The Cupertino CourierLettersThanks for the Patnoe piece on Digital High I really enjoyed Geoff Patnoe's column on the Digital High School Initiative ("Digital High is well worth the cost," Sept. 24). It is essential that students be taught how to use computers and the Internet if they are to be competitive in today's high-tech job market. Keep up the good work.
Dan Bingham Nothing has changed--local mail is still late What a shock we received a week ago when we read your article on the "great mail service in Cupertino." Try checking Shannon Court! The very day your article appeared our mail arrived at 7 p.m. Next day it was 6:30 p.m. Seldom do we receive it before 5:30. Our ads usually arrive after the sales. We here on Shannon have complained to the postmaster, in person at the post office , and to the city. Nothing changes!
Virginia J. Logan, Something to chew on Have you noticed that over the last several months the sidewalks of Cupertino have developed a case of black measles, some of which have little stringers protruding out of them? They seem to be more prevalent at the entrances to public places, like markets--the entries to the library seem to be particularly infected. If you are unfortunate enough to step on one, you will discover the measles are--CHEWING GUM! The entries to these public places ALL have large waste cans by them, yet the gum chewers choose to spit their chaw on the ground where its victims can step on it and track it into the public places, and into their cars and their homes. Maybe the chewers are too squeamish to handle their chaw and put it in the waste containers. This sort of vandalism has none of the social excuses associated with graffiti or destructive acts. It seems to reflect the growing indifference to the sensibilities of our fellow beings. I wonder if the culprits spit out their chaws in the presence of their parents.
R.A. Blais Air Watch backs Harris We would like to inform the readership of The Courier of the endorsement of Andrea Harris for Cupertino City Council by West Valley Citizens' Air Watch. Andrea Harris, in her typical no-nonsense style, has come out unequivocally against tire burning. She has studied the issue and is opposed to tire burning at Kaiser Cement. Andrea Harris has impressed our group with her concerns about the risks to Cupertino's quality of life, such as overdevelopment and environmental degradation. We believe that our City Council should be more actively involved in the tire-burning controversy, and we are confident that Andrea Harris will face it head on. We support her candidacy with enthusiasm.
Marilyn McCarthy Workers can't afford to live in Cupertino R.A. Blais, in his letter to the editor in the Oct. 1 issue of The Courier, correctly points out that workers in Cupertino who live elsewhere make up a group who spend money in Cupertino. If the Planning Commission and City Council would get off the dime and work to provide affordable housing for low- and moderate-income people who cannot afford to live in Cupertino, these people would spend more here and help to increase the needed tax revenue. There are non-profit housing builders who are ready to build affordable units if the city would supply the locations and some of the development money.
William Wickwire Report the facts, please Courier reporter Katherine Petersen failed to qualify her sources in "Changing Their Tunes" (Oct. 1). The article was not only inaccurate, but an insult and discredit to hundreds of former Monta Vista High School Madrigals and their director, Jack Lindsay, who quietly retired in January. After 24 years of Madrigals in the Cupertino Community, reliable sources should have been found. I am not questioning Erin Paul's ability to teach, I'm questioning her obvious lack of knowledge of the fine program her predecessor left her and to which she is now privileged to add her talent. Your article made the Madrigals sound rather stuffy and limited, [a group] who sang only unaccompanied early Renaissance music, but gradually expanded its repertoire. Not true. Their costumes and style varied as the music ranged from Christmas Carols to Broadway tunes, from rock and roll to Disney, and always included songs in different languages. They were a performing arts group who not only danced, but maintained a complex repertoire as well as a mandatory 3.0 grade-point average. The Madrigals represented Cupertino in our Japanese Sister City. So impressed were city officials, they were invited back at the expense of Toyokawa. The awards they received over the years are too numerous to list. Many of the performances went unpaid or were rewarded with whatever the recipients could afford to donate. Most Madrigal groups did 90-plus concerts in December alone. Additional performances took place the balance of the year, highlighted with an international tour. The Madrigals, their families, Jack Lindsay, choreographer Linda Kahn, and all of those who assisted them, deserve heartfelt gratitude from the city of Cupertino and surrounding communities. Their countless hours of dedication to share their talents and showmanship earned perhaps the best reputation of any music department in the state.
Cathey Cort People, Not Mascots I understand and agree with the outrage of the Irish and the Catholic diocese of San Jose over the recent incident at the Stanford/Notre Dame game last weekend. However, I wonder how many of those same people who were offended watched the Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians without outrage as they saw the hideous and racist images of American Indians that those teams use as mascots? Where has their support been for eliminating the Indian mascot throughout the United States? If such behavior is so offensive, and it is, why do some of the Catholic diocese schools insist on retaining their Indian mascots? Stanford changed theirs almost 25 years ago! As many of the Catholic diocese schools say, they are honoring us (the Native Americans). Maybe the Stanford band was honoring the Irish and the Catholic Church? Or possibly, the Irish and the Catholic diocese can now understand how the Native Americans feel when our names and images are used as mascots. There is a statewide conference, "People, Not Mascots," sponsored by the Committee for Native American Rights on Oct. 18 at UC-Santa Barbara. Maybe the Catholic Diocese schools administration should attend.
Sylvia Machamer
[ Back to Contents Page | Cupertino Courier Home Page | Archives ]
This article appeared in the Cupertino Courier, October 15, 1997. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||