Rubbing a score in a rival’s face
Dear Editor,
This in response to the Dec. 4 letter to the editor from Sobrato High School student Dominic Portera.
Remember the score for the El Toro Bowl between the Live Oak Acorns and Sobrato Bulldogs was 22 Live Oak and 7 Bulldogs.
Please stop barking up our tree.
Daniel Adamo, Morgan Hill
On behalf of the Live Oak Acorns
Stolen flag’s return shows city has great police department, caring neighbors, friends
Dear Editor,
Recently I was surprised by the deplorable and hurtful deed of a single prankster.
My U.S. flag received from the military honor guard ceremony at my father’s funeral was stolen from a lighted pole in front of my home. It was a sad and heart-breaking shock to find it gone and my newspaper paper tubes vandalized early one evening. It’s bad enough that someone would steal a flag, but to take the flag that rested on my father’s casket was truly appalling. Who could be so hurtful? Why? Despite the fact they probably didn’t realize the story behind my flag, didn’t they consider the many possible reasons to fly our Stars and Stripes? If nothing more, consider the support of our Veterans and women and men now serving. As a Vietnam veteran, I understand and appreciate their sacrifice.
However the good deeds of so many people of our wonderful Morgan Hill and surrounding community cast an inspiring shadow on the single bad deed of the prankster. They deserve special recognition. Included are the police department dispatcher on my first call, police Sgt. Troy Hoefling, and his duty staff who responded immediately with sensitivity and genuine concern, searching the neighborhood hoping to find the flag. Chief Bruce Cummings, a Vietnam veteran himself, who called me several times, took the loss personally, reaching out to his staff and the community for the flag’s recovery. Morgan Hill police Cmdr. David Swing and officers Ken Howard and Miguel Masso, both Army veterans, who focused their personal involvement beyond the call of duty, have made a meaningful difference. Officers Masso and Howard did a very thorough investigation. It was their walking the entire neighborhood (several streets) and talking with neighbors that resulted in the return of the flag. Kudos to our entire Morgan Hill Police Department! Officer Masso, who served in the Army at West Point, is personally getting me a U.S flag from West Point. The entire Police Department, in addition to their normal safety and law enforcement duties, overwhelming workload, on-going priorities, support and sensitivity to our community, still reach-out to individual needs like mine. Media reporters Marilyn Dubil, Morgan Hill Times, Dan Garza, Channel 11 News, and Mike Cassidy, San Jose Mercury News, took a personal interest as well.
The flag will fly again! Chief Cummings, other officers involved in its recovery, others of his staff and even wives of the officers have requested to be present on the first re-raising of the flag. We will celebrate and honor my father’s U.S. flag together!
I appreciate our local neighbors whose thoughtfulness and support really helped me work through the questions with no answers. In particular the Ken and Joy Jones family who found the flag anonymously left on their door step. After a few days of curiosity and searching and the help of the police officers, they identified me as the owner and appeared as a family at our front door to return my cherished Stars and Stripes.
Not only is this a poignant reminder of the spirit of the season, but it’s an overwhelming punctuation that we have a caring, effective Morgan Hill Police Department and a community of good people, any season.
I am very touched by the compassionate good deeds of many.
Don Holmes, Morgan Hill
Cheering both high schools and rising above petty jealousy
Dear Editor,
I was intrigued when I read Dominic Portera’s Dec. 5 the letter to the editor. Apparently, he and I share the same experience regarding coverage of our local high schools in the Morgan Hill Times. I was fascinated and gratified to see that his reaction to the coverage of school activities perfectly reflected my reaction. I say “reflected” because I am not “the voice of Sobrato” but rather part of the community of Live Oak High School.
I regret that drugs are an omnipresent problem for society in 2007 and agree with Sobrato High School Principal Debbie Padilla that “as long as drugs are a problem in the community, they will be present in the schools.” Let’s take it one step further and say the schools are a reflection of the community. It’s almost impossible for the school community to contradict what is acceptable in the homes in our city.
Mr. Portera is correct; Sobrato is the “NEW thing.” That’s a fact of life. I am saddened by his need to have one school “dominate” over another. As I remember in the planning stages, there was to be “PARITY” between the two schools. That means an equal situation and is an idealization of reality. The schools will, quite naturally, differ from one another. Simply because one is north, the other is more south. But the most important detail is that both schools and their respective staffs are devoted to the growth and betterment of their students. We only need to compete with ourselves, with our own scores and results, and to become more than we were before. That means devotion to hard work and demanding a lot of ourselves, which would leave us with precious little time to hurl insults and slurs at our neighbors. Why waste energy on negative behavior when we can apply that energy to positive growth that results from hard work.
Let’s cheer and celebrate each other’s successes and rise above petty and even imagined jealousy – we have work to do.
Perhaps the Morgan Hill Times could devote an equal amount of coverage to celebrate the accomplishments of the many active student groups on both campuses. The students love the acknowledgment the paper gives them. Your articles become a focus in our classrooms.
Thank you for your support of our population.
Valerie Sacks, Morgan Hill
