Wednesday's Letters to the Editor

<p class="bold allcaps">Farms and gardens</p> <p>EDITOR: I am writing to call out your misuse of the word “garden” in recent articles. Although the misuse appears to be intentional and politically motivated, let me give you the top definition of garden to set the record straight just in case it was not.</p><p>Garden: a plot of ground, usually near a house, where flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits or herbs are cultivated. That gives me a picture of a pleasant place to grow something beautiful, delightful or delicious. While marijuana is nicknamed “herb” at times, there is nothing delightful about guards with automatic weapons who try to kill police officers.</p><p>The primary definition for farm shows why that word applies here.</p><p>Farm: a tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often livestock are raised for livelihood. Or a similar, usually commercial, site where a product is manufactured or cultivated — a cheese farm; a honey farm. (Or, I would add, a pot farm). </p><p>In the future, you can use this test to decide if something is a garden or a farm: If people are growing things in secret to make money and they shoot at police, it is a farm. If people have shovels and want to give you tomatoes, it is a garden.</p><p>DWIGHT STEVENSON</p><p>Petaluma</p><h3>Pools and public art</h3> <p>EDITOR: Let me see if I get this right: Santa Rosa doesn't have enough money to keep the city pools, senior center or fire stations open, but it does have money for a tower of old bicycle parts. Maybe a group photo of the next group of laid-off city employees can be taken next to that tower.</p><p>LEE COLE</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>D.C. rallies</h3> <p>EDITOR: Al Sharpton, who organized a counter-rally against the Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” rally that celebrated America's founders, complained, “They want to disgrace this day. We ain't giving them this day. This is our day” (“Competing D.C. rallies accent nations divisions,” Sunday).</p><p>The Sharpton followers were “angrily protesting that the (Beck) rally had usurped the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 47th anniversary of King's famous ‘I Have A Dream' speech.”</p><p>Sharpton and his misdirected followers demonstrated the kind of radical divisiveness that is based on a seriously flawed claim. The memory of Martin Luther King does not belong to Sharpton and his followers to give away or to keep. No one, not even Beck, needs permission from Al Sharpton to honor King or any other American hero.</p><p>King's memory is not the possession of a few radical blacks. It belongs to all Americans and cannot be excluded or usurped by anybody. The concept of usurped memory is inherently ludicrous.</p><p>The biased article struggled unsuccessfully to focus on division and sought to give the Sharpton gathering far more importance than it deserved. Compared to the “Restoring Honor” rally, the Sharpton affair was an irrelevant non-story.</p><p>DAVID B. WHITE</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Jerry Brown photo</h3> <p>EDITOR: Thanks for photographer Crista Jeremiason's very special image of Jerry Brown, a purposeful man of stature, confidence and determination (Week in Review, Sunday). Enough of money and talk; we need those shirt-sleeves.</p><p>JIM TENNYSON</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Mideast solution</h3> <p>EDITOR: In response to Saturday's Close to Home column (“Local group offers different view on Israel”), it's really simple: end the 62-year siege to destroy Israel and murder its people.</p><p>The Palestinians have been on the United Nations dole for all these years, receiving more foreign aid per capita than any people on the planet. Think how their lives could be improved by using all their resources for the growth, health and education of themselves. Instead those resources have been dedicated to destroying their neighbor.</p><p>As to the wall: It has stopped the suicide bombing and murder of Israeli children on school buses and while eating at pizza restaurants with their moms and dads.</p><p>ART DOLIN</p><p>Rohnert Park</p><h3>Katrina survivors</h3> <p>EDITOR: The extensive media coverage on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina brought back the devastation and heartache of our nation's worst disaster. Yes, worst disaster. It easily eclipsed the horrors of 9/11.</p><p>During 9/11, and many other disasters here and worldwide, our people and government mobilized immediately to send relief in whatever form was necessary. For the Gulf Coast there was nothing for many days. No food, no water and no shelter for a quarter-million refugees — our refugees, on our shores, not thousands of miles away.</p><p>Normally I do not like, nor do I watch memorials or celebrations on anniversaries of tragic events, but the ones on Katrina were special. These people whom our government forgot, these people who were not worth an immediate response, have turned out to be worth more than all the bureaucrats who sat around and did nothing during the disaster and sat around pointing fingers at each other afterward put together.</p><p>They are building something that has nothing to do with plywood and shingles and nails. Once help finally arrived, they got together to help their neighbors, worked hard to help themselves and pretty much showed all of us what life is really about and what people are really worth.</p><p>KAREN McMILLEN</p><p>Windsor</p><h3>Time for a change</h3> <p>EDITOR: With California facing financial ruin, I believe it is time for a change. How can we let professional politicians continue to promise us the moon and deliver only on what their special interests dictate?</p><p>This state has got to be run like a business, and the hard choices have to be made. Meg Whitman doesn't have to listen to anyone or bend to special interests, and she can make the decisions that have to be made.</p><p>We in the private sector have lost jobs, homes, health care, food stamps, 401(k)s and welfare programs for those in need. We need someone to speak for us before it's too late. I don't care how much money she is spending because how many jobs in the media has she saved? All the money she is spending is staying here in California.</p><p>What happens if she loses the election? She's still a billionaire, Governor Moonbeam will run California as a professional politician, and it is business as usual. This is one vote she has, and anyone concerned with the future of California needs to look past her money and focus on her successes and hope that California will be one of them.</p><p>Vote for Meg Whitman. I think it's time for a change.</p><p>DENNY F. WHITING</p><p>Santa Rosa</p>