12 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY FEBRUARY 27-MARCH 5, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT Again?!?! Why is it so difficult to access health coverage in Monterey County? (“Anthem ends relationship with Aspire Health, leaving 2,500 customers without local providers,” Feb. 20-26.) Cheri Gray Lyons | via social media Health care in Monterey County is really expensive and insurance companies don’t want to pay the high cost. Mike Moeller | Marina It’s ridiculous this happened at the start of year after open enrollment and the only suggestion is write to CalPERS to request the opportunity to change plans. How can they justify having people take a half day off work or school to drive to be seen by a doctor? At least your article has more advice than I got from my HR department, which is supposedly in communication with CalPERS. Kim Smith | Monterey This is why we need universal health care. Brooks Bell | via social media FOR THE RECORDS I want to express my appreciation for your article (“An alleged rape in a Monterey hotel room in 2017 became a national story, but changed little about how we think about sexual assault,” Feb. 20-26). It is a brilliant and timely report. It is a story that needed to be told. As a gynecologist, I see far too many women in the same situation. Thank you for doing such a fine and brave public service. Stephanie Taylor, MD | Carmel RIDE ON Thank you for your article on Fort Ord cleanup efforts (“The long cleanup of the former Fort Ord continues,” posted Feb. 13). As the president for Fort Ord Recreation Trails (FORT) Friends, I’ve been asking Army staff that same question—“How long will it take before the impact area will be made available to the public?” And for at least 20 years, the answer has always been the same: “In about 10 years.” I sure hope the interplay of weather, staffing and resources come together soon to enable forward progress on the cleanup so trail users can enjoy the full breadth of the Fort Ord National Monument. We’ve been waiting a long time. Henrietta Stern | Pacific Grove P’S AND Q’S I write as a retired teacher with over 40 years instructing elementary, middle school and teacher education students. I agree with Susie Brusa that phonics and decoding skills play a role in learning to read successfully (“How we teach reading can improve learning outcomes for life. It’s time to change the curriculum,” Jan. 30-Feb. 5). However, she mischaracterizes balanced literacy education both by ignoring phonics as a part of such instruction and by referring to prediction strategies as “guessing.” The human brain has evolved intense neural prediction pathways, and in reading relies on them more often than decoding pathways. Many students read well with minimal formal phonics instruction. Alongside them are those needing more intense phonics/ decoding instruction. When she asks, “Why don’t we just start with that methodology in the first place?” the answer is that, in addition to being a waste of time for some, letter-by-letter decoding is the least effective reading strategy. She is advocating a one-size-fits-all approach which years of teaching have shown me is never correct and sometimes harmful. Alexander Doan | Pacific Grove DOING TIME Twenty-seven months is way too low (“Feds seek 27-month prison sentence for former DLI employee who stole government property,” Feb. 13-19). She knew exactly what she was doing. Rory Montenegro | via social media LOSING A LEADER Your article about Butch Kronlund was beautiful (“Butch Kronlund, a longtime force in Big Sur, dies at 70,” posted Feb. 10). Such an awesome soul. Thank you for your lovely tribute to this incredibly strong, loving man who advocated for Big Sur. Hugs to Patte Kronlund, his powerful loving partner for years. Catherine Sullivan | Carmel NATIONAL STAGE Where was the Weekly? As a sustaining member of the Weekly, I was extremely disappointed that no one showed up to cover the protest in Monterey on President’s Day at the Window on the Bay. There were 300 to 400 people at this protest, which went from noon to about 1:30pm. Despite the strong turnout of protesters and the positive responses from most of the cars that passed by, there was no media presence. This is disappointing. I really expected more from our local media. Charla Britt | Monterey The conservatives in this nation have been crowing about how “government is the problem” for decades (“The court system is not enough to stop the Donald Trump-Elon Musk coup,” Feb. 13-19). They are now hell bent on making that lie come true. Trump and Musk are rampaging with illegal firings and contract cancellations. Standing out among a plethora of misjudgments, there are no folks aged 150 collecting Social Security, but Elon is so wedded to his extremist ideology that he failed to recognize how ridiculous that assertion was. Their illegal and unconstitutional actions are nothing short of an attempted soft coup. If not stopped, our democracy will be ended. Sadly, any savings created by DOGE will be illusory and used as a justification to lower taxes, again, on the rich. And you thought you voted for lower egg prices. John Zimmerman | Pacific Grove CORRECTION A story inaccurately stated that Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni decided not to file charges in January 2018 (“An alleged rape in a Monterey hotel room in 2017 became a national story, but changed little about how we think about sexual assault,” Feb. 21-27). At the time, she was an assistant DA and she was elected and became DA later that year; Dean Flippo was the DA at the time. LETTERS • COMMENTSOPINION Submit letters to the editor to letters@montereycountynow.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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