It was a little kick
I would like to take the time to give a high five to our City Council and also to respond to a letter to the editor.

At the Carpinteria City Council meeting on April 14, the council passed a resolution in support of our troops and agreed to hang banners with yellow ribbons on our city’s poles. I was so moved and touched at that meeting by the council’s sincere, heartfelt love and support of our men and women serving this great country. Way to go you all and thank you for not making us take down our yellow ribbons!

Now I would like to respond “Cacaphonous Carpinteria” (Coastal View, April 17) written by Margot Eiser of Ojai. In that letter she mentions that a teenager was “brutally kicked by one of the war advocates.” When I read that, I was in total shock, it sounded as if someone went over to the peaceniks’ side and kicked some sweet, peaceful teen. Nothing could be further from the truth.

That evening, not once, but twice, we had the obnoxious teens ride piggyback to our corner, flipping us not so peaceful signs and stealing our food that was there for the “support our troops” rally. On their final round, they rode piggyback, making stupid noises, and went to the sandwich tray and started stuffing our sandwiches in their mouths (had they just politely asked for some, we would have fed them). After that, they continued across the street, and evidently someone gave them a little kick in the rear with their shoe on their way across the street.

That’s it! There you have the brutal kicking of an obnoxious, food stealing teen that occurred. Maybe the person was wrong in doing it, however he did what everyone probably wanted to do. These boys were rude, disrespectful and obnoxious and were far from being “quiet and dignified.”

Margot is at war with the truth. Let me tell you one more thing about the peaceniks on the corner…at every single support our troops rally, somebody has walked over to our side of the street and gotten in our face in order to get on our nerves. We have never gone over to their side of the street! Which group is more peaceful?

Let me also point out to Margot, who is so offended by the overwhelming support of the troops and our president, it is our freedom of speech to stand on the corner and voice our support (a freedom the Iraqi people did not have, by the way). Someone felt the urge to voice his freedom of speech by playing patriotic music, others felt the urge to honk, some felt the urge to hold flags, some felt the urge to just stand and yell God Bless America.

I know you all are offended by the support we get, it is very clear that at least 90 percent of those driving by give us honks of support and thumbs up. You have the right to stand on the corner, just like we have the right. If the music is too loud, ask it to be turned down, just as you would ask a neighbor to do the same. If you don’t like the honking and yelling, well, sorry, that is freedom of speech. If the honks, yells, and thumbs up were in support of your view, there is no doubt in my mind you wouldn’t be offended! You say you “no longer support the troops,” something tells me you never did!

Karla Armendariz
Carpinteria

Cutting benefits does not support our troops
I fail to see the incompatibility between supporting our troops in Iraq and seeing the reasons for going to war in Iraq as being seriously flawed. Our soldiers are always deserving of our love and prayers. We rejoice when we see they are freed from captivity and mourn when they die or are injured.

They have made noble and courageous decisions to put themselves in harm’s way and are fully deserving of honor, respect and true caring. Cutting down the yellow ribbons is a disgrace.

I have close friends and family members with whom I disagree concerning the justice of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Hussein was evil, no doubt, but other means could have been used to end his reign without U.S. occupation. This in no way diminishes my admiration of our soldiers. They deserve our constant prayers, the very best medical care, education and any support necessary to deal with the physical and mental problems frequently experienced by veterans. I also believe we as taxpayers have an obligation to provide in some measure for families who lose income providers due to war.

It is atrocious that our representatives just last week passed a $15 billion tax cut to veterans’ benefits over the next 10 years. This will adversely affect disability compensation, burial benefits, education benefits, length of hospital stays, availability of nursing care and other health benefits.

The Disabled Veterans of America and Paralyzed American Veterans have written to Congress stating that cutting veterans’ benefits to enable the tax cut to the wealthy would not be the wish of the American people.

Perhaps as an additional way of showing support to our troops, we could contact our representatives and let them know just how shameful it is to slash veterans’ benefits. If anything, they should increase funding to veteran services. Veterans should not have to beg and fight to receive the very best care; they have already earned it.

Pauline Corral
Carpinteria

Let’s keep Lupe
I was sad to hear that Lupe Balderrama, administrator at the Middle School, is to become a victim of our school budget cuts. Does anyone else share my dismay? She has truly been a great liaison between teachers and students at the Middle School, and she has definitely helped me through some difficult situations. I don’t want to lose her.

