School Segregation
It was horrifying to read this article (“A School Divided,” Jan. 23) and realize that nothing has changed since 1960 when the school committee in Sausalito launched the first integration attempt of the schools by removing me and five boys from Bayside school and bussing us into the MLK (Richarson Bay School) in 1960. It is an abomination to hear that nothing has changed in the self-proclaimed “most progressive state in the nation.” What century are we in?
The segregation of students in Sausalito and Marin City led to race riots when all students joined together at Tamalpais High School in 1960, as students tried to accommodate to new cultures totally foreign to them. This segregation was and continues to be a travesty.
I ask that you all consider carefully the fact that there should be no Marin City. Sausalito should catch up with the rest of the nation and integrate the two areas, with low-income housing available throughout the two areas and thus stopping the cruelty of segregation for all of its citizens, the most valuable being children.
Via Online
More Important Than Yoga
Re: “Road to Wellville,” (News, Jan. 16), the Sonoma County Economic Development Board’s 2012 report, Sonoma County Indicators Abridged Edition, states that 14.4 percent of our residents had no healthcare coverage in 2011. Per U.S. census estimated county population, that means 70,289 people with no insurance, no Medi-Cal, and no MediCare.
These people not only need access to urgent care for issues such as high fevers, dehydration, flu complications, severe pain and minor injuries, but they also need access to care and prescription refills for chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma.
While uninsured mothers continue to have nowhere but the emergency room to take their sick kids, and while uninsured people are going without their necessary prescription medications, it seems ludicrous to celebrate primary prevention measures like exercise, smoking cessation and yoga becoming readily available to the insured. We must find a way to provide primary care to our population of over 70,000 uninsured Sonoma County residents. Obamacare may bring about meaningful improvements in a year or two, but meanwhile, we have expensive suffering that needs to be addressed now.
Santa Rosa
$25 Weddings Are Awesome
Oh, Bohemian! Have you lost your way? How bohemian is it to include a guide to the wedding industry (Jan. 9) without some counter-article on alternative weddings? Forty-one years ago last June, we married in our backyard, held a potluck reception on the lawn and had a wedding we’ll remember until our memories fail (four cakes, one of which was declared the wedding cake until the children ate it, so another took its place). Total cost: $25, including my sweetie’s wedding dress and the invitations (mimeographed—nowadays they’d be photocopied or sent out on the internet). It’s not necessary to enslave yourself to the wedding industry to have a great, memorable event. The love between the couple and among family and friends makes for a great and memorable wedding; the rest is just decoration.
I know that you probably got some needed revenue from this advertising insert, and I don’t begrudge you the revenue. But still . . .
Sebastopol
Whistleblowers
John Kiriakou, former CIA officer and whistleblower, has been sentenced to 30 months in jail. In 2007, he confirmed the use of waterboarding and described it as torture. He joins Daniel Ellsberg, Bradley Manning and many others pursued by the government in an effort to intimidate those with access to “secrets” from releasing them. When President Obama was campaigning, he indicated he would support whistleblowers. Now in power, he doesn’t. And no one involved with torturing detainees has been sent to prison. What a surprise!
For a democracy to function, citizens need to know what’s really happening. And we don’t.
Santa Rosa
Write to us at le*****@******an.com.
