As we do nothing to move from oil, we incur even greater costs

Dear Editor, W.R. Blakley’s letter misses an important point most of us never consider. A 42-gallon of oil produces only 19 gallons of gasoline. The remaining portion is used for a partial listing of 6,000 other products from soft contact lenses to antihistamines (www.ranken-energy.com/Products%20from%20Petroleum.htm).

I have yet to see what we are going to use as a replacement when this commodity is gone. Oil is likely at its peak production and in 100 years, cars as we know them will be gone.

High speed rail, an electrified service, conserves precious oil resources and extends its life. In the coming years as oil diminishes, its cost will skyrocket; in fact it will be priceless.

Blakley says let private industry do it.

I am sorry, the one thing that the government has that private industry doesn’t is eminent domain.

Landowners who know that their property stands in the path of a rail line will just seek exorbitant prices that no private industry could ever afford. Eminent domain as distasteful as it is, allows the government/public/you and me to pay a fair market price and complete the project in a timely manner.

We do not have private contractors building and owning our highways because they can’t, and they can’t build high speed rail for the same reasons.

High speed rail is not for tomorrow, it should have been done yesterday. And as we do nothing, we are incurring costs we cannot even imagine and will lose products we take for granted for which there is no known replacement.

Mark Grzan, Morgan Hill

Resident now shops in Morgan Hill thanks to San Jose’s bag ban

Dear Editor,

I was very happy to read that Morgan Hill has decided not to implement the government mandate to stop using plastic and paper bags in Morgan Hill.

I have purposely adjusted my shopping from San Jose to Morgan Hill because of San Jose’s flawed implementation. I am working on convincing my friends from the north to do the same. We use the paper bags for other purposes around the house.

Also I was taught that paper comes from a renewable resource – our forests. What crazy ideas up in San Jose. And the plastic bags are always reused picking up after our pets.

Good job Morgan Hill.

Stand up for the freedom of your citizens.

Dan Russo, Morgan Hill

Guantanamo Prison indefinitely detains alleged terrorists

Dear Editor,

Wednesday, Jan. 11, marked the 10th anniversary of detaining alleged terrorists at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba.

Of the 171 inmates that remain, 87 have been approved for release, but they still remain in prison. Though President Obama signed an executive order to close the prison in January 2009, the recent signing of the National Defense Authorization Act mandates indefinite imprisonment without trial for prisoners suspected of terrorism.

Col. Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo, believes that Obama has reversed his policies because of Congressional pressure and the desire to be reelected in 2012. Davis was fired for writing his opinion in The Wall Street Journal, which reprimanded the Obama administration for its lack of leadership in providing fair trials to Guantanamo detainees.

Davis, lawyers representing Guantanamo prisoners, freed Guantanamo prisoners, the FBI, CIA and Guantanamo guards all have acknowledged that prisoners were tortured, including waterboarding, beatings, sleep deprivation and sexual abuse. Some prisoners died in custody and others have lost limbs.

Former prisoner Omar Deghayes lost his vision because of an alleged beating and attempted eye gouging by guards in order to incite fear among prisoners. Inmates who rebelled against the torture and who translated for other inmates have been further punished.

Few formal trials have been held and few releases have been ordered by trained judges, suggesting both disorganization and blatant injustice at the prison. Colonel Morris Davis resigned as chief prosecutor at Guantanamo, for he believes confessions given under the pressures of torture do not belong in American court cases. Torture, he says, goes against American human values.

On Guantanamo’s anniversary this year, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit against the United States government for allowing torture in the name of national safety. London hosted an international conference featuring former prisoners who were tortured.

Additionally, the conference screened a film commemorating prisoners who died as a result of torture.

At Guantanamo itself, prisoners held a three-day hunger strike and formal protest in the prison’s communal areas. Meanwhile, a peaceful Washington D.C. protest was held in in solidarity for Guantanamo prisoners who remain in indefinite detention.

Catherine Connor, San Martin and a junior at UC Berkeley