An apology for assuming

Re: Dan Siefert's May 14 letter, "Asked — and answered":

Siefert's criticism of my "O'Reilly question," (May 9 letter, "Is war support political?") is fair, and justified.

I apologize for unfairly, and automatically, assuming.

I know how irritating it is to be unfairly painted.

— Bob Jackson, Simi Valley

Restraining order misuse

Are people dating innocently and being jailed for the wrong use of restraining orders?

Are innocent young children being taken away from good parents with the wrong use of restraining orders?

Are restraining orders being used to set people up and throw them in jail?

Stop ordering restraining orders on behalf of people with bad intentions and no solid evidence, and allowing them the power to use a restraining order as a legal harassment order to throw anyone in jail.

— Robert C. Wiley II, Simi Valley

McCain goes with the wind

Re: Terry Paulson's May 11 essay, "McCain's wild card: trust":

Paulson's paean to John McCain — touting the candidate as one who will no doubt do what he says — left me to wonder which McCain he was writing about.

Is this the straight-talking, ethical McCain of today, or the McCain who was involved in the Keating Five scandal?

Was Paulson referring to the McCain who received much notice when he announced that he would not sign the "torture bill," or was he referring to the McCain who caved in and signed on for torture a few days later.

I trust McCain. I trust him to say or do whatever he needs to say or do, depending on which way he gauges the wind to be blowing at a particular time.

— Stephen Irshay, Thousand Oaks.

Dunn's personal agenda

Re: Mike Dunn's May 8 letter, "How to help public schools":

Conejo Valley Unified School District trustee Dunn's latest attempt at damage control again shows his propensity for the either-or, black-or-white way of thinking that has marred his school board tenure.

He stated he "voted to oppose a resolution critical of the governor" and then went on to suggest the "resolution offered no solutions, just criticism." He never indicated specific issues he had with the resolution, which was about proposed budget cuts. Rather, his mind only perceived that the resolution was critical of the governor.

During an election several years ago, Dunn accused the other four board members of being critical of "the Republican governor." As it turned out, California voters overwhelmingly defeated all of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals.

To Dunn, if you support a position that is contrary to the governor, then you are considered critical of the governor rather than merely critical of his position.

But the most disturbing aspect of Dunn's letter was his statement regarding promotion of "traditional family values compatible with our community standards and our faith." Using an evangelical platform, Dunn would like to see Bible Belt-style textbooks introduced into our schools — he previously tried and failed at that — and the introduction of so-called "intelligent design" being taught as fact in science classes.

These sorts of measures will water down the curriculum in our schools and could cause district high school graduates to be denied entrance into UC-system schools.

Dunn and his cohorts are biding their time until the November election, when they can try again to elect another slate of evangelicals to the school board. This would be to the detriment of the students.

Hopefully, voters in November will be aware of his motives and vote for more appropriate candidates.

— Dave Dolnick, Thousand Oaks

Free speech works both ways

Re: the Freemans' May 7 letter "The Freeman agenda".

I need to respond because Raymond, Alexander and Ian Freeman question my integrity. I still don't know if Irene is related; her name was not listed.

They state that their agenda is balance, justice, facts and truth. It is also hyperbole, insults and assumptions.

Their letter points out that I failed to mention O'Reilly and Kristol have syndicated columns. I made the mistake of thinking O'Reilly's column was common knowledge. As for Kristol, they mention him twice, he wasn't mentioned in my letter. Their "agenda" makes them read things that aren't there.

Another point they claim is that I "attacked the Star's integrity"(hyperbole).

I say I questioned its fairness, and here are the reasons.

I submitted a letter in response to Irene's letter in February. It was not printed. After letters from Raymond and Alexander in The Star and the LA area paper, with nearly identical paragraphs, I sent another letter.

I asked what I thought was a legitimate question: Is there possibly one person using different names to submit letters?