If anyone else feels like I do, and you’d like to add your name to a letter I’m writing to the School Board, please let me know. My email address is NancyPSBKG@AOL.com.

Nancy Morales
Carpinteria

Thank you,Linda Ragsdale
You should be proud to have Ms. Lynda Ragsdale as a resident of your fine town. Thoughtful, principled and passionate individuals are rare, their politics notwithstanding. To assume the popular position indicated by the news/entertainment media is the American way: lazy, apathetic and irresponsible. Challenging the status quo is, historically, the honorable and admirable position. The civil rights enjoyed by Americans are not benefits of war; those are powers and profits for the elite. Workers, women, minorities and war protestors are the soldiers to support and thank for your so-called liberties. Obviously, the media would have it otherwise, and, generally does. Thank you, Lynda Ragsdale.

Joseph Hertel
Portland, Oregon

Come home, troops, come home
This will be my last letter on Iraq and it’s odd that as I sit at the computer I’m listening to “liberated Iraqis” on the radio chanting, “Americans, go home.”

Maybe I’m missing something but I cannot understand how the pro-war people cannot understand that we “peaceniks” are for the troops and want nothing but the best for them like getting home safely and soon. It is the policymakers that are pulling President Bush’s strings that we object to.

Well, now that it’s all over except for the lucrative rebuilding contracts, it’s “on to Damascus.” Oh, but wait, that will be next year just before the Presidential election!

Bud Fink
Carpinteria

Terrorists beware
I am a four-month-a-year resident of Carpinteria, living at the Carpinteria Shores. The rest of the year I live in Burbank and proudly display a yellow ribbon and an American flag on the tree in front of my house. The yellow ribbon means I want our troops to come home safely, and the flag is symbolic of support for our country.

Are people forgetting 9/11 so quickly? The death on our soil of 4,000 American civilians? The scene of terrorist hijacked American planes crashing into the American Trade Center, is firmly-imbedded in my mind. I’ll never forget.

I also remember President Bush’s statement that any country harboring or aiding these terrorists will be sought out and held responsible, no matter how long it takes. Why can’t anti-war protesters remember that? How many attacks on our country do they need? Hussein is not only a latter-day Hitler, but you can bet he was dancing the day we were bombed. I love and support President Bush and say to him, “Go get the bastards…”

Steve Urbanovich
Burbank, Calif.

Show me the evidence
Two recent letters in the Coastal View bothered me. One said that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The other said our troops have found evidence that proves Iraq has been developing weapons of mass destruction. These statements bother me because as far as I can tell, neither of them is true.

We owe the troops more than yellow ribbons. We owe them the careful, thoughtful performance of our duties as voters. That’s the only way to make sure we elect leaders who won’t go to war for the wrong reasons.

While this war debate has sometimes been unpleasant, we need to have it and we need to base the discussion on facts, not propaganda. We owe it to the troops.

John Callender
Carpinteria

Conduct unbecoming a councilmember
While I respect the right of the pro-war group to rally and express their beliefs, I object to and disagree with, the obnoxious and abusive behavior that has been observed in the last few weeks.

My 13-year-old son is an honors student at Carpinteria Middle School. He’s a rather socially aware teenager who has his own strong beliefs against the war in Iraq. He has attended the peace vigil for many weeks now. A couple weeks ago, he was attacked verbally when he approached our city councilman Gregory Gandrud, and simply asked him to explain why he was pro-war.

Not only did Mr. Gandrud react rudely to my son, he did not provide an answer to him and then stood by while others in the group verbally abused him by name-calling with vicious attacks against his character based on my son’s appearance. I think it inappropriate and improper for Mr. Gandrud to not only react without a civic-minded attitude, but to stand idly by and allow such an attack against a 13-year-old because he asked an apt question of an elected official.

Although I wish my son had not been exposed to such ill-behaved adults, I consider it all an educational experience for him. The pro-war group and Mr. Gandrud masterfully demonstrated how wrong it is to discriminate against others. And they did it with repellent and loud voices of hate. It is unfortunate that Mr. Gandrud has chosen such an unfitting and tasteless forum to express his views. I would think his presence more fitting if the group wasn’t so graceless and ungainly. I too, like my son, am for world peace.

