Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Letters

Anti-215 rally didn't belong on LGHS campus

I was appalled to see local officials, including San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer, and Clinton's drug czar stumping against Prop. 215 at Los Gatos High. If I'd have known in advance, I would have been there to protest loudly against Gen. McCaffrey and Mayor Hammer's presence on the campus where my 14-year-old son is a freshman. Unfortunately, I didn't hear about it until I saw it on the news.

Was this a school-sanctioned event? To use the school facilities, the cheerleaders and football team for a "photo op" of this nature is inexcusable. This kind of thing is disruptive and divisive and has no business on campus. Very few voters attend high school, you know.

I suppose it was intended to lend an air of legitimacy to the anti-215 forces, and to the president who "didn't inhale."

I can't help but wonder if proponents of 215 were to be given an equal opportunity to present their case. The mayor and the president each lost my votes the day of the rally. I am a San Jose voter; my son lives with his mother in Los Gatos.

Gregg Catanese
San Jose

It's too bad people are so hung up

I want to thank the Prowler for the great write-up in the Oct. 16 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times concerning the hoopla surrounding my painting "Elephantman," that hung for a while in the Tate Museum.

Censorship is indeed alive and well in Los Gatos. It's too bad that some people can be hung up about something that hangs down--so much so that it prevents them from seeing the humor or statement in an art piece.

Susan Grant
Los Gatos

Ethnic slur was out of place

I was shocked and upset to see the term "Bohunk" appear in print in the letters section of the Oct. 9 Los Gatos Weekly-Times. Even though it was a letter and not an article, its use was completely irrelevant and unwarranted, and the editor did not even add a disclaimer.

This term is an ethnic slur against Hungarian-Americans, and as offensive and hurtful to them as are the more frequently heard ethnic slurs directed at larger groups of minorities in this country.

The stated editorial policy of the Weekly-Times is "to present a full spectrum of community opinion." This spectrum has not included ethnic or racial name-calling in the past, nor should it ever begin. The editor owes an apology to all the readers of the opinion pages.

Sylvia Rucker
Los Gatos

We apologize for our ignorance. Until your letter arrived, we were unaware of the term's ethnic origins. --Editor

Turn dairy into a college laboratory

I read with interest Melvin Hulme's commentary, "Monte Sereno can't be dairy farm's saviour" in the Oct. 23 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, and I completely agree with his position. I, too, have visited the dairy a few times, read letters from the preservation committee and donated a few dollars to the cause.

Only Mr. Hulme has addressed the issue of operating expenses.

Why, indeed, would Mr. Peake continually sell off his land if not to pay expenses on a losing business?

After the last major asset of the dairy--the land on which it stands--is sold, there will be nothing left to sell off to pay bills. In a few years, the dairy will again face closure. As sad as the situation is, denying the truth won't help.

Why not turn over operation of the dairy to, say, the University of California? Let Claravale become a working agricultural and business-administration laboratory, funded by the college. Result? The dairy remains in operation, and the college gets a real-world lab.

Rick Auricchio
Los Gatos