Letters to the Editor

SSU joke?

EDITOR: Please tell me this is a joke. Sonoma State University President Ruben Armiñana gets a vote of no confidence from the faculty at the end of last semester. The chancellor’s office awarded him a raise of almost $30,000. The Green Music center is millions over budget. The center is dedicated to symphony music.

Wow, when did SSU get symphony? Is symphony music a major draw for students? Is that the music that students prefer? Can students use the center for their choice of music? I think we all know the answer to that.

The campus has had a huge surge in students — just look at all of the housing being built. How much money is being spent on reducing class sizes or increasing classrooms? What happened to the small public ivy school that Armiñana bragged about in past years? How much is it worth to create his precious legacy?

BECKY MONTROSE

Santa Rosa

Creek camping

EDITOR: I saw Robin Factor’s letter (“Encampment concern,” Wednesday) and wanted to share a similar experience I had recently. Like many people, I enjoy using the Santa Rosa Creek trails for recreation and exercise. One day I came across some dirty, scruffy-looking men with bicycles and backpacks, just off the trail. Two days later when I walked the trail again, these men were still there, obviously camping and drinking liquor. This particular trail runs right through a lovely residential neighborhood, near the back yards of nice homes.

I called the police and was told by an officer that this problem is so widespread in Santa Rosa they don’t have the resources to keep the homeless from camping on the creeks or in parks.

There are children and women who use these trails, thinking they are safe — but are they? Why should taxpayers have to give up their public trails and parks to them?

SUZANNE ANGEO

Santa Rosa

EDITOR: Well it seems like the 80s all over again, unpack the cliches. Just substitute Iraq for El Salvador or Nicaragua and you have the exact opinion and editorial script.

Seriously, if someone checked the editorial content and public opinion from 20 years ago, they would find the same dire predictions of failure as there are about Iraq. From “Get out now!” to unwinnable war — it’s a mirror image.

Even the good ol’ Press Democrat printed its share of doom and gloom. And, when it comes to majority opinion, the majority of Americans might have supported deliberate disengagement from Central America, but they might also have supported the nuclear freeze and the majority of Americans would have been wrong.

When President Reagan gave his case on TV for supporting the El Salvador government in March 1983, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., gave the Democratic response and essentially echoed the standard ritual from above.

Let’s hope the 1980s repeat themselves, and we all have a better chance of living happily ever after.

Remember the past or be condemned to having the Democrats give you their version.

RON ROMANO

Rohnert Park

EDITOR: In recent speeches, the term “the greatest nation” has been used. No doubt, as the campaigns gear up, we will hear it more. For myself, there are great nations, average nations and below average nations but no greatest nation.

Even great nations don’t get it all right. Our own nation is doing things to its people that are downright wrong.

A great nation doesn’t have 47 million people without health care while a retiring health insurance CEO gets a $1.4 billion (yes, billion) retirement package and then call any comprehensive health care plan a “socialist” scheme.

A great nation doesn’t allow 0.1 percent of the population to enjoy a 51 percent surge in income while the great majority of the remaining population’s income has stagnated since 2003.

A great nation doesn’t give tax breaks to the rich at the expense of the middle and lower economic classes.

A great nation doesn’t give welfare to corporations when they are making record profits and take away safety nets that aid the poorer of its population.

A great nation doesn’t undermine laws that protect clean water and clean air.

Just a sample of what this great nation does under the Bush Republican administration. It isn’t right.

JACOB W. BOUDEWIJN

Santa Rosa

EDITOR: Helen Foster’s Friday letter to the editor about placing the Star of David over the creche in the Sonoma Plaza was well intended and in a perfect world would make a lot of sense. However, in the real world today, to display the Star of David over a nativity scene, in my opinion, is misguided.

Since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by Israel in 1967, many Arabs, including Christian Palestinians like myself, have come to regard the Star of David as a political symbol of oppression, not unlike the Jews of Germany regarded the ancient swastika symbol.

Why? Because to this day, when Palestinian land is confiscated by the Israeli government in order to further isolate or aggravate the Palestinian population for “security reasons,” the Israeli flag, on which appears the Star of David, is planted on the confiscated site.

So you see, unfortunately, a beautiful symbol has come to mean oppression and occupation for many people. Maybe a peace pole, such as we placed in Old Courthouse Square last year would be more appropriate than either a Christian or Jewish symbol.

“May there be peace on earth” it says in many languages, and I would add, “and let it begin with me.”

THERESE MUGHANNAM-WALRATH

Santa Rosa

EDITOR: As a faculty member at Sonoma State University for the past five years I have come to understand a lot about California in comparison with my home state in the Midwest.

California has a lot of wonderful things to offer. However, from the perspective of this Midwesterner, it is sheer insanity for the CSU to even be able to use public funds to lobby the Legislature and now the governor to oppose AB 1413, which would provide transparency in spending public funds.

At issue is the pay for campus presidents and managers. The CSU chancellor’s office claims that the pay and perks are not competitive. Well, let me tell you, the faculty salaries aren’t either. So there is a big problem for all of us and the many other issues facing California. For the CSU trustees to have the power to increase salaries and provide absurd perks to perpetuate the competitive myth is transparently unfair. I suggest some trustee house-cleaning is in order right after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs AB 1413, which supports the interests of the public.

MELISSA VANDEVEER

Sebastopol