I am writing this in response to a letter by another Los Gatos student. I understand and appreciate different views on the war; however I take great offense to the comparison between President George Bush and Osama Bin Laden. I believe that in a time of war it is important to support our country because we send men and women overseas to fight for a just cause and yet we hide behind signs of peace when we should be supporting our troops. So before you comment on the war and whether it's justifiable, I challenge you to go fight on the front lines. God bless America!

—Jayne Pimentel, Junior, Los Gatos High


Where are the health care dollars going?

Given that Clumbia/HCA, et al., grew via acquisitions starting in the late '70s and early '80s, one wonders how much of each health care dollar goes toward paying for interest on all the [junk] bonds that were issued to finance such consolidation? Would greatly reduced debt levels amongst health care providers translate into correspondingly lower costs?

Thanks, Tracey. [Tracey Ledbetter, R.N., wrote a guest column for the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, March 19.] A very thought-provoking article.

—Greg Hall, Los Gatos


Just eating 'right' will not prevent colon cancer

Regarding a March 26 letter to the editor, readers might inappropriately reach the conclusion that if they just eat "right" then they can avoid the unpleasantness of being screened for colon cancer. In fact, it's quite the opposite. If we really want to have an impact on the disease of colon cancer, we'd better stop imagining that fruits and vegetables are the answer. Yes, they may lower the risk but not nearly to the extent that appropriate screening measures would.

It is also important to note that colorectal screening with endoscopy (sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy) actually does prevent colon cancer since it allows for the removal of polyps that would eventually give rise to invasive cancers. Whereas breast cancer screening may detect cancers at an early stage, colorectal cancer screening achieves the same goal and in addition helps to prevent the development of cancer by removing precancerous polyps.

—Dr. George Fisher, Assistant Professor of Oncology,
Stanford University


Council should revisit decision to move music

The council's decision to move the summer concert series from the plaza to the civic center without soliciting input from the community should be revisited. Making the decision based on the results of a survey taken by people attending the concerts while they were being held at the civic center is clearly flawed and has a built-in bias.

I bet if we didn't have a farmer's market in Los Gatos and you temporarily moved the Saratoga farmer's market to the plaza, then took a survey, everyone attending would indicate that the plaza was a better location than Saratoga High School for the farmer's market. While this is an extreme example, I'm just pointing out that the survey is not valid and the decision should be revisited based on community input.

—Tim Canepa, Los Gatos


Concert series should benefit everyone

I was quite surprised and disappointed at the tone of the comments made by some members of our business community regarding the relocation of our summer concert series. Granted, we own a business on E. Main Street, and we could benefit in theory by the change of venue, but since when is the town obligated to provide a guaranteed income to any business, let alone the businesses on N. Santa Cruz Avenue? I thought we operated as a whole community, not by selected streets, and especially not by the wishes of business owners who have nicely profited from years of relative closeness.

Many businesses on E. Main, including us, are closed either all day Sunday or by 4 p.m. The only benefits we will enjoy are the exposure to our closed storefront and the public's awareness of another attractive street in the immediate downtown business core.

As far as the inconvenience of walking is concerned, I thought we promoted the idea that we are a "walk-about-town." We see parents with strollers walking daily from the surrounding neighborhoods to shop the downtown and to enjoy the plaza with their children. Two blocks is neither an inconvenience nor a commute.

Those who have shopped and have eaten at their past favorite haunts will return.

The business community has been queried, the citizens have spoken, the council has voted, so let's together share the wealth of the entire downtown from just a slightly different view.

—Sallie Robbins-Druian, The French Cellar, Los Gatos


It's a spending problem in high school district

The Los Gatos­Saratoga Union High School District does not have a revenue problem—it has a spending problem. According to figures released at a recent school board meeting, the Los Gatos­Saratoga high school district has been in a deficit spending situation since 1999.

From 1999 to 2003, the district budget has grown from $14 million per year to $24 million per year while consuming a $5 million dollar surplus that existed in 1999. Some of these costs are due to raises, maintenance, expensive social engineering programs implemented by the state board of education, and increased health plan costs.

There have been 53 new full-time hires since 1999—22 of these are probationary, hired since 2000, and six new full- and part-time employees were hired just last year. Labor is about 78 percent of the budget for the district. If the budget needs to be pared back, there is no other practical place to do it.

I sympathize with the teachers who may no longer have a job at Los Gatos and Saratoga. Unfortunately, they have a lot of company, with over 100,000 other people in the Bay Area who are in the same boat.

Wearing pink in class shows no class. You can't make the money to pay teachers magically appear by applying enough guilt. If you want to direct your anger and action against a more useful target, it should be against the current state government, which is driving jobs and businesses out of California and stealing local tax revenue. The current ruling party and administration in Sacramento are engaged in a high taxation, high spending, high regulation, and high social engineering agenda that is a toxic environment for business. If you don't have a strong business base, you have nothing to support the tax base and nothing to pay teachers' salaries.

There are short-term actions and long-term actions that must be taken to solve these problems. First, the district budget should be returned to the more sound fiscal policies of pre-1999. The district must make a commitment to sound fiscal policy and hire only the number of teachers it can afford, based on current revenues, not potential future revenue increases. The Bay Area economy is too cyclical to count on future revenues pulling the district out of deficits. The district also needs to resist well-meaning but expensive and distracting social engineering programs that dilute the educational mission of the schools.

Next, the current crop of legislators and the governor have to go for the good of California. What can you say about a state government that, for example, subsidizes students in the community college system who are in this country illegally, using your tax money for in-state resident tuition rates, while at the same time proposing to steal your local basic aid revenues from your local school district?

Whatever your party affiliation, California needs sensible fiscal conservatives at the state level. The current batch—with their commitment to high spending, high taxation, high regulation and invasive social engineering—are driving jobs and businesses out of state, and with them the money to pay for teachers and education. It is time to return quality and integrity to educational and fiscal decision-making.

—Ted Kucklick, Parents for Quality and Integrity in Teaching, Los Gatos

CORRECTION

In the March 19 story on Barbara Nesbet's bid for the 21st Assembly seat, the date of her first election to the Monte Sereno City Council was incorrect. Nesbet was elected in 1998.