The Willow Glen Resident

Letters

Accusations of sexual harassment bring more awareness of the problem

In your column "Nowadays, loose zippers sink ships" (The Resident, April 1), you presented the women who lately came forward denouncing the sexual conduct of the president or other famous public officials as mistresses who "kiss and tell."

That is an oversimplified way to look at the matter. Those women--Anita Hill, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Kathleen Willey--represent problems that women are facing in the workplace--sexual harassment, indecent sexual advances by the boss, sexual favors in exchange for job opportunities, sexual assault--and the problems the victims encounter when coming forward with the charge against the boss, whether it is a supervisor, an executive, a judge or a president.

We have come a long way since Eisenhower or even Kennedy. In those days, whether an executive had sex with some prostitute in a motel room down the street or with his secretary in his office was his "private matter." Nowadays, especially after Anita Hill, most executives who might commit adultery outside their workplace try to stay away from their employees.

Every time you come forward with an accusation against a famous politician, whether it is sex or any other matter, and your charge can generate enough attention from the media and the public to hurt the accused, you will be used by the enemies of the accused and attacked by his friends. It can be brutal. That is the price that every whistle-blower pays.

We are a country of whistle-blowers, troublemakers, people who refuse to shut up and do what they are told to do. We made mistakes, but that is how we change and move forward.

The accusations by those women, whether proven or not, made the public more aware of sexual harassment problems in the workplace and helped improve working conditions for women. As for the presidency, I think our next president will be a human being who might be unfaithful to his/her spouse once or twice, but not a sex machine who tries to mate with anything that moves.

Phuong Malkin
Vernon Avenue

It was a gift to live in Willow Glen for years

There are plans in the making for various high school class reunions this coming summer, as always. Interest in attending these celebrations rises and falls, depending on what is going on in your life at the time.

This August, however, Willow Glen High will have a joint reunion of five or six classes who graduated in the '70s. And I can tell you right now that our three sons, Jeff, Steve and Kevin, are making plans to be there "with bells on." Their two sisters, Becky and Jennifer, graduated in the '70s as well, but these two Thatcher girls' classes are not included in the reunion. (They may crash it!)

As I look at the three years ('72, '74 and '75) in which the boys graduated and add the later two years for the girls, I marvel at how lucky we have been to have five wonderful children get through that crazy decade and become the great human beings they are today.

The '70s brought a time of questioning all traditions, religions and authority. It was a time of freedom of expression, obvious in the clothes, hair, arts and crafts, the experimenting with drugs, etc. and, sadly, the need to challenge the involvement of our country in wars in other worlds and sending our youth to fight them.

I believe our family survived these years because we lived in Willow Glen. We also settled in an unusual neighborhood of artistic, talented people who were drawn to the new style of Eichler houses because they invited creativity. Our neighbors had interesting professions such as writers, professors and teachers of music and dance--and even the associate minister of our church, who was creative in his youth programs. He had backpacking "retreats" and skiing "experiences" at which the church youth could share concerns and solve some problems.

It was a gift to live among all of this shared energy and at the same time be with strong families who were close. Moms were home more of the time, helping each other with baby-sitting co-ops, fresh produce co-ops weekly at different homes and book clubs, all going on down the street or around the corner.

And, of course, we had the Fairglen Art Fair on our street yearly (our house had the castle). For more than 30 years this affair guaranteed we would touch base with old and new neighbors and friends at least once each year.

Needless to say, our family looks forward to spring and summer in Willow Glen, which I hope will bring friends and families back for those great reunions so we can share memories and create new ones.

Anne Thatcher
Los Gatos

Other teens suffer for the behavior of a few 'hoodlums'

I was reading a letter about not giving teens a chance, in the April 1 issue of The Resident. Um...maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem that we have proved ourselves to be respected.

Sure, there are many of us who do nothing to harm anyone and are always on our best behavior, but there are so many more who are not. Who are the ones who are writing graffiti on walls? Who are the ones who are vandalizing public bathrooms? I find it hard to believe that my mom or my aunt or my friend's dad is the one doing it.

I understand where the author was coming from. I mean, I don't enjoy being stared at when I walk into an expensive store, but the elders have no way to tell whether I'm the type who would pocket an item. The kids who won't steal get the image of the ones who will; that's just the way it is.

Until the "hoodlums" can get their act together, the rest of us are going to have to deal with the stares and stereotypes.

Meghan Perotti
Arbor Drive

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