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Letters
Club at Saratoga High fuels passionate debate
Who would have thought one little club at Saratoga High would stir up so much commotion? The Gay-Straight Alliance has single-handedly turned the "Speak Out!" section of The Saratoga News into a debate full of passion.
I thought I would weigh in on this discussion, giving the Saratoga community a cynical teenager's perspective on this whole homosexuality issue.
First off, let me just say I hate any kind of discrimination. I feel being gay is like being white, Asian, or black. You are born to like your own sex, and that's the way it is. Why, with all the hatred and ignorance in the world, would anybody want to be gay? Gays live through so much grief in life mainly because of ignorant bigots, such as people who have written to this section in the past.
Let's assume for now that being homosexual is something that a child can attain by interaction. People have written in saying that this club will make their children gay. Boy, I'd hate to have a weak-minded, spineless child like that. Just because this club promotes a certain lifestyle does not mean a child has to follow it. Unless, of course, he has no strong beliefs to begin with.
Parents have to worry about their children becoming gay only because they did not instill their personal beliefs well enough. If you believe being gay is wrong, then tell your children. If you teach them well on what you believe, then the children will listen and should have no problem steering clear of such an "immoral" lifestyle. Of course, to teach them you might need to take some moments out of your whining time.
I also do not appreciate DeCinzo's comic, published in the June 27 issue. He depicts Gay-Straight Alliance members as pompous people, disregarding anybody else's opinions. Sorry, but that is completely wrong and taken out of context. Elaine Hocker, an opponent to the Gay-Straight Alliance, is the one who wrote in first about the "evils" of this club. She started the war of words.
The flood of letters coming in defense of this club just shows how passionate people are about their rights and liberties. Sorry if the other side is losing--go cry me a river. Perhaps they should just meet together in their white robes and pointy hats to rehash their arguments about the Bible and Constitution. Oh, and don't forget those big words.
Oliver Hsu
Saratoga High Class of 2003
Holiday Drive
Letter prompts response from district board member
Two weeks ago, the chancellor of the West Valley-Mission Community College District, Linda Salter, took another full-page ad in The Saratoga News to publish her second "Open Letter to Saratoga." That letter provided some specifics on the proposed West Valley College stadium.
I want the community to know that both of these "open letters" have been published without the knowledge, review or approval of the College District Governing Board.
While some of what our chancellor published is, unfortunately, inaccurate (for example, many of the best universities in this country hold their graduation ceremonies on folding chairs and there is nothing inherently illegal about spectators using folding chairs), it is helpful that the college has finally abandoned the fiction of "it is only a few hundred seats and it is not a stadium."
The chancellor's letter acknowledges a full-blown stadium with thousands of seats, night lighting, permanent amplified sound systems, concession stands, etc. In short, a major outdoor sports and performance venue in the middle of Saratoga. It is a citywide issue.
The chancellor's plan is contrary to every promise, agreement and commitment that West Valley College has made to the city of Saratoga and to the surrounding neighborhoods going back to 1967. For those of us concerned about huge increases in traffic, major outdoor amplified sound events, light spill and the like, it would appear that the ball is now squarely in our court.
Jeffrey A. Schwartz,
Governing Board Member
West Valley-Mission Community College District
Planning director needs to stand up to commission
I was hired to the Saratoga Building Department under City Manager Bob Beyer. Wayne Dernetz was hired, and there was a full-scale reorganization, creating the community development department. Four reorganizations later, Harry Peacock became city manager and cleaned house again. So it's no surprise a new city manager is in and the existing planning staff was thrown out.
Mark Connolly had restored civility to the planning department, which had become increasingly adversarial and punitive under Paul Curtis and then James Walgren. For the first time in years, applicants were treated with courtesy. If Connolly was incompetent, then firing would be appropriate. But from what I could see, he handled a difficult situation with poise, and applications were being processed efficiently.
The new city manager and planning director should look at the stability of the building department as a model of how to build a team. Since Rob Robinson passed away, the planning department has been a meat grinder--chewing up staff and applicants at an alarming rate. Hopefully Tom Sullivan has the talent to build and retain an enduring team and the backbone to stand up to a controlling planning commission. We'll be watching to see how Mr. Sullivan supports his team when the commission offers a new planner up as a sacrificial lamb. I hope the planning staff will be able to maintain the civility Mark Connolly provided.
Scott M. Cunningham
Scott Design Associates, Saratoga
Adults opposing club have not attended any meetings
In the June 20 issue of The Saratoga News, Ray Froess writes, "Hopefully, education will discourage name-calling once it's understood that name-calling only leads to violence and resolves nothing." His opposition to Saratoga's Gay-Straight Alliance club, then, is baffling. The club's goal is to stop exactly this kind of homophobic name-calling at Saratoga High. Obviously, with recent acts committed on campus, education at Saratoga alone has not effectively discouraged name-calling; thus the club aspires to do more.
He claims that the club's agenda "will likely fuel violence. I find it ironic that adults who have not attended a meeting of this club (erroneously) stake claims of knowing its goals and events. This club has nothing to do with causing violence, only stopping it at the root: prejudice.
Mitra Lohrasbpour
Saratoga High Class of 2003
Mendelsohn Lane
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
