If you found gift bag, please e-mail

On Saturday, Feb. 21, my teen stepson left a birthday gift bag at the covered picnic table area of the Patricia Birdsall Sports Park across from Great Oak High School. The large blue bag was stuffed with colored tissue paper and had very, very sentimental items from his mother, including his first shoes, a Bible and new clothing. I am trying to get word out to community members who may have been at the park, perhaps found the bag or any of the contents and didn't know who to return them to. The baby sneakers and Bible are the items we would especially like to recover. Anyone who may have found any of the items can contact me at todayasis@hotmail.com.

Please e-mail if you have any other ideas of how to get this information to community members. Thank you so much for your assistance.

Nina Henry

Temecula

Beautiful classical music performed at local theater

My wife and I experienced a beautiful classical music concert in Temecula.

Under the direction of Warren Gref, the California Chamber Orchestra performed an amazing selection of classical music from the great works of composers George Frederic Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach and Edvard Grieg. The orchestra was joined by Pamela Vliek Martchev, solo flutists performing Bach's Overture, Rondeau, Sarabande, Bourree I and II, Polonaise (Lentement), Minuet and Badinerie.

These may all sound foreign, but once you sit down and fasten your safety belt, I guarantee you, you will be totally enveloped and wanting more.

Even more exciting is the fact that this concert was within 15 minutes of my home. This is no small matter. Temecula having its very own chamber orchestra, with musicians having played with the most celebrated orchestras and symphonies from around the world, is something to be cherished.

For parents of children already playing a musical instrument, or possibly considering doing so, these concerts may play a tremendous role in their musical growth.

I also recommend the Sunday Classics at the Merc. During these events, the audience is welcomed to engage the musicians during one-on-one discussion regarding music and performer.

To learn more, visit their Web site goldenvalleymusicsociety.org.

Kenneth Dodd

Temecula

I don't want to pay for Israeli war crimes

Conversation with my conscience:

He said: Want the economy to be strong again? Stop paying billions of tax dollars annually to Israel.

I wondered how billions would fix a problem in the trillions!

He replied: Wasn't Israel the root cause for our nation to start the Iraq war?

What about intelligence received "weapons of mass deception"? Isn't the true cost for this war now estimated at $3 trillion? Didn't our exports drop because people overseas were fed up with the Bush administration and boycotted American goods? Wasn't this enough to dip our economy into recession?

I may not entirely agree with him, but understand his point, yet struggled with the constant reminder -- Israel is a special ally.

Replied smiling: We have many allies, why should Israel be more special than Canada or Mexico or the U.K.? It is a wealthy country; all Israelis get free health care while so many Americans can't afford it! Why give Israel more money than all other countries combined, and when they use our money to get cluster bombs, then drop in civilian areas, aren't we indirectly paying for their war crimes? Isn't it time for a "change"?

Tarek Ayoub

Temecula

Thanks to the women's club in Hemet

Please help me thank the Women's Club of Hemet for the work they have done.

Five months ago, the club adopted a group of senior citizens. Every month since then, they have provided food for a feast, party, barbecue or other social event.

Plus they have taken up a collection from their members of food, personal care items and paper goods and given them directly to the seniors. These are low-income and disabled seniors. They have helped these families not to go hungry and to have comfort. I applaud them. Thank you, Hemet Women's Club members.

Please don't forget the seniors. They need you.

They also help children, the library, the forests and so many other local groups. It is hard to even list all the great work this wonderful organization does.

Daisy Heidmiller

Hemet

Thanks to a kind gentleman in Murrieta

To the kind gentleman with the tractor on one of the dirt roads off Los Alamos in Murrieta: My cousin was driving by while you were out grading the road, which had become very uneven after the recent rains. My cousin asked whether you would fill in potholes at the end of my driveway if he paid you. You were kind enough to do this and refused payment of any kind, not even a cold drink.

It seems that the help-one-another mentality only exists in small-town environments these days. It's nice to know that this mentality also exists in places such as Murrieta.

I hope you will see this letter and accept my heartfelt appreciation for what you did.

Anne Nelson

Murrieta

We have to accept that we don't understand

After reading the letters about where God is, or isn't, in this world, maybe we can remember the words of Elie Wiesel in his book "Night" about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp.

Among other horrors, Wiesel and his fellow prisoners were forced to watch the hanging of a young boy by the Germans. The child, because of his small size, didn't die right away and struggled at the end of a rope and was still alive when the other prisoners filed past the scaffold, and Wiesel heard someone behind him wonder aloud, "Where is God? Where is He?"

"And I heard a voice within me answer him: 'Where is He? Here He is -- He is hanging here on this gallows …'"

Sometimes we have to understand that we don't understand.

Barrie Vernon

Menifee

There have got to be better columnists

I very much support editorials that reflect various political views. However, I also believe that readers deserve commentaries from seasoned journalists who write for credible newspapers and media companies.

Michelle Malkin definitely does not meet the above criteria. Additionally, I find her venomous rantings not only insulting, but laughable.

In the future, please do your readers a favor by selecting more qualified contributing columnists who have the intelligence to make their views known without all the sarcastic bile that consistently spews from Michelle Malkin's pen.

Karla Luff-Lopez

Temecula