The Willow Glen Resident

Letters

Fiscalini should insist on stop sign

I read about the rejection of the stop sign at Willow and Camino Ramon and then later about the beginnings of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association. I'm reminded of the many traffic issues I have lived through in the area that we had to fight for and try to see if they worked. Some of the ones that come to mind are current left-turn lights from Lincoln onto Pine, stop signs on Pine, traffic circles on Martin, entrance barriers on Martin and Hanchett, designating Cherry "not a through street," Pine not being widened, "left turn only" signs on Dry Creek and stop signs on Hicks. The traffic department was against all of these, but with the support of our councilmember, these radical ideas were tried. Not all of the ideas succeeded, but at least they were tried. I would be remiss in not crediting Nancy Ianni for some of these. I would like to challenge Frank [Fiscalini] to insist on trying the stop sign at Willow and Camino Ramon for a period of time. Maybe another one needs to be at Glen Eyrie and Camino Ramon, or some speed bumps along Glen Eyrie. Nancy was criticized for trying many of these grassroots ideas, but many of them succeeded, anyway. I hope Frank's reply is positive and not more of the same excuses given as to why the above projects would have failed.

P. Coleman
Cherry Valley

Real moms have sense of humor

In response to TeriLynn Baron's June 17 letter, "Real moms stay home": Get a life, and perhaps a sense of humor. Real moms work, and real moms stay at home. I've done both, and I'm a very real mom. I am a working mom now. Still, even as a stay-at-home mom, Pop-Tarts sometimes were a food group (by the way, Pop-Tarts were invented long before most women worked outside the home--coincidence?), and sometimes beds didn't get changed after accidents (note to real moms: sleeping bags and "camping on the floor" work for those 2 a.m. bed changes that don't happen). Life with kids is not all structure, clean faces and made beds--at least it shouldn't be. Real working moms and real stay-at-home moms know there are more important things in life than clean teeth twice a day. (I once found my son's toothbrush with his Hercules toys--"It's a sword, Mom!")

I know and love stay-at-home moms who can't get their kids potty-trained right on time ("I'm sure she won't go to college in Pull-ups"), who don't get shirts ironed in time for church ("Wear the other one; it almost matches") and who might feed the young'uns cereal for breakfast and dinner ("The grocery shopping just didn't fit in my 18-hour day"). I know and love working moms who use drive-through eateries too often ("After a too-long day at work, the kitchen is very unappealing"), who don't dust the kids' rooms for weeks ("The scattering of toys will distract the eye from the dust") and who can't get the Batman costume off the daughter for three days. These are all real moms, too. These moms all have kids who are happy and healthy--shoot, what kid wouldn't be happy being Batman for three days?

It's just the facts of life with kids. Sometimes beds don't get made, sometimes faces don't get washed immediately and sometimes lunches don't consist of the four food groups (real moms know that in addition to Bosco, Cheetos, red licorice and Pez are also food groups).

In her letter Baron stated, "I always make sure my kids are fed properly, brush their teeth and have clean bed sheets. These are the basics in life." These are Baron's basics in life. Here are mine (working mom that I am): I always make sure my son sings once a day, that he hears "I love you" more than once a day and that he laughs. His face might be somewhat smudged and his bed might not be made, but he's a happy kid and I'm a happy mom. That's what matters.

Kyle McIntosh
Denise Way

Banning guns is unconstitutional

Deborah Taylor-Hollis' column in the last Willow Glen Resident ("We can't change kids, so get rid of guns," June 24) deeply upset me.

I'm one of the tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners. My first "date" with a gun at a shooting range was the scariest of all, until I realized how easy it was to learn how to safely handle a gun, even ones larger than handguns. Today, I love target shooting--it's a great sport!

I also believe that the unconstitutional assault weapons ban and the anti-American Brady Family bill must be repealed. Back to the roots, when the Constitution was born!

Taylor-Hollis' article showed us one side--the ultra-left side--of the spectrum. Our freedom [to bear arms] is guaranteed by those Second Amendment rights given to us by our founding fathers.

I do understand that there are people who hate guns, oppose gun ownership and don't believe in the freedoms we have here. For those people, I suggest you move to gun-free (and freedom-free) communist dictatorships such as China or Cuba. You'll be back soon, I'm sure!

Taylor-Hollis made a final remark about "getting a dog," but they're not as harmless as she says. First of all, a dog is a vulnerable, easy target and can be killed with poison, if the attacker has a plan to get into the house and it's not a random attack.

Just to show you how your columnist is wrong, there's an article in the March 5 edition of the Akron Beacon Journal about a 10-year-old boy who was pinned to the hood of a car by a pit bull. A neighbor had to kill the dog with two shots from a .38-caliber revolver he kept in his home.

Of course, Taylor-Hollis could say that guns kill their owners, too, but that's not unpredictable like a dog attack. People who refuse to understand the advantages and dangers of having a gun cause deadly consequences. If those people would educate their children as we did, they would never have a gun-related accident.

Finally, let me suggest to your columnist that she not make remarks in my name or anyone else's. We support our right and responsibility to have guns in our homes. If she's obsessed with guns, let her inform about this fact instead of attacking the Second Amendment rights of peaceful citizens and demanding that the innocent pay the price for the guilty. Your newspaper ought to attack the genuine menace to public safety: a so-called ultra-liberal, pro-criminal "justice" system that paroles enough tried and convicted criminals to murder 14 people, rape 48 women and rob 578 Americans every day. You have a higher chance of being within these numbers, Deborah, than your kid does of being gunned down in a schoolyard.

Elizabeth Fuyer
Keesling Avenue

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