Elect and Impeach Gray Davis (again)

Hello, fellow Californians. On Tuesday, November 5 we get to slump into the voting booths and cast our precious ballot for Governor.  Does either major candidate garner your confidence? Gray Davis or Bill Simon? Candidate ''Pay Me Off'' vs. Candidate ''Off His Rocker?'' 

A vote for Green nominee, Pete Camejo sounds good if it didn't help Bill Simon Simpleton. Again I ask, where are you, Leon Panetta? 

Four months ago I proposed that we re-elect Gray Davis and then impeach his Royal Bribeness. That's right. Re-elect and then Impeach Gray Davis. For us to salvage one shred of political decency — probably a self-cancelling phrase— and to put a stop to Gray Davis's march to the presidency, we must press our State Assembly members to investigate and then Impeach Gray Davis for misconduct in office.   Some of you might worry that this might hang up our State Government, the same one that has so ably handled our energy and education policies and has still not passed a budget. 

So, fellow Californians, march forward with me, and on Tuesday, November 5th vote for Gray Davis and on Wednesday, November 6th send off that blistering letter or e-mail that commands your State Assemblyperson to ''Impeach Gray Davis.'' Or we will all face a Grayer future.

But first, think very carefully about whom you vote for… Lieutenant Governor. 
 
 

Monday, November 4, 2002-- W. Mark Poehner is a teacher living In Monterey

Make Your Vote Speak

Five views of voting will show up in the upcoming elections:

1.  The narrow view of party-line voting,

2.  The profane view of voting for whom you think will win,

3.  The gambling view, in which you hedge your bets by voting for the lesser of whom you see as two evils,

4.  The drab view no Public Radio listener could possibly endorse: ìItís not worth voting;î 

and, FINALLY

5.  The responsible citizenís view, in which you study the candidates and issues, then vote for what approximates your interests and beliefs.

The purpose of voting is to choose and direct the leadership of our society. It is the responsibility of all citizens who have suffrage to honestly express their directives to the leadership, beginning with the voting for people who represent their desires and perspectives.

Unfortunately, the bipartisan system of the United States has become an instrument of manipulation of the powerful interests represented by the two main parties. Most Americans donít vote because theyíre not represented by either party; it seems futile to vote if your candidate is not going to win.
 

Wednesday,  Nov. 6, 2002 -- Gabriel Constans is a sports curmudgeon in Santa Cruz.

Soccer . . . Soccer . . . Where Are You?

I know in the big scheme of things this isn't THAT important, but I gotta give it a good kick. 

We are one of the few countries that virtually ignores soccer, known appropriately around the world as football. 

When the European, African, Asian or Americas championships are being played, most Americans are left on the dark side of the moon. Unless it's the World Cup or the Olympics and the United States team is playing, you would think soccer was a minor sport played in Timbuktu. 

Soccer gets scant TV coverage. It is barely reported in the papers and rarely mentioned on the news, even though there is a huge audience for soccer in the U.S.

If soccer was covered and talked about with the same energy and enthusiasm as the New York Knicks, San Francisco Giants or Green Bay Packers, advertising dollars would surely follow and kids would grow up knowing the names of the great soccer players, memorable games and legendary plays. 

I don't have much more time to talk about this sports calamity. The Mexican Soccer League game is about to start and I'm going to watch every one of its 90 minutes.  I know when it's over that my search for football (soccer) coverage in the American media will once again be like scanning the solar system for extraterrestrial life. 

P.S. How do we get off calling the Major League Baseball championship the "World Series", when it's only North American teams?  The International Football Federation's World Cup  is the only truly international championship on earth!
 
 

Friday, Nov. 8, 2002 -- Karen Lewis listens to KUSP from Washington D.C. Her piece was read by Natalie Serber. 

Alice’s Window Box

It was my husband’s idea to put up window boxes to make our brick colonial house near the park even prettier. The results are perfectly fine. The boxes outside the kitchen and upstairs by our bedroom window are an attractive mix of foliage and blooms.

But the window box to end all window boxes is outside of 5-year-old Alice’s window, running parallel to her bed. Maybe, subconsciously, her dad takes better care of that box of plants.  Maybe we put the best plantings there in the first place.  But I can’t help but think that the exuberant masses of flowers that have exploded like fireworks there all summer and into the fall are influenced by the boundless energy that resides just a wall away. 

The energy that made her a hellish infant, going 14 hours without a nap. The energy that made her a sparkling toddler who wanted to be “everything!” when she grew up.

