On Dec. 17 last year, we lost a young citizen of Saratoga, Kaitlyn Langstaff. Kaitlyn touched many of our hearts personally. Her disease took her eyesight, her voice, her ability to walk, but not her spirit or her persistence. She was a true fighter. With all that she was going through, she, her parents, and her school district worked hard to keep her out of the hospital, close to friends and family, and in school as many days as possible. If my children could grow up with half the persistence that Kaitlyn had, I would feel truly blessed.

Kaitlyn is gone from our sight, but I know she knows, and I want her family to know, that she will never be forgotten by many of us in Saratoga.

Kathleen King

Mayor, city of Saratoga

Farmers market issue
should be revisited

It is important to Saratoga that we keep the farmers market. This is a four-hour Saturday morning event, and it cannot be that objectionable to the surrounding homeowners.

It appears from some of the comments by the neighbors that they are confusing noise from Saratoga High School events with the farmers market; e.g., the PA system from swim meets and Saratoga High band practice. The market is not patronized by a bunch of kids screaming at a heavy metal rock concert. I am 70 and I would guess the average age of the customer is 60 or more.

It is also obvious from her comments—"The fish that is sold attracts flies. And it smells a lot."—that Pamela Chang has never visited the Saratoga farmers market and that she does not have much regard for the truth. The fish is all fresh caught and packed in ice. It is the best source of fresh fish in the valley. It does not draw flies and it does not smell. I patronize this fisherman every week.

We need another city council meeting with better notice so that we can have greater community participation in the discussion of this issue. To make a decision on the farmers market based on a hastily called meeting that heard only a very biased viewpoints against the farmers market is not fair to the rest of the community.

Paul Krug

Shubert Drive

Questioning Barnes,
and the newspaper

After reading the Saratoga News article regarding the city council final vote count and Andy Barnes' concession, the following questions came to mind:

In both of Barnes' campaigns (2002 and 2004) one of his main platforms was fiscal responsibility. Why should Saratoga voters expect him to be fiscally responsible and conservative with city funds when he exponentially outspends his opponents?

Another ponderable: Why did the Saratoga News endorse Andy Barnes and Aileen Kao, but fail to meaningfully acknowledge the significant positive actions taken by Ann Waltonsmith in her nearly five years on the city council and one year as mayor?

Why do the Saratoga News editorials imply that back room politics is the main influence of slate candidates when the newspaper itself is involved in behind the scenes machinations to influence voters?

Marcia Fariss

Saratoga Glen Place

Double standard exists in
liberal education system

The picture in the Dec. 1 Saratoga News depicting Redwood Middle School students participating in a Muslim faith curriculum course stands out as a prime example of the double standard being advocated in our liberal education system.

The same day the picture appeared in the Saratoga News the headlines in another local newspaper proclaimed the lawsuit filed by a fifth-grade Cupertino history teacher against the Cupertino Union School District. The teacher's lawsuit was based on discrimination because he apparently had the audacity to distribute handouts to his students containing portions of the Declaration of Independence and other historical documents and neglected to remove "God" or "Creator" from the contents of the documents.

According to the news article, the big weapon the school district is utilizing for censorship of the history teacher is based on the phrase "separation of church and state." This phrase is frequently used by the liberal establishment to blot out conservative viewpoints, but is never considered applicable to the liberal viewpoint.

The phrase "separation of church and state" cannot be found in any of our constitutional documents. Thomas Jefferson used the phrase in a Jan. 1, 1802 letter he sent to the Danbury Baptists to assure them that "freedom of religion" took precedence over any governmental powers. William Rehnquist, our current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, states: "There is simply no historical foundation for the proposition that the framers intended to build a wall of separation (between church and state) ... the wall of separation between church and state is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned."

Even though I am not associated with any religious belief, I strongly support and admire the history teacher's legal action to restore his constitutional rights. Of course the best solution for the Cupertino school district's problem would be for the community to get involved. Assuming there are still some Cupertino churches that have not progressed to the Pagan state of having sexual orgies on their altars or casting their babies into the red hot arms of some stone idol, then these church members should immediately take action to recall all of the Cupertino school board trustees, and have the superintendent and school principal dismissed. Such action would not only solve the school district's problem, but might also act as a deterrent to other school districts intent on implementing their unconstitutional liberal ideology.

For all of you liberal educators, seeking to have the forthcoming holiday relabeled as "The Winter Holiday," I wish to take this opportunity to exercise my First Amendment "freedom of religion" right and wish you all a "Merry Christmas."

Elaine Hocker

Saratoga