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Letters
Love and respect can win over fear
I have been following with great interest the recent exchange of letters in the Saratoga News relating to the Gay-Straight Alliance at Saratoga High School. I am both a Christian and a supporter of equality and respect for all, including our gay and lesbian community members. It is unfortunate that some Saratoga residents seem to suggest that these two are mutually exclusive. I am also a longtime member of PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), a support, education and advocacy group. The group believes in loving, supporting and affirming all our family members and friends regardless of their sexual orientation. As a member of this group I have heard countless heartrending stories of the difficulties gay and lesbian students face, often from their own families and in our public schools.
Too often school administrators turn a blind eye while these students are taunted, threatened, physically harassed and even beaten in school. I am very grateful that Saratoga High School administrators have chosen to support and protect their students and faculty. The Gay-Straight Alliances help to create a safe haven both emotionally and physically for gay students and work along with straight students to promote a climate of understanding and acceptance, certainly worthwhile goals.
It is disturbing to me to see Saratoga community members under the guise of religious beliefs tear down others who are trying to stop hatred and violence. Many who support gay rights are devout Christians, including many members of the clergy. As a longtime student of the Bible, I find it interesting to note that Jesus had nothing to say about homosexuality and a great deal to say about loving your neighbor. My hope is that people who seem to be threatened by others who are different from themselves will seek out opportunities to engage in peaceful and productive dialogue with those, who they seem to see as "the other."
Once they have had the opportunity to know gay members of our community and to educate themselves regarding gay issues, I believe many formally fearful and hostile people would be surprised at how their perspectives might change. I like to think that the love and respect can win out over fear and ignorance. A favorite quote of mine is "They drew a circle to shut me out, heretic, rebel, a thing to flout, but love and I had the wit to win we drew a circle that took them in." I hope that love and compassion will prevail in our community.
Jean Lin
Verde Moor Court
Statement wrongly presented situation
After reading the article on the front page of the Saratoga News on Aug. 1 concerning the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce, I was very horrified and saddened by the accusation of Preston Wisner. He stated that I personally received a donation in exchange for my work in the Village for putting up all the decorations.
Perhaps Mr. Wisner was misquoted. It would be nice to have him correct this misstatement and have it put on the front page like the original article.
I do not and have never received money for the work that I do in our Village. I have for seven years volunteered my time and hard work to make our Village beautiful with lights and new Christmas wreaths.
The payment made by the Chamber was in no way a donation. It was made directly to Sierra Display.
As decorating chairperson, I am responsible for ordering decorations. This is the Chamber's way of thanking the merchants and residents of the Saratoga Village for sharing Big Basin Way during the "Celebrate Saratoga" Street Dance 2001.
Regarding the article printed on Aug. 29, I would like to clarify that I did not receive any nominal fee for hanging lights or for my work. The lights and extension cords were paid for by the merchants. Also, the Christmas wreaths cost $160 each, not $60.
Donna Collins
Henrietta Hen's Country Store
Delay of new station could become costly
It is the responsibility of the Fire Station Construction Citizen Oversight Committee to monitor the expenditure of the fire station construction bond money and to report from time to time the status and appropriateness of these expenditures to the property owners in the Saratoga Fire District.
As is usual with such bonds, the district has invested the bond money in conservative investments approved by the state, until such time as the funds are spent.
As of the end of July, $227,444.31 had been earned from these investments. Of the $6 million bond, $2,035,000 had been spent to purchase the Contempo Building and to pay a small fee to upgrade the bond rating when it was sold.
The district committed in the bond contract to expend the funds received with due diligence. This formal, legal commitment requires the district to expend 5 percent ($300,000) of the $6 million bond proceeds within six months, 45 percent ($2,700,000) within one year and 85 percent ($5,100,000) within three years from the bond sale. If any of these expenditure dates are missed, the district must forfeit to the federal government as a tax the total difference between the investment interest that it earned during the fire station construction, and the bond interest it paid at the normally lower bond interest rate. This tax potentially can be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Unfortunately, the delays in gaining approval to proceed with project construction will cause the district to miss the 45 percent amount due in September 2001. This can be averted if approval is granted at once to proceed with the project.
Finally, the time required to design a public safety center, to place a new, very large bond issue before the district citizens, to purchase the post office building and to construct the center and its structures will take much, much longer than the contractual completion date of the present bond.
Frank Lemmon
Fire Station Construction
Citizen Oversight Committee
Correction
In the Aug. 8 issue of the Saratoga News, the Saratoga Retirement Community was incorrectly identified as having used the local nursing registry to fill staffing shortages. Saratoga Retirement Community Director of Nursing Harvander Sijher says she has not used the registry in over a year.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
