Made up your mind yet about Proposition 29? Consider who is opposed.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is one. Another is the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, an outfit that, under the guise of saving mom and pop from being taxed out of their home, succeeded (through Prop 13) in giving big tax breaks to corporations, subverting majority rule on spending measures, and taking away control of taxation from local democratically elected officials.

Harry Stoll

I generally subscribe to Barbara Zivica’s tight-fisted prudence. I, too, pride myself on fiscal integrity. For the record, I, like Barbara, disagreed with extending the Mello-Roos tax, the Antioch sales tax, and the recent water tax in its’ convoluted packaging.

On her recent column, though, regarding Measure J  (renovation of the going on sixty-year Antioch High School, the only school in Contra Costa of that era that has not been restored), Barbara simply barked up the wrong tree as a watchdog.

Even though AHS is sandwiched by stunning Heritage High, college-campus looking Deer Valley, and Pittsburg High, which had a gorgeous makeover keeping its’ old bone structure, I can respectfully differ with Barbara’s opinion that it’s O.K. for our downtown school to stand out like a sore thumb.

Opinion and facts are two things, though. I am not here to argue the ballot merits as the voters will determine whether our kids deserve second rate perimeter security; cracking walls and sidewalks; dark classrooms, outmoded heating, air and technology; an unusable pool and track; and a cafeteria that can’t fit them all in rainy weather. It is the citizens who will decide what an equitable facility would or would not do for downtown morale and property value.

Being, though, that I apparently surprise Barbara in  living one block over in the non-Mello-Roos area, and would, in fact, pay the tax should it pass, I am compelled, as a private citizen, to fact check.

As a soon-to-be sixty-six year old who will start collecting social security June 13th, I, too, would love, both personally and philosophically, to see seniors exempted for the $4.52 per $100,000 assessed value.  Even though it amounts to a tenth or twentieth of what Mello-Roos owners pay, seniors have truly done so much for our community and deserve a break.

Unfortunately, under the law of construction bonds, there is so no such possible exemption. It is simply legally verboten. There seems, then, to be some confusion about the provisions of bonds and parcel taxes, where exemptions can and can not be allowed.

As to the argument that Antioch has properties up the kazoo, I don’t get it. Firstly, precisely because we have received hardship monies to build, the sobering reality is that any properties we sold would be monies given back the state. Secondly, paint this a favorable climate for construction, a dreadful time to sell. Thirdly, even if we were hypothetically able to sell off everything we had, hold nothing for future growth, and be allowed to keep the money, it would be at best a few million rendered, hardly a dime on the dollar of what 21st century modernization will cost.

Fact is, A.U.S.D. has been cut $74 million in state funding over the last four years. Due to the bloodletting, like other districts, we have been given a state exemption on putting away 3% for deferred maintenance and we have stopped putting into long term retirement liability fund.  Plain and simple, there is no golden goose to raid for this remodernization.

Is it true, as has been stated, that we are counting on matching money back from the State? Hoping, of course, but not counting, on it. It would be gravy and no, we never bet the ranch on hypotheticals.

As to the argument that we stopped the last Bond dead in its tracks, leaving some twenty one million dollars unbonded, agreed. Gosh, it feels odd, though, to be criticized for not not taking everything we could have grabbed. Shouldn’t public entities be applauded for  disciplined frugality and turning back money?  We were, in deed, the good stewards we promised to be.

Fact is, we completed most all our list, getting very favorable results from the competitive construction climate.  On top of that we received some $16 million back in saved interest  from the Quality Construction Act. Most of our bonding came in at an incredibly low 2% interest rate. Credit the penny-pinching Scottishness of Tim Forrester, Executive Director of Operations for putting this together.

The loan formulas changed on us and for the small scope of unfinished projects left we would have had to pay $80 to $90 million interest on $20 million bonding. We wisely decided not to.

