Down With Democracy Frank Garden''s letter [Aug. 8-14] and Harry J. Wagner''s [Aug. 15-21] were the most refreshing opinions published as of late in Coast Weekly. I will add to their analysis of the effort to repeal the utility tax in Salinas.

If the rats in Sacramento are going to bail out the bankrupted PG&E with tax dollars from Californians, why should any municipality levy a tax on it?

In addition, how does Gary Karnes characterize the effort to repeal this political spoils system as "Bolshevism" if it is brought to a vote of the general public? Afraid of democracy?

The Weekly hit piece on Mark Dierolf read like a paid advertisement for the local Democrat party and the opposition of the utility tax repeal. I''ll take a libertarian (big "L" or small) over Mr. Karnes'' version of democracy (big "D") any day.

SINCERELY, JEFFREY A. KELLOGG/CARMEL

Peace, Pot and Go Solar

Why believe the power mongers running the power system? The same crooks that engineer things like "California power crises" and the justification for drilling oil in Alaska and the Middle East are back again. They are trying to scam the poorest city in the county into building a power plant in a small section of a flood plain in their back yard, based solely on the dollars ($160,000 a year) it would bring to the community [NewsBriefs, Aug. 22-28].

That argument has never worked for legalizing marijuana, at its $400-per-ounce price, a mere 25 pounds could do that, and the only health risk is to the smoker, not the community at large. You can''t pave your way out of a traffic jam, and you can''t drill your way out of our thirst for oil either. NASA puts solar panels on the most technologically advanced box they can dream up and shoot it into space, why then don''t we start thinking ahead and using solar and wind technology at home?

The smart guys at Calpine (the company trying to sell this scam) call this a peaker plant, meaning that it works at the peak power demand time of the day. This happens to be at the exact same time the sun is at its peak; funny how that works.

We find it appalling that poor countries in the Middle East loath us for raping their land and culture for our short-term power needs. There are 70,674 residents in Pajaro, 408,000 in Monterey County, and as of April 1, 2000 was 281,421,906 nationwide. Every one of those people live in a house and work in or near a building, all of those have a rooftop, those are all potential little wells of power. Lets think our way into the future, and stop buying a "war on terror" or "drugs" or anything else the CEO''s running our beloved and honest multi-national corporations can dream up to make a buck and keep us connected to the umbilical cord to their wallets.

JOHN WICHMANN/CARMEL VALLEY

It Was a Joke!

I am appalled at the Weekly''s article about student life at CSUMB ["Student Survival Guide, August 22-28]. Grammatical errors aside, this is a horrible misrepresentation of student life at CSUMB. If you look at the demographics of CSUMB students you will find that we are comprised of more financial aid students and returning adult students than any other CSU. I don''t know of anyone here who has parents who are paying their way with money from stocks, and I wouldn''t consider an economic recession as "the apocalypse".

I, a reader that usually holds the Monterey County Coast Weekly in high regard, am ashamed of your reporter''s adolescent simplified view of what she believes college life should be. CSUMB is a proud, diverse, institution and I think that it deserves respectful, quality press form your publication.

PAUL WATTERS/CSUMB

Note: The Weekly did not run a story about student life at CSUMB. It was a wildly broad satire about student life in Monterey county in general. -Editor.