Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Letters

Thanks for the support in all the heat

I would like to take this time to thank the management, staff and patrons of Lunardi's Supermarkets for their unwilting support in the midst of high heat during the Benefit Hot Dog Sale, Aug. 1-2, in front of their store at 720 Blossom Hill Road. Lunardi's donated all necessary products for the volunteers from the Live Oak Senior Nutrition and Service Center to sell chips, dogs and a drink for a $1 donation to the program. The $1,281 collected that day will be used to augment services at the center for the adults over 60 years old who come daily for good food, good friends and good fun.

We also appreciate the Weekly-Times for its continued support of all the senior programs, and are thankful for businesses in the community who share their wealth with the elders who helped make the community what it is today.

Debbie Kranefuss
Director, Live Oak Senior Nutrition and Service Center

Humans need to worry about overpopulation

Curt Walton's reply to Susan Holtstander's letter to the editor regarding overpopulation clearly shows his ignorance of population studies.

Overpopulation should be the first concern of world leaders all over the globe. There is no nation unaffected by this problem.

Zero population growth is only achievable if every couple restrains themselves to only two children, assuming each person on the planet is mated with one other and all have children, this will result in a net gain of zero.

Ideally, our population would show negative population growth. A global population of three billion has been suggested as a workable, sustainable level. This would put our population at about the same level as it was around the turn of the century.

What's more disturbing than ignorance, however, is that Mr. Walton cites a divine right to procreate at will, which shows his complete disregard for the well-being of the creatures with whom he shares this planet.

Applying Biblical principles from 3,000 years ago is hardly a suitable strategy for addressing problems in the 20th century. The human species of 1000 C.E. never faced the plethora of population-driven biological dangers that we face today.

And in point of fact, humans are just another species of animal--albeit the dominant, most destructive one. We are still just an animal, like all of what Mr. Walton would condescendingly refer to as God's creatures, I'm sure.

We have no more natural right to our existence than the sewer rat or pigeon in the park. If you subscribe to a more Darwinian interpretation, we exist by the process of natural selection, not divine benefaction.

Our evolved raw intelligence, big brain and natural dexterity have given us a seemingly unbeatable edge over the rest of the apes. Just one percent difference between our DNA and the chimps we keep in zoos has made us the uber-animal.

It's convenient that we're intellectual enough to posit the existence of an unidentifiable invisible deity to justify our every action in our own interest. Less fortunate creatures just have to depend on their animal instincts without the burden of the human conscience, which drives us to rationalize behavior we know or suspect to be morally wrong, in order to make ourselves feel better.

I'm glad Mr. Walton is so satisfied with his pool and expanded house, but the fact remains that he and his wife have unnecessarily burdened our ecosystem with their large family. Regardless of his financial means, extra people are consumers, and their sustenance requires the expenditure of scarce natural resources.

The rape of the environment is the direct result of overpopulation. Pollution, crime, war, famine and pestilence, are all signs of an imbalance of the natural state of the human species. Nature, not God, will correct this imbalance eventually.

It's just much less tragic and painful if we can learn to make these adjustments ourselves, rather than having it occur as a natural consequence of our own blind and conceited actions.

John Lindquist
Cupertino

Many humans suffer because of overpopulation

Apparently, Curt Walton is a big fan of Puff the Magic Dragon, since most of his letter appearing in the Aug. 5th issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times is nothing but smoke and fantasy.

Speaking of airborne objects, it would seem that Mr. Walton, who himself suggests that Los Gatos High School junior Susan Holtslander (whose previous letter in which she revealed concerns about overpopulation) has "never traveled in an airplane," has few frequent-flyer miles. He writes of his "pity" for Ms. Holtslander''s inexperience and naiveté, yet self-examination never seems to cross his mind.

Mr. Walton concludes his letter by stating cheerfully how great the quality of life is, and noting that "he wouldn't change any of it." This attitude of Mr. Walton's, who is wealthy enough to afford a new (cement) pool for his house in the Los Gatos area, old enough to have spent the past 16 years raising a family and unoccupied enough to afford significant travel time, can be summed in one word: cozy.

The original thesis of Ms. Holtslander's letter was that overpopulation is a worldwide problem in need of solution, not just a Los Gatos issue. Mr. Walton's myopia to this fact is somewhat humorous; I doubt very sincerely that Ms. Holtslander had in mind the "termination" of any Los Gatos children when she composed her letter.

Nor did Ms. Holtslander ever argue that man is somehow inferior to animals. I thank Mr. Walton for his religious interjection, but whether "God gave us the power" to create superior life or not, the fact remains that there are simply too many people for too little space.

Only once in the letter does Mr. Walton even suggest that he is keen to the scope of Ms. Holtslander's letter--at the beginning. He raises the idea of the "zero population myth," but then drops it, with neither refutation nor definition. If the principal of "zero population" involves increasing the worldwide standard of living, then I am all for it.

The large majority of the world's population lives in near-starving, impoverished conditions. I suggest perhaps that Mr. Walton heed his own advice and take an airplane trip to the African continent, where the large majority of people have no (cement) pools, (wood) additions to houses (or, indeed, houses), or food, but plenty of children.

I respect the fact that Mr. Walton has raised five kids of his own--no small feat for anybody--but I urge him to consider his circumstances. Los Gatos represents the absolutely uppermost percentile of wealth in the world.

Ironically, Mr. Walton has already made my final point for me. He notes that "human life" is intrinsically "of a much higher importance than the rats in the sewers and the pigeons in the parks." Why then, should the large majority of people be treated as refuse?

Aaron Azlant
Los Gatos

Here's an idea for cartoonist

DeCinzo is missing a bet.

We pay the water district to raise the groundwater level. Groundwater is now flooding roads and basements.

We pay to pump groundwater from freeways and expressways to the bay.

We have a high-level bureaucracy that monitors the salinity of the South Bay lest fresh water discharges render it too low.

In order to maintain bay salinity levels, we must pump some of the discharge from our wastewater treatment plant uphill for irrigation. Irrigation water can raise the groundwater level.

With a larger bay, increased tidal flow would help the salinity level. The bay would be larger if the wildlife refuge we paid for were not used as a salt evaporator. Salt evaporators can be hard on wildlife (see recent problem in Baja Calif.).

The cartoon could show the caption of a sinking ship ordering a hole cut in the bottom to let the water out.

E.C. Steffani
Monte Sereno

Newspaper keeps ignoring some local schools

Once again the Los Gatos Weekly-Times has not lived up to its name by ignoring issues important to residents in the east end. In the Briefs section of the Aug. 12 issue you failed to list the opening day for schools in the Union School District, which serves a large portion of your readership.

Alta Vista, Noddin and Union Middle were left off the article about the opening dates for local schools. As a resident of Los Gatos' Belwood neighborhood for more than 10 years, I'm still mystified why this is so.

When the issue of school redistricting and unification came up last year, there was no shortage of coverage. There were many biased articles on how parents of children in the Los Gatos school district mistakenly believed we wanted our children to attend "their" supposedly better schools.

We love our Union schools and want our kids to attend in their own neighborhood.

What we want is to have our schools treated as a part of the Los Gatos community and covered in our local paper. Is this too much to ask?

Marianne Cohn
Los Gatos

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