Dear Editor, Well needless to say this is the worst flood I have
ever seen in Morgan Hill. My garage is flooded. Of course we were
renovating the home at the time and TVs and furniture were in the
garage including new furniture we had just bought. I am just beside
myself.
Time to go to Washington and get this flooding mess fixed
Dear Editor,
Well needless to say this is the worst flood I have ever seen in Morgan Hill. My garage is flooded. Of course we were renovating the home at the time and TVs and furniture were in the garage including new furniture we had just bought. I am just beside myself.
To get home, I had to park a block or two away (higher ground). Walking to my house, I am over waist deep in water, I pull out my cell phone only to have it slip into the abyss. I see my wife waving from what appears to be an island of two by fours. We frantically try to salvage what we can but it’s no use, damage had been done. Cars on the street are under water. Is this a little Katrina? No, it’s the annual 100 year flood. Annual 100 year flood? It’s no longer a 100 year flood if it happens every other year.
We have not done our job to protect Morgan Hill. As I have always said, Flood Project PL 566 is a priority and it should have been solved by now. If I were a council member (no hinting), I would be in Washington, and I would not leave until I saw the beginnings of work to prevent this disaster from ever happening again. I would be in the faces of our legislators, congressmen, senators and governors, including every single regulatory agency that had anything to do with preventing this disaster. I’d give them all a bucket of flood water and give them a real taste of Morgan Hill.
I would be relentless in my effort to get this done because the community and the city deserve nothing less.
It is time to fix this.
Mark Grzan, Morgan Hill
Thanks for the quick response by city officials to Tuesday’s storm
Dear Editor:
Kudos to the city of Morgan Hill for their rapid cleanup and response to Tuesday’s storm. They provided police officers to aid traffic around flooded areas and cleared storm drains. A huge effort appreciated by all.
Karen P. Anderson, Morgan Hill
Good aspects of President’s health care plan are being overlooked
Dear Editor,
There is a seldom recognized aspect of President Barack Obama’s Health Care Reform plan that is of vital importance to parents of all young adults. Now, only full-time college students are eligible to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans. This leaves not only those who do not or cannot afford to, pursue college studies but also college graduates who find employment doors closed in this economy without access to health care.
It seems likely that in case of illness or accident that parents would feel the need to assume at least some of the cost of medical treatment for their children. Otherwise, these young adults will be forced into the emergency room system that places such a burden on taxpayers.
President Obama’s plan would allow young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance plan until the age of 26 whether they are in school or not, benefiting families and the community as well. It seems that some of these important aspects of Obama’s plan are being overlooked in the sometimes too heated debate over reform.
Donna Ellis, Morgan Hill
Help State Fish and Game ban the sale of live frogs and turtles
Dear Editor,
Frogs and turtles are in big trouble worldwide for a variety of reasons. The State Fish & Game Commission is now considering a ban on the importation and sale of live frogs and turtles for California’s many live animal food markets.
Every year some two million American bullfrogs are imported into California for the markets, along with several hundred thousand turtles. The frogs are commercially raised in Taiwan. The turtles are all taken from the wild in the eastern U.S., depleting local populations there.
None of these animals are native to California, and they cause environmental havoc when released into local waters (a common, though illegal, practice). The exotics prey upon and displace our native species. Worse, all are diseased and/or parasitized. It is illegal to sell such products for human consumption, but the sales continue unabated.
Even more troubling, a 2009 study published in “Biological Conservation” showed that 62 percent of the frogs necropsied were infected with the notorious chytrid fungus, a prime suspect in the extinctions of scores of amphibian species around the world.
Letters in support of the ban are urgently needed. Please write to: State Fish & Game Commission, 1416 9th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814; or e-mail – fg*@****ca.gov.
Eric Mills, coordinator, Action for Animals, Oakland
AIM: No additional study needed; no development agreement signed
Dear Editor,
This clarifies two points made in the Sept. 29 story concerning the American Institute of Mathematics planned headquarters in Morgan Hill. City officials are quoted as saying that AIM agrees that additional geophysical study is necessary.
To the contrary, AIM does not agree that additional study is required, and this was the subject of lengthy discussion at the city council meeting in July. AIM’s and Fry’s position has always been that the geophysical report submitted to the city meets and exceeds state and local requirements. The city’s geologist has a different opinion, and thus the entire project is at a standstill.
Another clarification is that while there has been preliminary discussion concerning a development agreement, neither AIM nor Fry’s has agreed to enter into such an agreement, and to date, no proposed form of agreement has been provided by the city of Morgan Hill.
Manuel Valerio, Fry’s Electronics Community Relations Manager
A few problems with letter writer’s analysis regarding health care
Dear Editor,
I’m sure my good friend Dr. John Quick favors socialized medical care because he feels that’s the best America can afford for everyone.
There are a few problems with his analysis. People are not racing out of this country for socialized medical care elsewhere; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Having lived in Drayton, N.D., a small town on the Canadian border, we saw people traveling south from Canada to access care in Fargo, N.D., and especially the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis. Not that Canada didn’t have fine clinics and hospitals, it was the long wait times that became unbearable. I never knew anyone who went north for care.
Closer to home, our multi-handicapped son spent three months at Stanford’s Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital where he got astoundingly great care and lives today because of it. While there we met other families whose children suffered from profound illnesses and handicaps. They came from all over the U.S. as well as many foreign countries to get the extraordinary health care which is the hallmark of American medical doctors and hospitals.
Next, I might be for a form of socialized health care if our president, legislators and other greater lights in government were also required to “buy into” this same fantabulous, public option, universal health care system as the rest of us.
So far … no. They will all get to keep their top-flight care for themselves and their families funded at taxpayer expense whilst we must pony up billions, nay trillions (who ever heard of trillions before this administration?) for our own puny (eventually) health coverage.
In reality this must all be paid for by someone (our children and grandchildren?). We will get “triage” care decided for us by some far-off government entity. We are trading liberty for womb-to-tomb entitlements – which is a dictatorship. This great country will go bankrupt.
If you like the way the government runs the post office, the Department of Motor Vehicles and our education system, and are happy with the recent takeovers of car makers, banks, and the way it’s going after the energy sector – and who knows what’s next – then don’t complain when you’re told what prescriptions you can buy, what surgeries and other treatments you will be allowed, whether your disabled child’s life is worth saving, or if your aged parents can get pain relief or live-saving medicine.
I have to agree with Will Rogers, who once said; “The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”
Carol Agaliotis, Morgan Hill
