Being Green Requires Sensitivity, Empathy

Dear Editor,

People will need to evolve to the realization that going “green” is double-sided like the dollar. Sensitivity needs to be instilled in the thought process whereby “green” automatically associates itself to equitable “green compensation,” as double-sided as the dollar.

Insensitivity needs to be replaced by empathy. Empathy can mean to have the ability to figuratively walk in another person’s “shoes” and feel the experiences of that other person. Income deprived by “green” one-sided, is a feeling and an impact upon lives.

All due respect wherever it is due, whether it is the Hollywood Oscars/Academy Awards, while basking in luxury, going “green” or the Morgan Hill City Council, well salaried and benefited, voting to keep the southeast quadrant, “as is,” whenever and wherever the thought of “green” surfaces, there needs to be an automatic mental association drawn – just how are “green” promoters planning to pay for the green?

How will the property owners receive equitable “green” compensation?

The dollar is double sided, as should “green” be. Green needs to always have equitable compensation considerations behind it for there to be sensitivity for whom green affects.

I have an idea to propose when the subject of “green” surfaces. How about a program that subsidizes and compensates, on an equitable scale, the property owners, funded by all “green” promoters? It is at this time, that the scale of balance will be addressed.

The realization must sink in that “green” is double sided, just like the dollar, for the interest of all humankind affected which needs to be equitably met when the two sides are addressed. Equitable “compensation green” must not be insensitively cast aside as unimportant in life, as it has a very definite impact on quality of life for those affected.

Julie Borina Driscoll, Morgan Hill

Amazed by Speeders Around Jackson Oaks

Dear Editor,

I am amazed at Mr. Dan Russo who in the March 2 opinion page wrote that speeding cars on Dunne Avenue are going “a few miles over the speed limit.”  I live in Jackson Oaks and I know for a fact that many people are driving faster than 60 mph on this 40-mph road. I might remind Mr. Russo that this is a residential area … there are homes on this road, and walkers, runners and bicyclists. I think that this city could have the budget of Palo Alto if it ticketed the speeders, red-light and stop-sign runners. Good Job, Morgan Hill police officers … I look forward to seeing you! You might want to check out Hill Road. 

Sandra Stanley, Morgan Hill

Cops Should Find Something Else to Do Instead of Ticketing Us

Dear Editor,

I am in agreement with Dan Russo’s March 2 letter to the editor about the new motorcycle police and their ticket-happy ways. Everyone is complaining about them. We have a business here in town and an associate decided to ride his bike to our office to conduct some business. He was probably trying to save on the ridiculous gas prices. He was pulled over and given a ticket for riding against traffic on his bike. I may not know the law but if you take a look at the police blotters every week in the newspaper it seems that our taxpayers’ money would be better spent with these officers in some parking lots, showing some presence, preventing all the vandalism and thefts we have been having.

Deb Guidry, Morgan Hill

Ready to Strike, If Needed

Dear Editor,  

The March 2 front page story about the Morgan Hill classified school employees, voting to authorize a strike if we have to, reported less than half our members voted.

Well, we have approximately 300 classified employees in the district. After you subtract the employees who cannot vote, whether it is due to not being union members by choice, lack of hours or job decscription, having 146 people voting is more than half the employees. Those who showed up should be congratulated. There were others who would have liked to vote but were allegedly threatened with repercussions if they came to vote. Some came anyway, others stayed away in fear of losing their jobs.

The district and Mr. Peter Mandel, president of the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education, keep saying we’re being offered an 8 percent salary increase over two years. That is true. I can’t quibble with that fact. But to get that 8 percent we must work additional days that will not be fully payed for by the offer. Also it still leaves us woefully behind the other bargaining units in our district and every other comparable district in this area in the portion of our benefits that is payed for by the disrict. At the present time we are getting about half of the amount payed for our benefits as the Gilroy Unified School District classified employees and $2,000 less than the other bargaining units in MHUSD.

We decided to go forward with a strike-AUTHORIZATION vote in case mediation was not able to settle our differences with the district. We are still hopeful it will not be necessary to implement this.

I have worked for MHUSD since March of 1980 and I have never experienced a situation like this. I never thought I would. The classified unit is demoralized by the shabby treatment we have received. It has to stop.

Pamela Torrisi

Chapter chairwoman of the Service Employees International Union Local 521

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