I called The Star. Someone in the Opinion section said my letter would not be printed, but it was being looked into and someone would call me back. No call. My letter in the April 30 edition was actually submitted April 19 after the Ian and Alexander letters of April 17 and April 18.

I don't believe it would have been printed except for calling again.

The Freemans make many some good points if you can ignore their acrimony.

I agree free speech works both ways, but they question my integrity for simply disagreeing with their opinion.

They wrote, "Popularity doesn't turn lies into truth."

Neither does zealotry.

— Bill Buchanan, Thousand Oaks

Gallegly's priorities wrong

I was pleasantly surprised by Michael Tenenbaum when I met him at a Ralphs recently. He is well-spoken, friendly and seems genuinely concerned with the issues that are facing us today. It was refreshing to hear him speak so passionately about issues concerning alternative energy, education reform and the current state of businesses in Ventura County.

I will be following his campaign in the 24th District and I urge others to take a look at him so we can transition away from Elton Gallegly.

Elton's only defining measures in Congress covered cockfighting, irritable bowel syndrome funding and attempting to have square dancing become the national dance of the U.S.

I don't know about you, but those aren't issues that I want my congressional representatives concerning themselves with.

— Krystina Tapia, Moorpark

Halaco's for the birds

Re: your May 9 article, "Trespassers problem at Halaco site, officials say":

I'm trying to understand this Halaco Superfund site article. The Halaco site is fenced off because a government agency has determined that it is dangerous to human beings because of radiation and heavy metal contamination.

However, remediation has been halted indefinitely because another government agency has determined that the fenced-off, contaminated site is home to nesting swallows.

Therefore, in order to protect the swallows, the fenced-off contaminated side cannot be disturbed. The end is near.

— Sidney Tinberg,

Ventura

Vote yes on Measure C

Four years ago, Oak Park voters approved Measure D4 by a resounding 81 percent.

That measure provided a special tax of $197 per parcel to protect vital school programs, maintain reduced class sizes and uphold other standards of education excellence residents of Oak Park expected of their schools.

Measure D4 also provided for an independent citizens oversight committee to review expenditures and issue annual reports to the community on how the $926,000 in annual funds was spent.

As the chairman of the oversight committee this past year, I would like to confirm that the parcel-tax proceeds were used in a manner consistent with the intent of Measure D4 and were vital in preserving essential programs and maintaining smaller class sizes.

June 3, Oak Park voters are being asked to simply renew the original D4 parcel tax.

In recent surveys, more than 50 percent of Oak Park residents with and without students in the schools cited the quality of the education offered by Oak Park schools as a major factor in why they chose to move here.

Protecting the quality of our children's education benefits not only our students, but all Oak Park residents. Great schools develop good future citizens, maintain high property values, keep neighborhoods safe and preserve Oak Park's unique community character.

State funding will not provide the high quality of education our children deserve. We must renew this critical funding source.

Please vote yes on Measure C.

Michael Paule,

Oak Park

Minutemen

Re: your May 10 article, "Minutemen want sign returned to original home along border":

I read with great frustration the article regarding California rescinding the offer given to the Minutemen wishing to participate in the Adopt-a-Highway Program.

California was scared a sign designating a certain group adopted a portion of the highway could lead to demonstrators causing safety hazards for drivers. I have seen many demonstrations at government buildings, schools and police stations where drivers are present. Are we going to do away with demonstrations in these areas to make sure drivers are not subjected to the same kind of dangers?

Let's say these signs will cause others to get upset and demonstrate. Does that mean McDonald's can no longer participate out of fear obese, sorry, weight-challenged individuals forced to eat high-calorie fast food may storm a sign on the side of the road? What about church groups that band together to adopt a highway? Will they be denied out of fear the American Civil Liberties Union will file a lawsuit because of its interpretation of the separation of church and state? If California approves the highway adoption, will that be considered supporting a religion?

