Opinion

Dear Editor,

My son started his first year of high school Tuesday, a few days after the results of the annual Back to School Survey conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. This year's report highlights a huge disconnect between parents and their high school age teens, with parents in denial over what their kids are facing when socializing at parties. Joseph Califano, Jr., the executive director, says the "self-delusion and lack of awareness of these parental palookas (sic) put their children at enormous risk of drinking and using illegal and prescription drugs."

My house has become a war zone. I realize that my battle is pretty piddling on the total scale of wars, but let me tell you, I'm this close to waving a white flag and moving to another hemisphere. Or Antarctica.

Dear Editor,

Dear Editor,

Now that South County's only Albertson's grocery store, located in Morgan Hill Plaza, has closed, some people are urging City Council to condemn the strip mall on 7.5 acres at the southwest corner of Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road.

South County residents and animals are getting the short end of

Dear Editor,

Ben Gilmore frequently reminds us of the Biblical basis for our democracy. His June 27 column proclaimed, "Our nation was the only nation in human history to have been consciously and purposefully founded upon Biblical principles." I don't fully buy that. I would rather consider the influence of philosophers John Locke and David Hume. In particular, Locke's concept of the "social contract" was at the very core of the discussion with our founding fathers. The Declaration of Independence seems to echo the very words of Locke.

Dear Editor,