Now five, a graybeard of a preschooler, she commands that energy all day.  Alice goes to bed at 8:30.  An hour later,  she has asked 10 or 20 questions, made scarves out of Kleenex for baby-dolls, whispered games with stuffed animals, revised the plans for her next birthday party before succumbing to sleep. Overnight, she re-charges.  Resting. Sorting.  Possibly plotting and scheming.  And as she sleeps, waves of excess energy exude from her tiny form.  They billow up, gently blowing out the open window, and into the night.  Into the window box.  It’s probably why we chose Impatiens.
 
 
 

Monday, Nov. 11, 2002 -- Bruce Scott is the author of "Being Real (an ongoing decision)"

Bridge Between Children and Adults

The bridge between adults and children is comprised of equality, fairness, respect, and the adults awareness that the little ones are us, externalized. Children do not get born to please the adult world. They do not come here to simply be placed in child care centers, school buildings and bedrooms that are depleted of life, spirit and heart.

They, like us before them, must be forced, expected, taught and endlessly conditioned, to take on a world not their own, made up of industry fashion, educational emptiness and a daily life of being dropped of f one place or another, hurried around for the convenience of the adults around them, taught that the terms busy, stress and "have to" are words to live by - - words that blame the world cut there for an inner world trapped in beliefs of a generation before them.

And the children come here to freshen us up a bit. To pull us back into life outside a social system devoted to compliance and repetitive acts. They, the little ones, are not less than us. They are not empty vessels waiting to be tilled with adult facts. They are here. They are present. Alive. They are Creative -- an accurate living example of who we are beneath our adopted adult facades, pretending to know what we are doing, serious about the pretense, and longing for the honesty, innocence and spontaniety of the children around us. The world of wars, alcohol, discontent, fear and sepafation is not the world of children. Sit still.
Be quiet. Play. 
 
 
 

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2002 -- Daniel Silvernail is an architect in Soquel.

Design by Decree? 

Our  county supervisors want  to implement design guidelines to regulate aesthetics of residences, countywide. 

This really is  a form of censorship. Architecture is  public art, and some measure of civility in the form of regulations must apply. But standards are already in place here in Santa Cruz County, and are among the most stringent in California. Architecture, as art, is vested with those guarantees that apply to any expression. 

The right to expression is what makes our society free, and must not be abridged without good cause, whether it's performance artists on our streets or county supervisors debating in public hearings. 

Our supervisors have not yet made the case for "good cause." A brace of guidelines proscribing uniformity at the expense of individuality cannot arise without compelling reason. 

Let us ask our leaders: what is to be gained by this initiative, and what is to be lost? 

What's to be lost? The best architecture expresses what's best in all of us - one need only look so far as Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater for example.

The absolute thrust of mass over a babbling brook, an icon of Modernism: Could Fallingwater have been allowed had regulators imposed "guidelines"? 

Clearly, no. Fallingwater could not have been built under these proposed guidelines. Design by decree is not in the public interest. Let us call upon our supervisors to allow local architecture's noblest aspirations to flourish, and not be hobbled by guidelines whose only promise is a mandate for mediocrity. 
 
 
 

Friday, Nov. 15, 2002 -- David Eselius is an engineer interested in the long-term development of Santa Cruz. 

Choose traffic patterns wisely 

Santa Cruz is linked to Silicon Valley when it comes to jobs and cost of housing. However, local traffic patterns are local issues.  Our traffic patterns are the sole result of city residents trying to move from point A to B and return to point A.  As general prosperity (and population) increases, so do local transportation demands increase. 

Removal of vehicle travel lanes on city arterials, and replacing them with bicycle lanes, is politically popular. However, the removal of
vehicle travel lanes is highly counterproductive to moving people from point A to B and back again. 

The total cost of unnecessary transportation delays, even delays by seconds, is huge when the effect is measured over time. 

Inadequate transportation creates an increase in environmental pollution, a decrease in business sales, road safety decreases and families are affected by driving conditions.

The city’s transportation infrastructure has to reflect the community’s movements. Local transportation is a technical issue and should never be considered a control tool for political reasons. 

The City Council has to make wise transportation choices in the future. We will live with those decisions for a long time. 
 
 
 

Monday, Nov.18, 2002 -- Paul Karrer is a teacher and writer from Monterey

Three Strikes You're Out 

Three Strikes, which was signed into law in March 1994, targets criminals with one or two serious or violent felony convictions on their records. Offenses that count as strikes, include residential burglary, murder, attempted murder, rape, robbery and arson. 

