Poetic Thanks

Thank you for a truly lovely article, in letter and spirit (“P.G.’s Poet-In-Residence Barbara Mossberg can’t stop thinking – or spreading – poetry,” April 14-20). My thanks to each of you for making this happen, this news of one person’s gratitude to promote poetry in our civic lives. I am very grateful for your commitment to our civic life through promoting language arts. What a community this is! | Barbara Mossberg | Pacific Grove

PG&E Problems

Private utilities must give shareholders the biggest bang for their buck. PG&E has horrible record keeping, which is cheaper in the short run, but unfortunately in the long haul it can end up being more expensive. Had PG&E kept good, organized records, maybe those lives lost in San Bruno would have been saved, as well as millions of dollars in penalties and lawsuits. So, is it really cheaper to keep sloppy records? When and where is the next San Bruno going to occur? Nuclear power is another private utility that has been watched closely in light of the earthquake in Japan. Again, for the same reasons above for PG&E, nuclear power plants are privately owned, profit-focused enterprises that overshadow public health and safety. These facilities are built to only about 7.5-magnitude earthquake standards to maximize profit. These dangerous power plants should be built to 10.0 earthquake standards. | Michael Houda | Prunedale

Taxation 101

David Cay Johnston does a wonderful job of weaving half-truths into a fan so he can fan his hot air on the flames of class warfare (“There’s a burden to bear, and it’s the regular people who are bearing it, while the rich and corporations sit firmly on their wealth,” April 14-20). However, the facts are these: During Reagan, Clinton and half of Bush’s term, lower taxes worked, the economy grew at a never-before-seen rate and people across all economic classes prospered. What’s happening now started in 2007, when the liberals took control of both houses of Congress. That was the start of unchecked government growth. The size of government is so big now that the current revenue stream can’t support it.

As Mr. Johnston alluded to, we’re one of the highest-taxed societies in the world. We don’t have a revenue problem – we have a spending problem. Our government is too big and inefficient to work under any kind of taxation. Its growth is self-perpetuating; the more inefficiencies and mistakes it makes, the more mistake-ridden departments we layer on to oversee the inefficiencies and mistakes… so, it never really gets better, just bigger. Get the size of government back in balance. The other thing that Mr. Johnston fails to talk about, because it would blow his class warfare strategy right out of the water is, U.S. Fiduciary Law. These laws require companies, financial institutions and tax advisers to take advantage of every benefit under our tax codes, banking and securities exchange laws. The people that are really at the heart of the problem are in Congress. If you didn’t raise or lower taxes by one penny but cleaned up all the loopholes in our tax code, revenue would grow at a greater rate than any tax increase that would be tolerated.

So for every politician that points their ugly little finger at millionaires and Wall Street as the root of all our problems, there are three fingers pointing back at them and rightfully so. | Blue Marlin | via Web

Shame on Squid

Often, Squid’s comments are intentionally written tentacle-in-cheek. However, last week’s column inferring that the staff of the City of Marina was intentionally putting roadblocks in front of the organizers of our Earth Day event was just plain misleading. This time, I think Squid has managed to put all eight tentacles into its’ mouth, although I admit I do love stuffed calamari.

As frustrating and perhaps archaic as some of our rules are, they exist. No organization is exempt from them. More importantly, the citizens of Marina who volunteer to support community events steadfastly try to keep politics out of the discussion. For the most part, we have succeeded. The inference in Squid’s column did a great injustice to the city staff and the organizers of Earth Day and has the potential to create the very barriers we strive to avoid. | Dan Amadeo | Marina