Arts vital for kids, thriving community

We moved here because Escondido has a strong commitment to the arts, which brighten and enrich our lives. I volunteer at the Center for the Arts because I want to see it continue to "enrich the lives of all within its reach through the arts and their power for community building and enhancement by providing diverse artistic, cultural, educational, social and entertainment experiences of the highest quality" for our community.

I enjoy helping the dedicated staff present cultural events and vital education programs such as "My Story: Literature Through the Arts." Schools rely on the Center for Arts for education that is no longer a part of their curriculum. Schoolchildren are stimulated academically, envisioning their own creative possibilities.

What a pleasure to watch the school buses roll up in with our future adults to attend Center Stage, and museum tours/art projects. I never miss free Wells Fargo First Wednesdays and am grateful to live in a community with this opportunity. My family and friends have created traditions around free center events â€"â€" Day of the Dead Celebration, 4th of July Concert/Fireworks, Summer Pops and Holiday Tree Lighting.

I cannot envision living in a community that is culturally void. We need art!

Judie Bagwell

Escondido

Hell's Angels in Oceanside?

My wife, Lisa, and I were in downtown Oceanside on Saturday night. We had just had dinner at Anita's and were strolling Coast Highway when a group of motorcyclists, headed north, went by. A short while later, just north of Mission Avenue, we saw the motorcyclists back into a parking space on the west side of Mission.

We were shocked to see they were all wearing vests and jackets with Hell's Angels logos. There were seven or eight total. Is this something worth investigating? Was this a chance occurrence or have the Hell's Angels started making a home in Oceanside? I would hate to have their presence drag our city down at a time when things are looking so positive. I know they've been involved with drugs and prostitution and other crimes. I think this is worth investigating.

John Johnson

Vista

A parent's budget fix

Our California Legislature really needs some budget advice from California's moms and dads. If my family was in a deep financial crisis that meant I couldn't provide my kids with the essentials they need, I would turn over every cushion looking for spare change, get a weekend job, or sell things in a yard sale. I would try almost anything to bring in more money.

While our state leaders have said these budget cuts are agonizing for them, they haven't yet considered every option to avoid or lessen them.

Cuts to programs serving children and families could be avoided if legislators closed corporate tax loopholes and raised taxes on items like tobacco and alcohol in order to raise revenue. According to recent public opinions polls, these revenue options are overwhelmingly popular, while drastic cuts to social programs are not.

I urge our leadership to step up and do right by California's kids and families.

Tara Ogilvie

Carlsbad

Thanks for covering field trip to gardens

Thank you for the great coverage of our first field trip to Alta Vista Gardens with Rancho Minerva students on June 4 ("Students hike to Alta Vista Gardens," PrepArts and School News, June 22). We had a great walk from their school and enjoyed the gardens. We even surprised a visiting coyote in the jungle area!

To clarify, I am not an Alta Vista Gardens board member, but a retired teacher and volunteer who believes in the plans for our community garden. I have been working with the board for 10 months planning the Children's Garden, including a name and design contest. "Bugs, Birds and Butterflies" will be our working title as we develop a fun experience for children in nature.

We had a wonderful Earth Day event in April and recognized the contest winners; we are proud to be connected with families and the community. Please check out our Alta Vista Gardens Web site (www.altavistagardens.org) for more, including our Fourth of July BBQ and fireworks viewing from atop the hill in Brengle Terrace.

Teachers and youth groups who would like to schedule field trips can contact me through the Web site. I look forward to working with you!

Nancy Jones

volunteer

Alta Vista Gardens

Legalize drugs, but it won't save money

Legalizing drugs will solve all of our problems. Really?

Over the past several months, I have read several articles in the North County Times, as well as other newspapers and magazines, promising the end of drug crimes and money raised through taxes, if we would only legalize or decriminalize drugs.

Many have landed on the idea of taxing marijuana to close the California budget gap. The thought is that legalization will not only bring in revenue when marijuana is sold, but billions of dollars will be saved by reducing the number of people who will not be imprisoned for marijuana violations. Really?

These people are criminals. They are in prison for transporting and selling marijuana, not for using it. If marijuana were legal, they would be in prison for transporting and selling some other drug. They are criminals. That is how they make their money. Really.

Just because it is legal, doesn't mean the cost of enforcement goes away. They will need law enforcement to ensure the taxes are paid/collected and the black market doesn't take taxes away. Really.

Legalize if you must, but don't tell me it will save money. Really.

Paul Roberts

Encinitas

Please support Poway FFA

Once again, the Poway Unified School District attempted to close down a positive and great program at Poway High School by threatening their fabulous teacher with a pink slip and the possibility of part-time teaching work only. That would be impossible for a teacher to do and they know it.

I worked hard for six years to save this program and with other people's help, we got a foundation started to support future students for years to come.

I am asking all of you to please search for a $5 or $10 dollar donation and mail it to this address: Poway High School Ag Partners, P.O. Box 613, Poway, CA 92074 or e-mail: info@powayusdag.com.

I will be making a donation and with all your help, we will not close this excellent program.

Thank you for all or anything you can do.

