 |
|
|
|
|
Speak Out
Don't condemn skateboarders
Your Oct. 31 cartoon with rabid skateboarders carelessly disrupting a park with no regard for the family having a picnic just disgusts me.
Do you ever wonder why these skateboarders are so angry and act like they don't care? It's because no one cares about them. At the drop of a dime, however, everyone is ready to criticize and condemn them.
For some reason, society has blacklisted these kids for doing what they love. I am well aware that there are a few kids like those illustrated in your cartoon, but you cannot generalize a group by the actions of a few associated with it. Instead of being so negative about skateboarding, why don't you take the time to learn about it and understand the history behind it?
I feel that this picture was very stereotypical and to some degree prejudiced. Can you tell me of one time you've seen a kid skating with the crevice of his hind-side showing as depicted? Or the last time you saw kids skateboard off a tree as the artist illustrated?
I run a skateboard club at the high school where I work. I shared this cartoon with the students. Their reaction? They laughed, not because it was humorous, but because whoever drew it has little or no knowledge of skateboarding. So I guess if it's not soccer or football or any other traditional sport, it's not acceptable, right?
A skatepark would be a good thing. It would give the kids a centralized location to skateboard and do all those crazy tricks they love to do. You will see a decrease in destruction and vandalism caused by the wear and tear of a skateboard. Business owners will no longer have to worry if some kid gets hurt on their property or damages their property.
Last, but not least, a family can have a picnic without the worry of kids skateboarding off trees and exposing their backsides. Maybe if you did something positive for the people who skateboard, it would help him or her be positive for the community. Why not give them a chance as well as a place to skate freely?
Rosalind Aguilar
Glenpine Drive
Thankful for the many hugs and kind words
With Thanksgiving this week I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family, friends, and community. Your hugs when I see you, prayers and constant support since Sept. 11 has been overwhelming.
I had been a flight attendant on Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco or a passenger commuting home on that flight two to four times a week. I was injured on a flight late in July and was not working on Sept.11. I received 65 phone calls that day and have been stopped on the Avenue, at high school events and at Safeway to get a hug, a kind word and "thank God you weren't on that plane."
This tragedy has touched all of us very deeply. Thanks to my community for eulogizing me while I'm still here; this is such an important part of life that is often forgotten. God bless you all.
Karen Wallberg
Glenfield Drive
Looking forward to Heintze's columns
My wife and I never fail to read Carl Heintze in the Willow Glen Resident. We find his article in the Nov. 7 issue, about our inability to lock out the rest of the world, to be exceptionally good. We hope to read many more essays by Heintze for many years to come.
Dr. J Reid Scott
Walden Square
Insurance company loses court verdict
Like a good neighbor ... who poisons your dog, steals your wife and keys your car ... State Farm is there. In what is now becoming an annual trend, State Farm has been slapped with yet another big verdict for engaging in unfair and unlawful conduct against its own policyholders. On Oct. 19, the Utah Supreme Court reinstated a jury verdict awarding $145 million in punitive damages against State Farm.
Was this a crippling blow to State Farm? Hardly. Especially when you consider this verdict amounts to only about one quarter of one percent of the company's value.
What did State Farm do to deserve such a penalty? State Farm was found to have systematically deceived and cheated its own customers for two decades by doctoring, fabricating and disposing of information in claims files and rewarding its adjusters for settling claims for less than market value. These fraudulent practices were consistently directed at the elderly, minorities and women who, State Farm believed, were unlikely to object or seek legal advice. The court also exposed State Farm's policy of harassing and intimidating opposing claimants, witnesses and attorneys by prying into intimate details of their lives, spying on them, prolonging litigation, making meritless claims and objections, and abusing the legal process.
Did State Farm get what they deserved? No. While one must acknowledge $145 million is a whole lot of money, one quarter of one percent is but a grain of sand on State Farm's beach. Will State Farm change its wicked ways? I doubt it. Only after State Farm tastes what it is like to really suffer, like many of its customers and claimants have, will it be motivated to change. Otherwise, it is making too good a living doing business as usual.
Interesting that State Farm and companies like it finance the so-called "tort reform" movement and expensive but misleading commercials during campaign season. They certainly have a great deal to gain from capping damages, getting rid of the lawyers and dismantling the jury system.
Robert H. Bohn Jr.
Los Gatos
|
|
|
|
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