One of our illustrious politicians wants to suspend new sponsorship until the California Department of Transportation develops standards on who can qualify and participate. I just want to get this straight. California is billions of dollars in the hole. A good corporate citizen wants to give Caltrans money to help subsidize picking up the litter on the side of the road. And our politicians want to decide if they are worthy. I am anxious to see what "type" of organization or citizen will be deemed worthy of helping to keep California clean.

Do you think we can focus on something a little more important?

— Michael Colitti, Ventura

Missed story in El Rio

I am writing regarding a very newsworthy event that The Star left out of the newspaper: the recent march through El Rio by the teachers and parents to show how they felt about the Rio school board's most recent financial decisions. Its apparent unwillingness to discuss them with anyone has caused the parents, teachers and union officials to call everyone to action.

There were literally hundreds and hundreds of people marching! Is this not local news? When local children's education is at stake, does it not impact the entire community? Please print the news.

Otherwise, it could appear the newspaper is on the side of the district officials. Literally, there were so many marchers, I am in shock it was not in our local newspaper.

— Connie Brown, Ventura

Street fair booth rejected

I have lived in Ventura since 1989 and have been supporting myself as a photographer full time since 2001.

I photographed the Ventura Pier on Dec. 13, 1995, as 20-foot waves were tearing it down, and this photograph hangs on the wall at Eric Ericsson's restaurant. Several galleries have been selling the photograph for years, usually tracking me down when they get requests from their customers wanting to purchase it.

This year, I decided to go public and submitted an application to have a booth in the Fourth of July Ventura Street Fair. I believe, from looking at the denial letter, that it was turned down because I didn't submit a photo of my booth, just a copy of the photo that I wished to sell. It highlighted the word "workshop" on the denial letter. I didn't want to invest any money in a booth until I knew that I could participate.

I understand that it has criteria, but wouldn't it want an artist who is unique to this city, not one who has a booth and does the same thing, city after city?

I have donated the photo to "Pier in to the Future" fundraisers as well as to Casa Pacifica and to Surfrider events and was told that they were "thrilled to have it." I also raised funds for these organizations.

I just feel that if Ventura wants to get behind local artists, it may have to look outside criteria and at the artist and product before it gets too much of the same thing.

— Veronica Slavin, Ventura

911 a government service

We disagree with the 911 calling charge in its entirety because it is a new tax that bypassed a vote by taxpayers. Passage would have required a two-thirds vote of approval.

We believe the logistics of this plan are complicated and expensive.

911 is a great 20th and 21st century technical advancement. This is not just a life-saving service, but also a national security service.

We feel this is a nationwide government responsibility, and the phone companies and the Ventura communications center should negotiate the added operating cost with the federal and/or state governments.

— Richard & Elaine Keller, Ventura

Can't just get on with our lives'

Re: the May 13 letters by Chuck Goranson, "Enough room in ANWR," and Gareth W. Neumann, "New oil can't wait":

Both writers put forth the same rhetoric oil companies and this current administration want us to believe. People who want to preserve the planet are not attempting to maintain a status quo, they are trying to keep the planet a sustainable place for humans to live. We can't afford to just "get on with our lives" as usual.

If we do not change the way we are doing things right now, Earth is not going to be able to sustain life, as we know it.

It is about preserving human life on this planet.

I had to laugh when I read that Neumann used our ability as Americans to "do the impossible when we put our mind to it" to argue for drilling for more oil in the fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In that case, why don't we put our minds toward ending our dependency on oil? Then those "enemies who are out to kill us and destroy America" would have nothing we wanted.

The months it took Detroit to turn out "tanks, trucks, big guns and aircraft" for World War II could have the same production lines turning out vehicles that use alternative-energy sources and retrofitting our current gas-guzzling SUV fleet to run off those same alternatives.

The technology is here. We just need to demand it be made accessible to the public. The billions that are being spent looking for and refining more and more oil could be spend retrofitting our society to move forward toward a more sustainable future.

Better for bugs, birds, moose, bears and humans.

— Dawn Smith, Ventura