Kaina Gomard
Carpinteria

Yellow ribbon resolution not democratic
In their haste to see who could wear the biggest flag, Carpinteria City Council members at their April 14 meeting passed a resolution on yellow ribbons. That resolution was not noticed in the Council’s agenda. Further, when the resolution returns on April 28 for a second reading it will be on the Consent Calendar only, and therefore never subject to any noticed public hearing.

Mayor Weinberg is quoted as saying “this is not really a debate for or against war.... The main interest is to arrive at a consensus that we all call support.” But the yellow ribbon resolution that they actually approved on first reading, however, contains a paragraph that, by my interpretation, supports the war. That statement is: “...The Carpinteria City Council supports our troops and feels it is critical for our military to know that American citizens are standing with them and supporting them during their mission...”

A group of Carpinterians has been standing for peace at the corner of Linden and Carpinteria Avenues every Friday afternoon since the beginning of October. In general, this group supports bringing the troops home now but does not support the “mission” on which the troops have been sent.

As the fighting winds down in Iraq any cloak of legal or moral legitimacy for this “mission” is highly suspect. Separate CIA memos indicate there is no Saddam connection to Al Qaeda and 9/11 (as reported in the Los Angeles Times) and that Iran, not Saddam gassed the Kurds (The Portugal News). The only Weapons of Mass Destruction to be found in Iraq are the cluster bombs, napalm, tear gas and depleted uranium used by the invading Coalition of the Willing.

Are 8,000 missiles and bombs, depleted uranium and targeting of clean water supplies anybody’s idea of liberation? The “mission” also violates a number of Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, and provisions of the Nuremberg trials regarding preemptive wars that were used to convict Nazi war criminals. Does invasion and occupation create democracy?

At this point, as facts overwhelmingly strip away the administration’s reasons for the “mission,” the only justification left to drape on the “mission” is: “Support the troops.” In the end, the emperor has no clothes but a yellow ribbon.

In my opinion the City Council should strike the last six words of that paragraph. In my opinion the troops should be brought home now and the United Nations should take over peacekeeping duties.

The City Council must have a properly noticed hearing on this resolution to consider the full range of public opinion.

Al Clark
Carpinteria

Roses for the Emergency Rescue Vehcle Fund
Thank you to all the wonderful Carpinterians, campers and people passing through that came out on Saturday and purchased Rainbow Roses in support of the Fireman’s Emergency Rescue Vehicle Fund.

While short of my hefty goal of $10,000, we did manage to raise a total of $2,182. I have decided to donate the entire amount to the fund. We only sold about 380 dozen of the 2600 dozen that I had prepared for sale. As the day wore on, the price got better and better, and at the end we were selling buckets of 10 dozen roses for $10.

I had the roses because they were late for a delivery to a supermarket warehouse and therefore could not be used. I decided to make lemonade out of lemons. My only motivation was to see that thermometer get filled up so our awesome Fire Department, headed by Tom Martinez, can purchase the Emergency Rescue Vehicle that they so desperately need. Hope you all enjoyed the roses and it was great to meet all of you, especially the nice Kiwanis members.

Alison V. McClelland
Carpinteria

SCE should accept responsibility
So far, it appears that the Southern California Edison company has successfully avoided responsibility for the misfiring of its equipment again. By now, most of us have reported our losses to the Edison company and have received their disclaimer something to the effect “You can’t expect us to be responsible for our equipment damaging your property because it was caused by birds landing on the electric wires. Claim denied.”

It is surprising that there has been barely a murmur, except for Bob Macgruder’s letter, from the property owners in Carpinteria. Some of my neighbors believe that a huge monopoly like Edison is similar to a 500- pound canary (it does whatever it wants without interference).

This is not the first time huge power surges have damaged our property and it won’t be the last. Clearly, Carpinteria is getting whacked because it is at the end of the power line and because our local equipment is obsolete. Three years ago on Martin Luther King Day, a power surge set fire to my Jacuzzi and deck. It was a total loss. Had it not been for children alerting my neighbor, fireman John Stockton, I could have easily lost my home as well.

My homeowner’s insurance covered the loss, but the premium has been doubled. When I called my insurance agent to report my latest Edison-related loss, he suggested I pay for it out of pocket to prevent either possible cancellation of my insurance or increasing the premium to $4,000 to $5,000 a year!

Let’s get together to discuss our options. Working together we can handle this. Can we meet on Sunday, April 27 at 2 p.m.? Please call 684-3489 for directions.

Beverly Grant
Carpinteria