Saratoga News

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

Code should reflect
the Earth's needs

With Earth Day so recent, we think of the global footprint we use. It seems both ironic to be using the same code as we have for many years without adjusting it to today's Earth's needs and thinking of our grandchildren.

How many people are going be living in that 6,000-plus-square-foot home the Saratoga City Council just approved? And are they required to have solar panels to make their own electricity or does the community have to subsidize part of another power plant for their use?

And what has happened to the city's mandate to provide affordable housing for teachers and other city employees? Building $2 million townhomes as a "downsize" is hardly "affordable"!

Barby Ulmer

13004 Paseo Presada

Local schools do their
part for environment

Humans have a responsibility to take care and preserve the environment we have inherited from our forefathers so that future generations can enjoy the awe and wonder that nature provides us. Dr. Seuss wrote in his book The Lorax, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better. It's not."

I would like to take the time to commend the administration at Saratoga High School, schools in the Saratoga Union School District and St. Andrew's School for their commitment to recycling bottles, cans and paper. Unfortunately, there are a lot of schools out there that do not have the same commitment to recycling as schools in Saratoga.

It is important for our students to understand the importance of recycling and minimizing the negative impact we have on our environment. Administrators at these schools have shown that they do care "a whole awful lot."

Chris Miller

Los Gatos

Chris Miller is a member of the Los Gatos Union School District board of trustees and also a substitute school teacher.

West Valley does a good
job of picking up trash

We should take note of the fantastic job West Valley Collection and Recyling is doing in Saratoga. The first week was a bit rocky (surprise!), but since then the service has been utterly perfect. On time, never missed a day. I have never had such good trash service. Thanks, West Valley.

Bob Ingle

Toll Gate Road

Teachers should present
subjects without bias

With reference to the letter from Robert E. Wallace ("Urging letter writer to leave schools alone," May 8) about the controversy concerning teachers using the opportunity of classes to indoctrinate students, I was struck by his comment, "Leave our teachers in peace, to teach (or 'indoctrinate') our students." The implication being that he does not care if indoctrination is taking place or not. His concern is only that schools should be "religion-free."

The Constitution of the United States says only that the government shall not promote any religion above others, not that the public arena--schools or any other area--shall be religion-free. It is only in recent times that this has been taken to forbid any mention of anything relating to Christianity.

Other religions appear to be more freely discussed, as I have noticed local schools frequently try to foster community understanding by explaining the traditions of various ethnic groups in our community, including their religious beliefs. There can be no objection to such efforts to foster friendship and understanding, but it should include acknowledgment of the importance of Christian belief in the lives of many students.

Instead, the state religion that seems to be promoted in schools is at best some kind of humanistic agnosticism, apparently under the illusion that tolerance is the virtue of those who believe in nothing. On the contrary, what we are observing in the modern, increasingly secular and paranoid, world aptly illustrates another of G. K. Chesterton's memorable observations, "The people who are most bigoted are the people who have no conviction at all."

I agree with Mr. Wallace's desire that religion and religious theories be taught at home, but that should apply equally to humanism, atheism and evolution theory. Teachers should present their subjects honestly, without discussion of personal beliefs or bias. That would include presenting the unproven and ever-evolving theory of evolution (along with any other scientific postulations of origins) as theory, not fact.

Fay Knight

Glasgow Drive