle, the last of those who spoke, had finished, six white doves from a white cage were released to whir off into the sky.

As a demonstration of how much love we are capable of showing to a fellow Earth pilgrim, it was a rare and moving memorial service, after which we shared a communion of fruit juices, bagels and cream cheese.

Vern Hansen
Los Gatos

Get out and walk to really see Los Gatos

Please Don't Drive Through Los Gatos! I know. I've taken the trusty car everywhere. It's the American way. Today, I broke the habit, and I relished the new opportunity to savor each unique view.

Los Gatos is almost hidden to traffic-bound motorists. For the first time I could take the byways, those inviting nooks and crannies that escape the busy driver.

One example piqued my curiosity. Tucked away in the "lesser valued" commercial sites was a tiny bakery opposite Safeway. We are proud of our upscale shops. They rightly reflect our self image.

Yet, there's another exciting part of our fair city. Mama's Bakery is a good example of our wonderful mix of ethnic/cultural opportunities!

I felt I was back in the Middle East reliving some great times. Ali Minoo came out to personally invite me to see his wares. Nothing more than simple, authentic pastries. And he'll take time despite his broken English, to chat with you.

That's just one store out of so many seldom seen, but enriching our unique Los Gatos culture.

Let me rephrase that negative on driving. Why not find one of our many handy parking places, then just check out the scenery. Los Gatos has lots of it.

Garth Barber
Los Gatos

Too many values have slipped away from us

The recent letters against Proposition 22 in our good paper deserve a response. They speak of hate, bigotry, daily crime, opposition to racial minorities and "against anyone of a difference of opinion." Nothing could be farther from the facts.

It is sad that those who opposed Proposition 22 should attempt to color the process by making fear an issue. It is tragic indeed, if in fact, the letter writers were somehow afraid or even concerned for personal welfare or physical harm.

Those people who displayed the Yes on 22 signs in our neighborhoods are among the most kind, tolerant, caring and law-abiding people I have ever known.

The state and nation are in peril when those who propose to preserve any principal through the democratic polling system are accused of hate crimes by those who do not choose to agree.

The proposition could not be that evil, since 28 states have already passed such laws. To preserve the institution of marriage between a man and a woman is not wrong for our society. It is the family, beginning with the babe in arms, which creates and defines the values and standards of the world more than any other influence, except perhaps the modern media, TV or the Internet. Schools and churches no longer have the power and authority to do so as they once had.

My 24 grandchildren need to know that marriage will always be that sacred union designed to love, teach, create and protect the family, and that the word "marriage" stands for something. The founding fathers and the many generations before them knew this.

A letter in a recent issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, asked "Can a certificate affect anyone but those whose signatures are on it?" You bet! Would we condone a marriage between a grown man and a child--of either gender? Or of a man and several women at the same time, simply because their names were on a certificate? Hardly.

How many praiseworthy principals have slipped away from us because we have been willing to look aside and rationalize that anything is OK, when we know what is good and right and sensible? Goodness knows we need a standard!

Just as our world society and its practices have affected our natural environment, so has it also affected the life and blood of the family. The family is an endangered species.

Melvin J. Hulme
Monte Sereno

Police Report

DeCinzo: Digital Los Gatos

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