(This letter is in response to the Los Gatos Rotary Club's Operation Yellow Ribbon campaign.)

Dear Mr. Frangadakis,

Your care package was received with great appreciation. Your timing was impeccable, seeing as only hours after getting your package I was stuffing the snacks and using the zip locks to waterproof my gear in preparation for an operation.

You knew exactly what to send and I am thankful considering the situation in my area of operation. From my end of the world, your mission is a success and a dynamic way of showing that the U.S. still cares about its troops.

Please pass on my thanks to the Rotary Club and The Los Gatos Weekly-Times for their support.

—Lance Corporal Thomas C. Gowdy-Ferguson, United States Marine Corps, 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade


Museum art show is a 'great' one

Your article on George Sakkestad, the staff photographer, was great! Bravo!

I had the pleasure of viewing his work on Sunday, June 8, at the Los Gatos Museum on West Main Street. I also had the honor of viewing Rick Tharp's Cleo-winning work on what he has accomplished in the past and what he and his firm are accomplishing in today's thinking. His work on the upcoming Olympics is one of a kind, as is he.

I must say that the work that the Los Gatos Museum has accomplished is not only gratifying but commendable—the effort put forward by the important curators who bring the arts together in this town.

There was also support from one of our town treasures, Peggy Fleming, and her wonderful and most supportive husband.

It's this tradition that sets this quaint town apart from others.

—Byron Bush, Los Gatos


Independent media is slipping away

Dale Bryant's recent article about former New York Times plagiarist/reporter Jayson Blair didn't address the mystery of his perennial smile.

Did it merely signify deceit, or was it a subliminal message to the public, because so much of what reaches us in the major media is either untrue or so adulterated it is misleading?

For more than 200 years, the nation's independent press was just a large basket of sectors that created a balance of power between the administration, the judiciary, the corporate sector, farmers and small businessmen, organized labor, and the military.

With the exception of organized labor, which is much weakened now, the rest of the sectors have for the most part combined into one massive blob of truly monolithic power balanced almost solely by the influence of the electorate.

How puny that influence can be was evidenced during our 2000 presidential election and, as I write this, it is being demonstrated again by FCC Chairman Powell as he ignores a Congressional request to allow more time for scrutiny before permitting further media consolidation.

The FCC's refusal to delay is especially telling because even with the present 35 percent ceiling on media holdings, the Iraq War has shown that something very akin to brainwashing can take place in America.

Approximately 55 percent of the American public was convinced that a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq.

The UN inspectors who were in Iraq said it wasn't true; there was little or no evidence. Why did Americans persist in crediting this misinformation?

CBS and NBC took part in sounding the false alarm, but mainly it was Fox Television's new series "Countdown on Iraq" that deserves to be termed one of the "Intolerable Acts" of recent media history.

Month after month, Americans were lied to on matters of national security. The rest of the world didn't go for it and they were right not to.

If we take an honest look at what has occurred, we'll recognize it as a form of "voluntary censorship" by our corporate-owned media, a kind of Pravda-American style.

The present 35 percent ceiling is already much too high.

For their breach of public trust Fox should be censured by Congress, and the FCC needs to push network holdings back to a 10 or 15 percent maximum.

It's clear we're living in an oddly passive period in our political evolution; the public is going to have to get much angrier before such Intolerable Acts become obsolete.

—Alan Rosenus, Saratoga


Recent break-in leaves residents uncomfortable

A break-in into a house is a terrible feeling. Since this has happened, I have not been able to sleep through a full night. It is the worst violation I think that can happen in one's home. To have it happen while we were in a different part of our home is cause for even more concern for us.

Recently we were the unfortunate target of a professional jewel thief. He had to have known our place because of where he chose to enter our residence, as well as his escape route through the relatively unknown creek trail at the end of our court.

We have been residents of Saratoga for 20 years and have felt completely safe in our neighborhood and home. Little did I ever think that our ranch-style home would be the perfect target for a professional jewel thief. He had probably been checking out the neighborhoods before he chose our house, and then watching for our habits to know when to strike.

This is my way of giving a warning to all residents that we have a professional jewel thief lurking in our neighborhoods. Be more aware of strangers and their cars. Take down information if you are uncomfortable with anyone strange to your environment.

—Marilyn Hasler, Saratoga