Unlike my friend Barbara, I was not surprised that the City Council unanimously supported the bond. They, like I, expect that with a mandated build out checklist, a citizens’ oversight committee,  a vigilant administrative team and a fiscally sound Board that has put away $27 million in ending fund balance despite massive state cuts,  we would see the same positive results as Measure C should Measure J Pass. Its all up to the voters.

Walter Ruehlig, Trustee, A.U.S.D.

Dear Editor:

Last week I observed on TV a march, in Oakland, of the Grocery Clerks union. At the end of the news spot a business agent, a.k.a. economic illiterate, announced to his followers that the only thing that keep the major chains from looking like Walmart was a strong local union. It was then as an old, old, old member of the Grocery Clerks union that I realized that the only thing Walmart has going for it IS a strong local grocery clerks union.

When the investors of Raileys, Safeway, Save Mart, etc., realize they can make more money running a cat house we will all be going to Walmart.

Bob Oliver

Antich

Dear Editor:

Dear Editor:

As I was reading the opinion column by Lou Davis (The Way I See It, May, 2012), I had to check the date on the paper to see if this was some kind of April Fools’ joke.  Perhaps before writing such an “opinion”, Mr Davis would like to read and maybe, reread his column before it goes to press.  Yes, Mr Davis, I will agree with you that there are racial divides in this country that I have never seen since the days of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.  But since when are women in this country considered a different race than men?  You make no mention of any fact about race in this country and instead begin a diatribe against womens’ rights.  On this, the 40th anniversary of Title IX, women must still fight for even the most basic of rights in the workplace.  The last time I checked the figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce, women were still only making a portion of what men were making for doing the same job.  Where is the equality?

In the same paragraph, you mention the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.  To be honest, I don’t agree with the way that they go about things.  Where is the message that we can stand behind to fight this and to find a solution?  And, I don’t agree with the violence that seems to be a part of every rally.  However, they are trying to send a message and to be honest, if I were in there shoes, I would be afraid to be a spokesman for any cause, let alone fighting big business, in this country.  If you are of a certain age, you remember the last ones to stand for a cause that was out of the mainstream and what happened to them.  Martin.  Bobby.  Jack.

Your fixation on demeaning women is deplorable. You make them out to be second class citizens.  Women must fight daily to preserve their rights that are being taken away by a government of old, Caucasian men.  I don’t care what political party they are affiliated with.  Since when does anyone have the right to tell another how to live their life.   As a man of color Mr. Davis, you should understand it better than most of us could ever.

 When it comes to health care, I will always stand up for the working man.  The tone of your article sounds much like the newspapers of the early part of the 20th century.  Perhaps you don’t remember child labor.  Working 6 or 7 day weeks.  No benefits.  That is what the working men and women of this country stood for against repressive business owners and won the freedoms that we take for granted today.  You worry about religious institutions being mandated to cover contraception costs.  OK Mr. Davis, who will pay for the unwanted children? The possible risk to women who can’t afford health care when they are pregnant.  And again, what right does any man have in saying what I may do with my body.  When are the people of this country, who are losing their jobs to overseas competitors, going to stand up and say “Enough is Enough’?

Your rhetoric reminds me of a history class that I took many years ago.  The stand against women or any minority.  The belief in a Supreme Being that will lead us through and will fight our battles as long as we let our leaders tell us what to think.  Allowing any business or government to run over the working men and women and tell them they should be happy with what they are given.  You Mr. Davis, of all people, should be at the front of the line to not think as you are, but to see what is really happening.  You see, the place that I am talking about is not the United States of the 21st century.  It was Germany of the 1930’s.

Keith C. Walters, Antioch

Who would argue that teaching is not a demanding vocation? Consider, after, all, the two greatest exponents of the art, Jesus and Socrates. One was crucified, the other poisoned; both in the line of duty.

Not that it takes the ultimate sacrifice, though, to qualify teaching as a challenging line of work. Ask any parent, who play the ultimate teaching role, and they’ll tell you. Kids don’t readily absorb wisdom through their pores. That is why lecturing is mostly an exercise of in one ear, out the other.

