Unfair sentencing

Re: your Aug. 1 article, "Mission to succeed":

Accepting drug addiction as a brain disease, how can we ethically jail any person for the crime of succumbing to it, without funding and offering effective treatment?

This article contrasted the Lighthouse Women and Children's Mission program, a free, nine-month, Christian-oriented treatment course provided to some women in lieu of jail, which showed a very effective 85 percent five-year success rate for the minority graduating, to the apparently ineffective shorter, for example, state-funded Proposition 36-contracted programs.

Lighthouse Director Cassie Sorenson said this "is the only free program of its kind in the county and the only practical option for poor women."

If similar nonreligious, paid programs existed here, offering enrollment to indigent defendants, would it satisfy constitutional church-state separation concerns over an arguably coercive nonchoice between religious indoctrination and jail? Effective court-supervised treatment, with strict noncompletion penalties to encourage majority completion, would also be relatively cost-effective.

That county judges irregularly allow Lighthouse treatment of women may be an abdication of the state's responsibility to provide due process and equal protection to all defendants — of any sect or gender — convicted of relevant drug offenses. Hopefully, demand from a public informed through ongoing, precise, in-depth reportage will compel our politicians to make sensible policy decisions in our "war on drugs."

— Dennis Lucas,

Camarillo

Not one to lecture

Re: your Aug. 12 article, "Russians open up new front in Georgia":

Who is President Bush to lecture Russia at this stage of the game on anything?

Speaking of games, while Rome is burning, Bush is in Beijing enjoying his favorite activity: watching sporting events instead of dealing with the multitude of problems facing our country and the world in the days and years to come.

Shame on those who voted for him to lead our great nation!

— Steve Binder,

Oxnard

Venturan for Wal-Mart

Re: your Aug. 8 article, "Wal-Mart initiative signatures submitted":

Nan Waltman was quoted: "The sheer number of signatures should make it clear to the city and to Wal-Mart that Venturans don't want Wal-Mart here."

Not that it matters, but I have lived in Ventura for more than 40 years, consider myself a Venturan and do not object to Wal-Mart.

The sheer numbers Waltman talks about are 13,000 possibly valid signatures, which do not necessarily represent the 105,000 people in Ventura. As she suggested, some signers may not live in the city and may not be registered voters.

I suggest that many people may have also signed more than once just to get rid of the annoying petition gatherers in front of stores. I observed many more people not signing the petition than signing it. Perhaps if the gatherers offered signers an option in favor of Wal-Mart, the outcome may have been entirely different.

— Ray Holzer,

Ventura

Homeless everywhere

A few months ago, The Star had an article stating that the county is on a 10-year path to have the homeless off our streets and into different living situations. My question is this: How many tourism dollars are we losing in the next 10 years because, in my city, I see homeless people everywhere I go?

The post office, Target, Vons, Trader Joe's, the mall, the beaches, the boardwalk, the harbor, parks, everywhere downtown. They are lying in the grass, sprawled out in groups, chatting it up, as if they are on a sleepover at a friend's house. Love it when it's a warm day and the men take their shirts off. And don't even get me started on Santa Barbara!

Where I don't see homeless people are towns like Cambria, Solvang, Cuyucos. They seem to have figured it out; why haven't we? Ten years, are you kidding? Could someone call those city fathers and find out how they did it? I would like to see more tourism dollars here. It's good for our city, but why would someone want to come here?

I'm glad Cathy Brudnicki, executive director of the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition, is proud of the survey she took, but with none of her information being substantiated, I don't see how that helps us. Someone make the call!

— Elizabeth Burrows,

Ventura

Opting out didn't work

I just wanted to put the Ventura citizenry on alert that our city leaders and staff have ignored our instructions to opt out of the dreaded 911 tax (fee).

I just received my telephone bills for both my residence and business and have found that they indeed have charged me the 911 tax (fee) even though I was probably among the first 1 or 2 percent of telephone users in the city who opted out of the 911 tax (fee).

I believe that our city leaders and staff had no intention of making sure that this was done properly and actually wanted everyone in the city to be charged, thinking that they would not notice this item on their bills. In fact, the way it reads as "local government fee" on the bills hides its true nature and will be overlooked by those not in the know.

If there was no intention for this to happen, then that just shows that they are all more incompetent than I actually thought they were. After all, they have had more than four months to get this right. So watch out, Venturans!

— Richard A. Pillow,

Ventura

Not a Cowboy' fan

Re: your Aug. 1 sports article, "Free to be a Tank on defense":

I did not share The Star's enthusiasm for the presence of the Dallas Cowboys and their training camp in Ventura County this summer. The Cowboys are one of two NFL teams (the Oakland Raiders are the other), which repeatedly put out the welcome mat for all the castoffs, troublemakers and outright criminal offenders who have been sent packing with good riddance by their former teams.

Led by their win-at-all-costs owner Jerry Jones, the Cowboys lead the league in players who set the worst possible example for our youths.

The Aug. 1 article featured Tank Johnson who was in jail last year for gun possession and probation issues. This year's featured Cowboy reclamation project is Adam Jones, currently serving a one-year league suspension for his involvement in a Las Vegas shooting incident.

It's not that I'm against second chances, which everyone, including these two, deserves, but owner Jones hands out far too many of them for one organization, especially one with such high community visibility.

If you believe Jones' motivation really stems from helping troubled players revive their careers, you probably also believe that subprime mortgage lenders were gratified at seeing financially incapable borrowers realize the dream of homeownership. This team owner will resort to any tactics to pad his win column.

