Let’s take on the leaf blower scourge
EDITOR: Brava! Carol Crabill for re-igniting the discussion/debate on the gas powered leaf blowers. Many of us continue to ask what we can do to contribute to combating climate change. It is worth looking at the obvious such as the scourge of the gas-powered anything. Certainly the leaf blower is one of the blatant offenders for its noise pollution and the air pollution, kicked up by the swirling dust and exhaust fumes. Please bring back the rake and the broom. The blowers simply relocate their refuse to next door or to the gutter where it sits awaiting the next blower to repeat the futile battle. Couldn't this be addressed by Petaluma's Climate Action Commission in their emergency framework? We are far behind many communities on this subject and it is something we could all get behind and feel good about.
Rebecca Birch
Petaluma
Petaluma Education Foundation thankful for donors
EDITOR: Since 1982, the Petaluma Education Foundation has been raising and awarding financial support to benefit student learning. Generations of students are part of the PEF legacy. Through our annual PEF Impact Grant and PEF Scholarship Programs, we have distributed just under $3.9 million to students and schools in nearly four decades.
Early in this pandemic, we conveyed our superintendents and principals to learn what would be needed to support students during these unprecedented times. It was clear we needed to focus on technology (access and devices) and social-emotional learning curriculum. We immediately adapted our program to address this challenge and made these two key identified areas as the core of our 2020-2021 awards. We also adjusted our grant gift level to enable all schools in our community, all 38, to apply and receive funding during the uncertain time.
To date, the current academic year PEF Grant awards total $132,454: Technology grants of $78,000; SEL grants of $46,000; plus auxiliary programs supported by previously earmarked funds totaling $8,000.
In 2020, thanks to our generous donors, we awarded 227 seniors graduating from all seven Petaluma high schools a total of 366 scholarships from 77 scholarship funds for $238,075, bringing the total to $3,814,510 awarded since 1990.
All of us at PEF are proud of the collaborative work we do with our schools and community to create opportunities for our students to succeed in following their academic dreams, especially during this unprecedented time. We thank those who make PEF a part of their charitable giving. We also appreciate the individual gift of their time and talent as volunteers at Alphabet Soup Stores.
Thank you for your continued partnership in supporting all our students when they need us the most.
Maureen Highland
Petaluma Educational Foundation
A thank-you note to Petaluma school board members
EDITOR: I’d like to express my appreciation to the Petaluma City Schools district board members who have had the difficult job of navigating an unimaginable year. They have managed to help keep our community safe and well all while receiving the most hateful, vitriolic anger directed at them personally. This year it has been heartbreaking to watch the emotional, financial and educational toll on everyone concerned. With the uptick in vaccination rates, we can see the opening coming soon. Thank you, members of the Petaluma school board for standing up. We admire and appreciate your dedication.
Rod Williams
Petaluma, California
The Girl and Fig waitress made her choice
EDITOR: Former waitress, Kimi Stout, said she was "forced out" of her job at The Girl and Fig restaurant in Sonoma on Sept.3, 2020. This action was taken as she refused to cease wearing a Black Lives Matter mask while serving. Stout was told by the owners that employees could not use their uniforms to express support of BLM or other political ideology while working. Stout voluntarily left her job.
Sorry kid. I support the owners on this. I don't go to restaurants or other businesses to support their political beliefs. I want good service and a good product, not political expressions (especially it they are ones I don't support). Maybe it is time for you to grow up and realize that your feelings and devotions are not supported by everyone.
And to those people that condemned and threatened the owners and the well-being of the business, you are despicable. You can protest via the pocketbook, not through threats of harm.
Art Hackworth
Petaluma
Rohnert Park vaccination site efficient, professional
EDITOR: Thank you to those at the Optimum Serve Rohnert Park Community Center who were responsible for a very efficient and professionally run COVID-19 vacinnation site on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021.
We experience people-friendly personnel every step of the way from the parking lot attendants, the check in desk, the line managers, the injection site nurses to the watchers in the post-injection waiting area. The 45-minute experience ran like a well-oiled machine.
Yes, the sign-up process was difficult for us not-too-tech-savy seniors. And a thank you to our computer-literate children who saved the day for us.
But the Rohnert Park Vacination site process received all A-pluses. GOD BLESS YOU ALL.
Tom and Carolyn Maloney
Petaluma
The ‘QAnon queen’
EDITOR: “I have a lot of time on my hands,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, “which means I can talk to a whole lot more people all over this country” (“Greene vows to push GOP right,” Feb. 6). What a scary thought. Who died and left her the QAnon queen of America?
We can’t afford to have Greene twist the First Amendment to spread her wacky and dangerous lies and conspiracy theories to gullible, ill-informed Americans who — still — incredibly believe Donald Trump not only won the election but won in a landslide.
The only thing Trump won is the title of worst president America ever had. MAGA fanatics can dispute this all they want, but historians, educators and political scientists have already carved this obvious designation in stone — until the next despot is mistakenly elected.
One of my favorite political quotes came from H.L. Mencken, who wrote about another one-term president, Warren Harding: “No other such complete and dreadful nitwit is to be found in the pages of American history.” Sadly, Mencken didn’t live long enough to despair over the abject debacle that is Donald Trump.
Bob Canning
Petaluma