Letters

Trauma in being a homosexual child

How about addressing the misery and trauma a homosexual child goes through? Do you think such a child wants to be different?

According to the Bible, we are all God's children. Homosexuals are decent, hardworking and respectable people.

Give them a break.

Frances Mattice
Fruitvale Avenue

District attempting to 'muzzle' public

As a trustee of the West Valley/Mission Community College District, I want to inform members of the community of a disturbing direction being taken by the administration and members of the district's governing board. At our last board meeting, the administration proposed a sweeping set of policy changes that would effectively "muzzle" the public.

These changes would restrict oral communication from the public to 15 minutes at the beginning of board meetings and 30 minutes total (a clear violation of California's Open Meetings Act); make it more difficult for a member of the public to agendize an item for governing board consideration; stop taking normal minutes of governing board meetings and instead record nothing but motions and votes (so that there would be no record if a resident came to a governing board meeting to ask a question or raise an issue); destroy the audio tapes of board meetings after 30 days rather than one year, as has been our practice since the 1970s; and refuse to allow a member of the public to duplicate the audio tape of a meeting during the 30 days we do retain the tape (a clear violation of California's Public Records Act).

The governing board refused my request to add a section to our regular agenda for "written communication from the public." If you write to the district or our board, there is no policy specifying how or whether your letter will be distributed, and it is unlikely the letter or your concerns will be in front of the board for consideration. So much for valuing or encouraging public input.

While city council meetings are well attended and well reported, community colleges operate in a near-vacuum of public participation and awareness. On the few occasions when our board has had groups of students wanting to address the board about educational programs or environmental issues, or residents concerned with community issues, these individuals have often been treated rudely and had their concerns ignored.

I believe public scrutiny would be healthy, and I have twice asked that our board meetings be televised, but the administration and the other six trustees have rejected both those requests. In my opinion, this entire philosophy of secrecy and damage control is a disservice to our students and to our many exceptional faculty and staff.

Policy changes require two readings, so the new policies about limiting public participation, doing away with normal minutes and destroying audio records of meetings will be on the agenda for final approval at the Aug. 2 governing board meeting at 7 p.m. at West Valley College.

I invite interested members of the community to attend.

Jeffrey A. Schwartz
Member, Governing Board
West Valley/Mission Community College District

Homophobia last form of acceptable discrimination

I am writing in response to Elaine Hocker's letter of July 25, in which she accuses the high school of "creating that type of environment" where students feel the urge to confront anti-homosexual bigots.

Of course they have! It's only natural.

When I studied racism as a child in the 1970s and 1980s, the question most often raised by my fellow Saratoga students was, "How could this have been allowed to happen?" From our perspective, the idea that black people were not allowed to eat in "white" restaurants, that Japanese Americans were herded into concentration camps during World War II, and that women were not allowed to vote, all seemed so far out and Orwellian as to be unbelievable. "Didn't anyone speak out against this?" "How could this have happened?" we asked.

Well, this is how. The small gaggle of extreme, right-wing bigots in Saratoga who advocate against the Gay-Straight Alliance at the high school demonstrate exactly the type of attitude that perpetuated those other, similar prejudices of the past.

As students, learning about history's wrongs made us mad, and so embarrassed for our country, that we could not help but imagine ourselves taking part in those protests, which eventually resulted in more freedom for society. And when such an opportunity presents itself in the modern world, today's students and alumni feel the same way.

The rhetorical strategy of those opposing the Gay-Straight Alliance has been to accuse the club of conspiratorial motives, to label them as "abominable" because of a random statement in a religious text, to paint the promotion of acceptance as somehow "dangerous" to student's health; then step back, with disingenuous naivete, and accuse the group's defenders of "intolerance." Absurd.

Speaking out against intolerance is not "more intolerance." Raoul Wallenberg was not "intolerant" because he saved Jews from the Nazis. Galileo was not "intolerant" because he discovered the universe does not revolve around the Earth, even though the church wrongly insisted upon the opposite. No one is suggesting shutting down the bigots' organizations; rather it is they who seek to limit the activities of others through the promotion of hate, fear and misinformation. That is intolerance.

Ms. Hocker, along with parroting the so-called "scientific evidence" promoted by talk shows for the extreme religious right, has even gone so far in her feverish sexual paranoia to accuse Assistant Principal Karen Hyde of questionable motivation.

Attempting to smear one of the most tireless, unimpeachable, dedicated and caring public servants Saratoga has ever had is laughable on its face, and thousands of alumni would be happy confirm this to any doubter. Attacking the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, another organization dedicated to the principals of understanding and tolerance, is just one more example of Ms. Hocker's anachronistic hysteria over something she couldn't be more removed from in reality.

Homophobia is the last socially acceptable form of discrimination in the United States. Fifty years from now, our children and grandchildren will ask the same incredulous questions about today's attitudes that we ask about those of the past. What will you tell them about your behavior?

William Lorton
SHS Alumnus, 1988

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