Carol Long

retired, Poway Future Farmers

public relations representative

Evolution is not completely random

Once again Irvin Forbing (Letters, June 5) mischaracterizes an evolutionary process. He says that "the general laws that govern chemical reactions in the formation of DNA" are such that "the probability that a particular arrangement (of nucleotides) could result in specification of a particular protein would be infinitesimally small."

Forbing would be correct if that process were completely random, but it is not.

Some amino acids are more attracted to each other than to others, so they are more likely to form stable bonds. Therefore, the probabilities for those combinations are much higher than for random combinations.

Furthermore, scientists have shown that these more probable, stable combinations eventually form larger structures which also remain stable.

Thus, the complexity of DNA arises by stages, not all at once. The order that results from this process emerges without any planning for it, simply because of the natural laws of organic chemistry. Finally, natural selection is "anti-chance," preserving highly improbable combinations from one generation to another.

Keep those creationist letters coming â€"â€" they give evolutionists great opportunities to help educate people about real science.

Paul Buchman

Vista

Story on vehicle failed to cite funding

I too was baffled by the North County Times' printing of the Associated Press article on June 18, "S.D. startup to build cars in Louisiana." If a reporter had investigated the story, he or she would have known about the $67 million in funding from the state of Louisiana, the $15 million in funding from Monroe-area local governments and the funding from venture capital Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a company with two offices in China.

Al Gore is a partner in KPCB, and Gore's own company, Generation Investment Management, has partnered with KPCB to build the V-Vehicle, which does not use electricity, fuel cells or a hybrid system, at a former General Motors plant.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander of Louisiana is in Washington, D.C., lobbying Congress for $340 million in funding.

Denise Deegan

San Marcos

Err on the side of compassion

I know Ted Robinson is sincere in his pro-abortion position, (letter of June 6), but his logic is incomprehensible.

His statement that "conceptions are spontaneously aborted in 30 to 50 percent of cases with no intervention" is inaccurate, and he doesn't give his source.

He thinks a conceived child is only a bit of protoplasm, and he doesn't differentiate between body and consciousness. If it is opposing beliefs, it is much wiser to err on the side of compassion and assume the baby has consciousness and is terrorized when a pair of tongs come to rip his/her body apart. That he/she feels nothing is not rational thought.

This discussion has nothing to do with the First Amendment. Abortion is not a religion you're establishing nor disestablishing. It's a moral or immoral decision, and ending a life that is not yours (intentionally) is immoral and brutally selfish.

If life begins at conception, Mr. Terry is a hero. If it doesn't, when does it? Mr. Robinson needs to tell us, and perhaps we'll see less murdering of young children by their own mothers at 1, 2 or 3 years of age.

Abortion has led us to this degenerate state of affairs.

Richard Cole

Encinitas

Only allowed to insult Republicans?

I wonder if Kathleen Parker would be an apologist for David Letterman if he made a joke about Barack Obama holding a state dinner and serving watermelon and fried chicken ("Letterman's crude jokes no reason for censorship," June 14).

First, he wouldn't do it because Letterman is a unabashed admirer of Obama and he doesn't make denigrating jokes about Democrats.

Second, Parker would be all over him for stereotyping her beloved president. You are only allowed to insult Republicans.

Robert Smith

Oceanside

The right wing is at it again

Watching and listening to all of the right-wing pundits during the past few days on television and on the Web, and it's nothing but fear-mongering again. This time it's not Muslims and atom bombs, it's the government! And all the "government is the problem" crowd are out in force, spewing forth half-truths and plain downright lies about the health care changes that need to happen.

It's a no-brainer that we ought to have a public option in health care. In my humble opinion, I don't think the Republicans give a â€"â€" about people having to wait for a surgery, or having the government tell you what doctor to see and all the other lies that I've been hearing. I think they know it would work, just like Social Security works, unemployment insurance works; and it's the fact that it would happen under a Democratic president and they can't handle that.

If President Obama gets the public option plan through Congress, the Dems will be in power for the next 20 years. The right knows it and will say whatever it takes to make sure it doesn't happen.

William Musser

Oceanside

Let Jerry Kern remain in office

For those who are reading this for the first time, a group of individuals is petitioning for a recall to remove an Oceanside City Council member. The cost of a recall would cause some city employees to lose their jobs. When a city forks out $500,000 processing a special election, someone has to pay.

We as taxpayers will pay the price for this special election. The economy is bad enough and expected to get worse. No need for city employees to become jobless, no need to close public facilities, no need for a recall and no need for the city to pay $500,000.

Let Jerry Kern remain in office completing his term. Let the voters voice their opinion at the next election in 2010.

June Weers

Oceanside

White verdict sets a bad precedent

Re: "Jury clears police officer in shooting," June 23: This is a bad day for the justice system and law enforcement in North County. For the jury to find Frank White not guilty in these charges is a total injustice. For any officer (on- or off-duty) to fire upon a woman and her son in this situation (high on drugs and booze or not) is totally unacceptable.

Despite her actions, any professional cop would have had many different (humane) options to resolve this situation in a much more responsible way. The fact that he got away with this sets a precedent for future confrontations that will only lead us to the police state that I'm sure none of us wants to have.

Rick Patterson

San Marcos