Oakland Tribune June 19 Letters to the editor

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jun 19, 2009 | by Letters to the editor

Sad passing

I READ with deep sadness of former Oakland Tribune columnist Peggy Stinnett's passing. ("Voice of Oakland, columnist dies at 87," June 3)

Stinnett was a great supporter and mentor of many grass roots activists throughout the city of Oakland. She also belonged to and attended the meetings of numerous Oakland organizations whose activities she kept track of and reported on, keeping us all both informed and entertained on what was happening inside of Oakland city government.

Peggy Stinnett was loved and will be missed by many. My deepest condolences to her husband, Bob Stinnett, and her extended family.

Val Eisman

Trinity Center

Not only reason

FEAR OF violence isn't the only reason there are so few second- trimester abortion providers for women.

As stated in the June 3 article, "Slaying thins ranks of third- term abortion providers," Dr. George Tiller, recently murdered in Wichita, Kan., was one of the few providers of late abortion in the United States. Yet, each year hundreds of OB/GYN residents are trained to provide second-trimester abortion and many expect to do so when they leave their programs.

However, as I explore in my forthcoming book, "Willing and Unable: Doctors Constraints in Abortion Care," new doctors face a host of barriers from abortion restrictions by their medical groups to abortion prohibitions in their hospitals. From interviews, I found that many new doctors value their skills in abortion care but are unable use them.

It's a shame that women who need abortions in later gestations are unable to get them from doctors who are willing and technically able to provide.

Lori Freedman, Ph.D

Medical sociologist

Oakland

Disappointed

I AM very disappointed in Oakland's decision to make available city ID cards -- specifically to illegal immigrants. The city can't afford to incur the cost, for one.

Secondly, by providing ID cards to illegal immigrants, you are discounting actual citizenship. What's the point of being a citizen if any and everyone from anywhere can have the same rights and responsibilities as a citizen?

We should not be making it easier for noncitizens to obtain any services afforded citizens. If you are here illegally, you understand the risk. This is not an indictment against those here trying to put food on their plate -- I'd do the same. The city or state should not, however, be accommodating in an effort to be politically correct.

Anthony Moore

Oakland

Need Prop. 13

IN HER June 7 column, "Time has come to do away with sacred cow," Tammerlin Drummond urges revision of what she calls an ill- considered law, Proposition 13, which she calls a "sacred cow" of California politics.

As one of the "older people" who enjoys living in his home thanks to Proposition 13, I clearly remember the fear when the annual double whammy came around: first, the assessor's sharply increased valuation of my house, then the tax collector's bill applying an increased rate to the increased valuation.

Since my income certainly did not go up the way my tax bill did, I should have had to leave Oakland long ago without Proposition 13. So I admit to cherishing this sacred cow.

That is not to say that some aspects of Proposition 13 could not be improved. What really dismays me, however, year after year, is that no one, including Drummond, can see the giant sacred cow sitting in the room: the automatic and mindless assumption that schools and local government should be supported by a property tax, just because they always have been. A graduated progressive local income tax would be a more reasonable and fairer means of support.

But implementing it would require our legislators to think outside the box, or at least to think. That, as they say in Spanish, may be asking for pears from the elm tree.

John Polt

Oakland

Balance the coverage

THE DEATH of Dr. George Tiller is indeed tragic. Fighting abortion should be carried out through protests, legislative and legal means.

That said, the news accounts of the killing lists dates when he was the subject of previous attacks.

On balance, the coverage should include the dates of the pre- born children that Dr. Tiller killed (although he didn't wound anyone in the process as his work was always fatal).

President Barack Obama correctly stated that Americans do indeed feel passionately about the issue of abortion -- both for and against.

Those at the extreme end of the sentiment against abortion would see the death of Dr. Tiller as comparable to killing Dr. Josef Mengele before the end of the Holocaust rather than waiting for the Holocaust to end before seeking to bring him to justice.

As a pro-fetus individual, I am extremely saddened that the women who are not given a choice are those aborted in the womb.

Dr. Abraham Ruelas

Oakland