Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Letters

Thanks for the vote of confidence

I would like to thank the citizens of Los Gatos for giving me the opportunity to serve you for another four years on the Town Council. It is with a deep sense of humility that I accept this responsibility, and I will try to be worthy of the trust you have shown in me.

There were many valid issues and ideas raised during the race, and I look forward to working with everyone to find solutions for Los Gatos as a community. Together, we can accomplish almost anything.

The negative aspects of this race were unlike anything I have seen in the 22 years I have lived in Los Gatos, and I hope that we never see this type of politics again.

I enjoyed talking to many of you, and I hope you continue to call and write and express your views.

I, for my part, am going to look for more ways to reach out. We have many difficult, complex issues facing us--parking (paid or not?), land uses, Old Town and, as always, budget concerns.

While you may not always agree with the decisions I ultimately make, I hope that you will help in my decision process by giving me your input, and understand that others may feel differently from you.

Linda Lubeck
Vice Mayor, Los Gatos

Local volunteers help out in new nonprofit store

The new store on N. Santa Cruz Avenue called 10,000 Villages is a great new addition to Los Gatos. The arts and crafts displayed there from around the world are excellent, but more important, the prices are really very reasonable while, at the same time, the quality is very high.

Another reason for everyone to check out the store is that it is run by a nonprofit corporation which has as its objective to provide income for artisans in third-world communities.

Besides having a great selection of goods and an altruistic objective, the staff is going to look very familiar to most of you. The sales, warehousing and other staff are all volunteers who believe in the altruistic objectives of 10,000 Villages. Many of our better-known citizens can be seen working away at this very nice place.

Don Wolf
Los Gatos

Lasers article was a pleasant surprise

What a wonderful surprise it was to open the Los Gatos Weekly-Times on Nov. 13 and find Jamillah Lang's photograph on the front page. The article and photographs were excellent.

As enthusiastic fans and Lasers season-ticket holders, we are thrilled to see such fine coverage of one of "our" players.

Many thanks.

Laura Manthey
San Jose

Closing campus won't solve teen abuse problems

We are writing in response to Pam Fitzhenry's opinion piece about closing the Los Gatos High School campus. Her letter raises important issues about the role of the school, parents and community.

It is not clear that the problems she describes can be either fixed or alleviated by keeping high school students confined at lunch time.

We all know that drugs are a problem, in our schools as in all schools, in our town as in all towns. But closing the campus because 5 to 15 students break the law by using and driving seems a heavy price to pay for the students who are clean and sober and responsible. Like much of our society, are the many to pay for the abuses of the few with their freedom?

Will closing the campus mean that young people will not take drugs or bring alcohol to school? What makes us believe that they will not find other ways to break the law?

The real question that is raised by this piece is: How can a caring community and informed parents and leaders address this matter? The answer is not simple. It begins with all of us realizing that if we are not part of the solution, we are a part of the problem.

If we are parents, do we accept teens coming home under the influence and chalk it up to kids being kids? Are we guilty of letting young people go out at night without asking them where they are going or without checking where they are and that they are supervised?

Do we leave our teens home alone for the weekend? Do we believe that the automobile gives us more problems or that our teens' desire to drive the family car--or piggyback on the family insurance--gives us the ultimate weapon of discipline?

Yes, in this war, we need a set of weapons. The time to start dealing with these problems is not in high school. Let's start a campaign to encourage parents to take parenting classes beginning in elementary school.

For those who are not parents of teens, do we ignore the fact that the neighbor's teen is having a party when the parents aren't home? Do we ignore problems when it might make a difference if we spoke up?

Young people will say that it is an issue of trust: "You don't trust me."

In times past, trust was earned through small things like chores, responsible management of time and schoolwork. Have your children really earned trust? If so, why take away the privilege of driving at noon time?

If not, then the issue is far broader than that. Perhaps this time is a time for a "call to arms" against the real issues--and a time for all of us to accept our responsibility and our rightful role in the solution.

Nick and Susan Tuttle
Los Gatos

Pit bulls enjoy noble tradition

I work for a plumbing company in Los Gatos. On weekends, I like to walk my dog on the Lexington Trail. Just getting there, I get the usual comments; "baby killer dogs", "vicious dogs", etc.

Please enlighten your readers for me. Any dog can be this, if not bred and trained right. If you can't tell by now, I own a pit bull. My breed of choice has been in this country since the 1700s. Famous pit bulls in our history include "Petey" of the Our Gang comedies, Thomas Edison's "Nipper," Buster Brown's "Tige."

Well-known owners include: President Theodore Roosevelt, Fred Astaire, James Canne, Michael J. Fox and Jan-Michael Vincent, to name a few.

At one time, the breed was the third most popular in the United States.

To prove a point, in the Nov. 6, issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, you ran a photograph of the construction of Lexington Dam on in John Baggerly's Pictures from the Past column. Look closely; the dog in the picture is a pit bull. Probably of the same Colby breeding line as "Petey".

R.H. Cowden Jr.
San Jose

Hutchins offers his position on saluting the flag

I'm glad the honeymoon is over! The confusion about my taking or not taking the Pledge of Allegiance is a sharp slap to wake me from any illusions about the challenges of being a public servant. As open a I am, I suppose it was inevitable that I be misquoted or misunderstood. I just hope the emotional nature of the topic doesn't keep us distracted once I explain.

When called upon to say the Pledge of Allegiance, I say: "I pledge allegiance to the ideals of the United States of America, and to the disciplines on which they stand, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Here is my thinking on the subject: All of us have only our own experiences to think with. My formative experiences include Vietnam, Watergate and the civil rights movement. As a symbol of the ideals of America, with it's inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the flag is truly "Old Glory." The flag has, however, also flown over actions none of us would be proud of, nor willing to give our allegiance to.

I recognize trying to discuss this might be futile because some people can only react emotionally about their sacred symbols. But I'd rather risk your ire than be a hypocrite. I only ask that you allow me the liberty (and justice) of being more precise about my promise, that it is not the flag but the ideals of America worthy of a pledge of allegiance.

I'd also like to think we mean the same thing but are just choosing slightly different words to express it.

I apologize to anyone who might have been hurt by this misunderstanding. This all started because I was misquoted in a San Jose paper as saying I refuse to pledge allegiance. What I refuse to do, is lie to you to get you to like me.

Jan Hutchins
Los Gatos Town Council

Closing campus is too easy

Public Morals Enforcement Sgt. Joe Friday reporting. Lunch time. Undercover in my taxicab spying on dangerous high school dopers. In scope is that notorious gang, the FEA's (Future Embezzlers of America) teen crooks with laptops.

Kids today are like that movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, blind to the danger lurking. Sure I'd read the bit from rubber-gloved parents on closing campus. Too easy, really. Electronic fences with barbed wire and cameras would be better. Frisk and drug-test everyone. Deputize the neighbors and staff; why not? God bless the crime bill and community policing.

Punks today: drugs, after-school orgies. As model students, we never rebelled; never questioned rules; never strayed or experimented. No outlets or privacy needed. Always obeyed our wise omniscient parents, teachers, elders. Guarded from all enemies and error, we never had to learn firsthand ourselves or improve on anything; our parents' word answered all.

Kids today: risk-takers, freethinkers, daring to be different. For us, fun was staying home Friday nights with mom and dad, sipping hot chocolate, discussing the SAT, playing Scrabble, the Osmonds on TV. A simpler world then. If students won't accept those community standards that condition their use of freedom, and won't follow the herd, well then just book 'em, Danno. If they don't fit the profile, jail 'em. More later. Ten-four for now.

Greg "Sgt. Friday" Hall
Los Gatos