After all, we’ve learned that no one size fits all. The best teaching employs multiple approaches with the understanding that no two kids are facsimiles. Then factor into the equation the proven theorem that kids love to do the opposite of what you tell them and you can see the wisdom of the Socratic method. Showing is better than saying but the penultimate success comes from the art of suggesting. A practiced teacher pokes and prods self-discovery. Good teaching is, in the end, doing. Paradoxically, it is learning inside out.

Given, then, that even under the best of circumstances effective teaching is a tricky and nuanced proposition, imagine the dicey mission  we have now put at the doorsteps.  In this global economy and age of of lightning-fast information teachers are asked to deal with kids who wire down when they enter the school portals. They are asked to keep this wired generation engaged while producing minds that seamlessly communicate, collaborate and thrive on critical  thinking. They face this already daunting task while asked to be equal parts disciplinarian, entertainer, coach, social worker, counselor, motivator, sociologist and statistician.

Strikingly, one elementary teacher was telling me that years back it was expected that  you might have one or two ‘problem’ kids in any given class, a child suffering a.d.a. or impulse management or maybe from a troubled home. Control issue, yes, but the juggling came with the territory.

Nowadays, the teacher reported, that classroom management factor typically runs 6 or 8 or 10 kids, with gripping issues such as homelessness, parental unemployment, child abuse, family addictions, latch-key environments, or stressed out commuter parents. That’s a lot of fires to put out.

Broken families? That phrase from another age that once stirred concern now sounds hopelessly old-fashioned in its’ lament. Facts are, more than half of marriages dissolve and some communities have born out of wedlock rates at 70%. As backdrop, Antioch has seen a 250% increase in group homes and a 200% increase in foster homes.

Then throw into this mix the jolt of assimilating  an explosive pace of urbanized migration and transiency; an increasingly permissive, materialistic, violent and instant-gratification addicted society; and a culture where the authority of teachers is casually questioned by students, parents and the ACLU alike. It spells an uphill battle.

Not to mention yearly pink slips and the No Child Left Behind pressures of  test mania; nor the difficulty of doing all of this in a state where classroom size and the staffing ratio of counselors, nurses, psychologists and librarians scrapes the very national bottom.

Tough gig? I say! Hopefully on Tuesday, May 8th, which is the National Day of the Teacher, we thank these unsung heroes and heroines for what they do. Let’s remember that  a teacher in teaching our son teaches our son’s son, that his or her influence has no end but ripples to the shores of eternity.

Walter Ruehlig

Antioch

Ruehlig is a Trustee on the Antioch School Board

Restore the Delta would like to thank  our supporters, the members of the Delta Coalition, members of LAND, the fishing community, and our friends in Discovery Bay for turning out for Tuesday’s (March 13, 2012) legislative hearing.

About 100 people who care about the Delta came out to make sure their objections to the BDCP and the Delta Plan were heard. Contrary to the  repeated comments of Jerry Meral, the Delta is united.

And contrary to the comments of Phil Isenberg, the people in the Delta are just beginning to make themselves heard.

Special thanks to our friends who drove from Berkeley, San Francisco, and San Jose to make public statements on behalf of the Delta.  We appreciate you very much.

We also know that many of you wanted to make statements, or longer statements, and a number of you ended up watching the hearing in the hall or in the cafeteria.  We thank you for being there.  Being there (in bodily form) is a statement in itself.

It’s going to be a long, hard fight.  But step by step, we know that our message of reduced water exports, improved levees, and local water projects to increase water supplies throughout the state, will be the winning message of the day — not just for the Delta, but for all Californians.

Yours in service,

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Jane Wagner-Tyack, Jessica Iniguez, Brett Baker

Based in Stockton, Restore the Delta is a grassroots campaign committed to making the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable to benefit all of California. For more information visit www.RestoretheDelta.org.

Dear Editor: