14 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY january 12-18, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com River Runs On-the-ground work on the Pajaro River Flood Management Project is expected to start in 2025. I would not be surprised if the delays are due to regulatory requirements and slow-moving bureaucracies. Hopefully the Pajaro community will not be washed away before the project is completed (“County issues evacuation warning for Pajaro community and closes parks,” posted Jan. 3). Joe J. Dokes | via web State of Emergency Just cleared the drains on my street. Hope it helps keep the water flowing away from our properties in my neighborhood (“Flash flood warnings issued; free bus transportation to evacuation locations is offered,” posted Jan. 4). Tiffany David | via social media Grab your sandbags!!! Ruth Pizano | via social media At the Pinnacle This was a great cover story (“Pinnacles is celebrating its 10-year anniversary of becoming a national park, but the park has been millions of years in the making,” Jan. 5-11). It brought back some great memories and many smiles. My wife and I visited Pinnacles National Park shortly after that magical site became a national park. Like yourself, we had recently relocated to the Central Coast. Our arrival was in summer 2013. Bea grew up at Grand Canyon National Park and was a proud Grand Canyon Phantom, graduating from their “in-park” high school. Back then the convention was to use the first two letters of the park’s name thus, GRand CAnyon=GRCA. I met her at GRCA when she worked for GRCA’s Natural History Association while I worked as a National Park Service ranger, stationed on the South Rim. We’d often hike the vast array of GRCA and nearby U.S. Forest Service trails, thus we could not wait to hike Pinnacles. Rafael Payan | Salinas Note: Payan is general manager of the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District. House Rules Everyone should be concerned about the new House majority, which couldn’t even select a Speaker without historic chaos (“The view from Congress on the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection,” posted Jan. 6). The House of Representatives is now controlled by MAGA Republicans. They will use their power to enrich their corporate donors and advance their extreme agenda—including threatening our freedom to vote, criminalizing abortion, and cutting Social Security and Medicaid. Judging by the election for Speaker, we should all be concerned about their ability to govern. MAGA cronies like Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise and Marjorie Taylor Greene have already indicated that their top priority in 2023 will be sham investigations into the Biden administration and other democracy defenders. We must call out their lies at every turn and combat their far-right agenda to protect our freedoms and our democracy. David Farwell | Carmel Highlands Two years after the deadly attack on our country on Jan. 6, 2021, it’s hard to ignore that the House of Representatives is now controlled by those who embraced and fueled Trump’s Big Lie. According to the Washington Post, over 70 percent of all House Republicans are election deniers—135 incumbents voted against certifying the 2020 election and at least 27 freshman members ran on the Big Lie. They might hold the title of “representative” but they have no intention of legislating on behalf of their constituents. We must speak truth to power in the face of all their lies. I’m pledging to do everything I can to protect our freedoms and our democracy against the House’s extremist attacks—I hope others will join me. Morag Elizabeth | Seaside BOND BATTLE Regarding the dispute about how MPUSD spends taxpayer-approved bond money that residents and neighbors voted for and have to repay, there are several facts not brought to light in many of the letters decrying the opposition (“Letters,” Jan. 5-11). If MPUSD had engaged the nearby neighbors in meaningful dialog in the beginning, the current scenario might have been different. While I agree that students deserve good facilities, Monterey High is located in a densely populated neighborhood and residents there deserve the same consideration. Contrary to assertions by some writers, these neighbors are not newly arrived NIMBYs. Many of the residents closest to the school have lived there for decades. All of them bought into the charm of a local neighborhood, complete with a school, without lights. CEQA is in place to ensure important guidelines and considerations are adhered to even when an applicant states “the local rules don’t apply to us.” The fact that the judge found the EIR so lacking is proof that CEQA is doing what it’s supposed to. Tony Tollner | Monterey Pot Shop I had the pleasure of visiting their shop just a few months ago. Very beautiful pottery on display (“A storied Pacific Grove pottery collective is enjoying the resurgence of interest in ceramics,” Jan. 5-11). Walter Wagner | via web Power of the Pen Editor Sara Rubin should be careful what she wishes for (“State invests in a journalism program that could become a template,” Jan. 5-11). Giving public funds to newspapers and journalists makes them beholden to those who pay them—politicians, bureaucrats, and government officials. Mussolini boasted that he did not have to imprison Italian news journalists. He simply paid them off with government money and they quickly became faithful servants of the Fascist state. The First Amendment represents the complete separation between government and free speech. Government payments to the news media will only lead us faster down an Orwellian road. Lawrence Samuels | Carmel Letters • CommentsOPINION Submit letters to the editor to letters@mcweekly.com. Please keep your letter to 150 words or less; subject to editing for space. Please include your full name, contact information and city you live in.
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