An offender who already has one strike on his or her record faces double the nominal prison term once convicted of any new felony -- not just those defined as strikes. In addition, the offender would have to complete 85 percent of the sentence before release from prison. 

An offender with two existing strikes on his or her record would be sentenced to 25-years-to-life when convicted of any third felony -- this third felony could be any felony offense including theft. 

Opponents leave out three facts:  1. The Department of Justice claims once a felon is behind bars he/she admits to an average of 11 crimes for each one he was CAUGHT for.  2. PLEA BARGAINING. Felons commit a handful of crimes and plea bargain DOWN for one.  3) This is about repeat offenders.

 If...one less car is broken into, one less person is shot, one less good citizen of the US is not terrorized by criminals it is good.  Society is better with these proven criminals off our streets. Bubba Joe IS deterred.  He's locked up.

Ultimately...it is real easy NOT to rape, rob, commit arson, or steal...repeatedly.  Play ball!
 
 
 

Monday, Nov. 25, 2002 - Bud Winslow is a Senior Senator in the California Senior Legislature

Drug Industry Practices Unfair

Congress has not acted, either on a Medicare prescription drug benefit or on generic drugs. Congress should, at the very least, pass legislation to speed lower-cost generic drugs to those who need them most.

Here is the problem: Loopholes in the 1984 Hatch-Waxman law allowed the drug companies to use repeated 30-month stays on patent-expiration dates to keep lower-cost generics off the market. In July, the U.S. Senate passed the McCain-Shumer bill designed to close the loopholes in the Hatch-Waxman law.

The brand-name drug companies are fighting tooth and nail to prevent similar legislation from coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives. They argue that increasing the availability of generics will lead them to scale back on research and development.

But the facts donít support the claim. The bipartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which is the drug companies own representative agree that patent expirations are an incentive, rather than a detriment, to the development of new drugs.

According to a new AARP survey, only 16 percent of those polled agreed with the statement that research and development would be cut back.

Enough is enough. Itís time to end unfair drug industry practices that prevent consumers from having this choice. Congress should pass for the President's signature, legislation like the McCain-Shumer bill without further delay.
 
 

Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2002 -- Jack Schultz is a general contractor and engineer in Santa Cruz.

On developers

I'd like to examine the meaning of the word "developer, " which figured so prominently in the recent election campaign.

Anyone who constructs the housing we so desparately need in some sense can be called a developer. However, it seems confusing and poor policy to lump together a man or woman who wishes to add a duplex at the rear of the family lot with a powerful corporation planning to build 100 expensive homes in a gated community. 

I see no reason to belive that either end of the scale has a greater sense of social responsibility than the other and both quite legitimately pursue private profit. We, the public, grant each the privilege of taking the risks needed to gain a profit. In return we expect that there be no social damage. Indirectly, we all benefit.

To achieve such ends we have building and planning regulations. The difficult task is to recognize the great differences in political and financial clout as well as the social impact between large and small.

One-size-fits-all regulations are counterproductive. Not only can they stifle the great benefits of competition -- efficiency and innovation -- but their complexity causes delays and often fail to deter those who try to evade or subvert reasonable rules. 

It has been said "A mark of intelligence is the ability to make fine discriminations."

Let us make intelligent discriminations are we urge our political and architectural leaders to design and build for the benefit of us all.
 
 

Friday, Nov. 29, 2002 -- Michael Lewis is a temporarily unemployed anthropologist,  coming  to Santa Cruz from the largely roadless expanse of Alaska.

Growth Maniacs

There's been much talk of late about widening our local highways to ease traffic congestion for commuters entering and leaving  town.  Many people have the perception that widening our highways will reduce this daily congestion--even though experience tells us that new lanes only result in more traffic. Yet, our regional transportation commission is considering taking funds from existing projects to start a widening project that won't be completed for ten to fifteen years. 

These transportation "woes" we hear so much about are largely self-inflicted. No one forces anyone to live in Santa Cruz and drive 40 miles over the hill and back every day. I?m searching for a job myself and I refuse to consider anything I can?t reach by bicycle or a combination of bike and bus.

We're rational people, so we claim. We can decide for ourselves to live and work in our own communities and work to support and build a society free of this highway madness. Many people choose to live here to avoid traffic jams and gridlock. Why should we strive so hard to make this place what we seek to escape?

Let's hold off just a bit longer, stave off the growth maniacs for another five years or so, hold the condo builders and road wideners at arms length, until it becomes clear to everyone that we?re at the end of the Age of Oil.  Then we can leave all that behind us and carry on with the job of reinhabiting this wonderful place in peace, sanity and harmony.