For me, personally, Southern California is not, and never will be, "Cowboy Country" and no amount of positive coverage by The Star can alter that fact. Now that the Cowboys have broken camp in Oxnard and returned to Texas, I would like to see them stay there for all their future training camps.

— Dave Epelone,

Camarillo

Put Romney on ticket

Sen. John McCain needs Mitt Romney as his vice-presidential nominee to win this election.

By far, Romney is the best man, and he has proved he can work with and assist the president to make us proud of America.

I call upon Rep. Elton Gallegly, our Ventura County representative, to personally telephone McCain and advise him that Romney is his best choice to win the election and will bring trust and new vitality to our government.

Make that call, Elton, and ask your friends in Congress to do the same.

— Ray Holm,

Westlake Village

Lacking substance

Re: Elton Gallegly's Aug. 12 commentary, "Eliminate illegal immigration to eliminate state deficit":

As usual, Gallegly's commentary about the drain on the California budget caused by illegal aliens is superficial at best and irrational and silly at worst.

The Bush/McCain/Kennedy reform plan was realistic and necessary. Unfortunately, Sen. John McCain has now disavowed his own plan.

If illegal aliens were rounded up and deported from Salinas and El Centro, who would harvest our fruits and vegetables? There are not enough unemployed workers willing to work for minimum wage in those areas to replace deported aliens.

Would Gallegly subsidize unemployed workers in Detroit to move to Salinas even if they would work for minimum wages?

Gallegly works in Washington, D.C., but lives in Simi Valley. Who cuts his lawn and cleans his house? Who washes the dishes at the restaurants he may frequent?

The issue is clear and basic: If Gallegly's constituents want affordable pizza, burgers, fruits and vegetables, and want their lawns cut and houses cleaned, then the Bush/McCain/Kennedy legislation was a rational compromise.

Gallegly has done nothing meaningful in Congress in 20 years, and is likely to be re-elected by inertia alone.

— Raymond A. Greenberg,

Thousand Oaks

Telling the truth'

Re: Joyce Altaffer's Aug. 10 letter, "Gallegly right on drilling":

Altaffer defends Rep. Elton Gallegly against the charge of "flip-flopping" on offshore oil drilling. However, my July 30 letter ("Flip-flopping) to The Star, to which she is responding, said nothing about flip-flopping on oil drilling.

My letter was about Gallegly saying, "I support tax credits for solar and wind-power generation," when, in fact, he has consistently voted against them, even as recently as last May.

There are at least three possible explanations for this quote from Gallegly. First, it may be a deliberate lie. Second, it may be this commentary was mainly written by someone else, and Gallegly or his staff dropped the ball by failing to notice and delete this statement. Third, perhaps he did actually change his mind about supporting tax credits for solar and wind-power generation. If this is the true explanation, then, clearly, Gallegy has flip-flopped on the issue.

Altaffer smears me personally as a partisan "clinging blindly to ideology and talking points." I am not, in fact, a member of any political party.

Like many other independents, I am concerned about the truthfulness, integrity and competence of my elected representatives. But it really isn't about me.

Gallegly appears to be either a flip-flopper or a plagiarist or a liar (take your pick). He's also been a faithful follower and congressional enabler of the incompetent President Bush. Can we really trust him to make decisions that truly benefit the people he represents on energy, on the economy or on the environment?

We have learned to have low expectations for the truthfulness of our elected representatives. Which way do you think Gallegly will vote on the next alternative-energy- credits bill?

Let's hold our representatives to a higher standard: Telling the truth.

— Jim Shirley,

Simi Valley

Uniters needed

Several people brought to my attention the public's concerns at recent Thousand Oaks City Council meetings. As I watched a rerun, I was stunned by the testimony of some of the speakers about their neighborhood problems.

The insinuations and outlandish accusations were shameful, an embarrassment to the majority of people hearing this testimony about their own neighborhood.

As I tried to make sense out of the obvious drama playing out, I realized one of the most important and meaningful messages that night came from Mary Harris, who expressed her opinion about how council did not listen or have a dialogue with the people it is serving.

I remembered addressing council in February 2007, expressing my concerns about the way members related to each other and how it was hurting the community. I was concerned about how it misused power by eliminating people who did not agree with its agendas.

The problems of council's leadership are now staring it in the face, as the community struggles with the same problem council has, to get along. Citizens in some of the best neighborhoods cannot relate, sit down with each other and peacefully solve adversities.

How can our City Council help the community with polarized partisan issues when it hasn't resolved problems for itself?

Councilman Dennis Gillette mentioned he wished he had a magic bullet to solve the problems for these people.

There is no magic in a bullet. You'll see what I mean when the next election is in full swing. Watch some head for the gutter looking for filth or make it up, as I've encountered, in the attempt to make themselves look better.

We need people on the council who can unite us as a community, we haven't had that for a long time now. Citizens have been hurt by the corruption.

— Marilee Ullmann,

Thousand Oaks

Not one to lecture

Re: your Aug. 12 article, "Russians open up new front in Georgia":

Who is President Bush to lecture Russia at this stage of the game on anything?

Speaking of games, while Rome is burning, Bush is in Beijing enjoying his favorite activity: Watching sporting events instead of dealing with the multitude of problems facing our country and the world in the days and years to come.

Shame on those that voted for him to lead our great nation!

— Steve Binder,

Oxnard