16 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 4-10, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com END OF AN ERA I walk through the open campus every day, breathing the air of a center of knowledge forging tomorrow’s world leaders on global issues such as international development, nonproliferation and environmental policy. It’s truly a shame that the Middlebury Institute for International Studies will be closing when the world needs leaders like these more than ever (“Master’s programs at MIIS will be phased out by June 2027, sealing the institution’s fate,” posted Aug. 28). Closing MIIS will impact Monterey as well as people in faraway lands who don’t even know of MIIS and Monterey’s existence. Hacene Bouzar | Monterey As someone lucky enough to have team-taught a graduate course at the Middlebury Institute on sustainable approaches to military base planning and reuse, I am saddened by this news. I found the students to be talented and motivated, the faculty and staff helpful. Steve Endsley | Aptos This is going to be a HUGE LOSS to Monterey! Jeannene Heinrich | Royal Oaks FUNDING PLAN South County and other rural areas should be priority! (“County approves a process for deciding how to spend money from Measure AA,” Aug. 28-Sept. 3.) Cheli Flores | Salinas One-hundred percent of North County is unincorporated, and gets the least development and infrastructure improvement. Rick Diaz Jr. | Castroville HISTORY REPEATS Thank you for your disturbing, thoughtful, powerful and important article (“Just as local Japanese American history is having a moment, its most important chapter comes into focus,” Aug. 21-27). I’ve been teaching history for over 50 years with the goal of not merely informing students but to help them learn to be critical thinkers and effective writers. Your work in journalism reinforces my faith in the importance of learning history. Steve Henrikson | Carmel Valley Glad to see you writing about the escalating fascism so openly. Keep it up. Harvey Pressman | Monterey Thank you so much for this story. I can recall that I was many decades old before I heard that any such event had occurred in U.S. history. Visiting a camp in Southern California and reading Epitaph for a Peach made it all the more real for me. Thank you for this and so much that Monterey County Weekly provides the community. You are our best source for truth and accuracy. Barbara Cole | Salinas Another contribution made by Japanese Americans to Monterey came after the U.S. Army’s Japanese language school (the future DLI) opened at the Presidio of Monterey in 1946. During the war, the school trained Japanese linguists. Founded in California, the school was expelled from it in 1942 when an executive order forced those of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. In the post-war period, however, the Army needed Japanese linguists for occupation duty and so moved the school closer to Japan. In Monterey, many instructors became community pillars. During WWII, their students’ contributions sped the defeat of Japan. The record is silent on what the Monterey Bay Council on Japanese Relations might have made of this. It’s silent because their efforts failed. One needn’t be Steinbeck or a poet to know that one’s race does not equal one’s loyalty. Cameron Binkley | Marina COMMUNITY CULTURE Wonderful sharing of Magnus Torén’s connection and insight into Henry Miller (“One exhibit focuses not on a visual artist but a novelist, presenting Henry Miller’s world,” Aug. 28-Sept. 3). I have been here long enough to have met Emil White, when he was running the Library out of his home. Magnus has turned his care of the Miller Library into an art form. Bravo! Kate Novoa | Big Sur WATER WAY The California Public Utility Commission’s decision on water supply and demand was not a win for Cal Am (“The CPUC approves current water supply and future demand, clearing the way for desal plant,” posted Aug. 14). The small deficit of only 2,618 acre-feet needed by 2050 calls into question the need for desalination at all. Why pay for a half-billion-dollar desal plant to supply 5,376 ace-feet now when you need half that much water 25 years from now? Cal Am does not have permission from the CPUC or the Coastal Commission to build its desal project. So why are they claiming they will break ground on this boondoggle by the end of the year? Melodie Chrislock | Monterey Note: Chrislock is managing director of Public Water Now. TRUE STORY Thanks to Susan Meister for her timely article about the recent surge of disinformation, which by the way has affected not only the internet, but every level of news programming (“The internet has become a toxic source of scientific disinformation,” Aug. 21-27). I’ve watched with horror this new era of disinformation develop right before our eyes, and now, with those who sow the most disinformation of all actually in positions of power, it makes me wonder if we are going to be able to find our way back to a time when we can know who’s information we can trust. Those in power are now rewriting history and doing everything possible to close down avenues for dissemination of opposing viewpoints (as in defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting), leaving us with fewer and fewer options for getting unbiased, trustworthy news. These are scary times indeed. Derek Dean | Monterey FIELD WORK Daniel Dreifuss’ photo of farm laborers looks like a Warren Chang painting of the same. Bravo! (“Here’s to recognizing all the hard work that makes the world go round,” posted Sept. 1.) Sally Ryen | Pacific Grove 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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