Pesky summertime yellow jackets

To the Editor,

This is in response to Tina Donovan Aug. 28 letter about the yellow jacket problem this summer. I lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains most of my life, and have observed these little “pests” over the years. I will give you my “armchair biologist” evaluation, and I think you will agree. 

I have lived in Cedar Ridge for 3 years now. 

Remember, yellow jackets are part of the environment, and are just doing their job in the eco-niche they have, of eating bugs, which lets the plants and trees grow (a good thing). These hornets are dormant during the winter, and they usually come out about the second week of June. At this time, they are very happy, and do not bother us humans until later in the summer, when their bug supply runs out, and they start smelling around for anything. They especially go crazy for seafood BBQ’s, and of course they like other meats. 

Last year, we had an unusually wet winter. Last summer they probably had lots of insects to prey upon, and remember from your high school biology class,  the ebb and flow, ups and downs, of everything in the ecosystem, their populations must have boomed. The thing is, these little critters did not know the next summer would be one of the driest on record. 

We will probably have a lot less hornets around next summer.  

So Tina, I suggest you just hunker down, and eat all your BBQ dinners inside this year. Remember, yellow jackets are part of nature, and only in your wildest dreams will you be able to get rid of them totally, even with those yellow traps. 

Paul Slemmons

Cedar Ridge

Rude dove hunters

To the Editor,

Walking down to New Melones Lake from Shell Road with my dogs on Labor Day Saturday, I heard several volleys of high-powered rifle fire. 

At the shore there were about a dozen inflated dove decoys adhered improbably to rocks, sticks, and the ground. As I noticed this, a dove season ambassador blared from the slope above me, “Ya wanna tell me why you’re walkin up on me?” 

I called back to the voice that I was walking my dogs. He came into the open and demanded to know why I had not notified him of my presence, ending by pointing at his cap and announcing significantly, “I’m wearing blaze orange!” 

Okay, fella, I’m wearing a bright striped shirt and walking out here along the water with two large white poodles and you’re hiding in the trees camouflaged to the toenails except for your silly-looking hat, and I need to notify you? 

He ordered me to move along out of his hunting ground, which I did, maybe a little slower than usual. 

But more important than this annoying behavior on our public lands is the following: Somebody wanna tell me why this state permits large men with large guns to blow apart little grey birds (ironically, symbols of peace and joy since Biblical times)? 

It can’t be for the tablespoon of meat; is it to rid Tuolumne County of the dove menace? Those who consider dove hunting harmless fun might consider what Greek philosopher Bion said in 300 B.C.: “Though boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.” 

Cathy Lemp-Smale 

Jamestown

Thanks to good samaritan

To the Editor,

A few weeks ago, I got home from shopping and discovered that I did not have my purse. I immediately called CVS as that was the last place I had shopped and remembered leaving my shopping cart out in front!  

I had to identify myself and sure enough some kind, honest person had turned it in intact.  

I wish to thank that person, whoever you are, as you can imagine the dire circumstances I would have been in if a less honest person had found it.  

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!  

Jeanne Nissen 

Sonora

Thank you for donated space

To the Editor,

A big thank you to Clay Maddox, in Sonora! 

Mind Matters Clinic in Murphys would like to thank Susan and Clay Maddox for so generously donating space in their office so that we could offer the Fast ForWord program to our Tuolumne County students. 

Fast ForWord is a computer based program that retrains the brain, strengthens memory, attention, and processing — all essential skills for reading. We so appreciate the welcoming smile of Denise, as well as the graciousness of Susan and Clay. 

We know that having six kids traipsing in and out of your CPA offices all afternoon, five days a week for six weeks could be perceived as a huge inconvenience! 

Yet, you have always been there with a smile and a willingness to be of service in any way you can. I’m sure those students benefitting from Fast ForWord are also grateful (we know their parents are!). Your generosity is a blessing to many! 

Ryan Thompson, M.D. 

Mind Matters Clinic

Murphys

Discusssion of issues, not attacks

To the Editor, 

Mr. Wetzel, of Murphys (Letter to the Editor, Aug. 29) opined “Tax cheaters are traitors. If Mitt Romney won’t prove that he’s not one then he’s unqualified to be president.” 

Sir, you are insulting the intelligence of the President of these United States. 

Don’t you suppose that if there were any chance of Romney being a tax cheat that Barack Obama’s IRS wouldn’t be holding a very public investigation or prosecution? No credible source has accused Romney of being a tax cheat. 

Even if they had, I think our system still embraces innocence until proven guilty. 

Romney, along with other well to do Americans, simply takes advantage of existing tax law to minimize his tax liability. His having offshore accounts is not illegal nor is he illegally avoiding taxes. 

Your hateful letter is just another in a series of your letters bashing the other party in general. 

We need an intelligent discussion of the issues not personal attacks. 

Larry Jones 

Sonora 

Thanks to tribe

To the Editor:

Tuolumne County should get down on our collective knees and thank whatever gods or goddesses we believe in for the Me Wuk Indians. They are the largest employer and the most incredibly generous business in the county. If you read every page in The Union Democrat you will notice that almost every good charity or cause who needs help, the tribe helps them. 

I have been a member of the Tuolumne County Historical Society for about 30 years and the Me Wuks have not been treated well in the past.  (I have relatives who are part of the Assiniboine in Northeastern Montana.)

J.W. Smith

Jamestown

Education is important

To the Editor,

I’m finding it hard to fathom the large percentage of Internet poll respondents who say they would vote “no” on the Sonora or Summerville High School bond measures. 

They are not willing to pay as little as $2 to $12 a month to provide badly needed upgrades to our high schools. These people must not think that education is important. 

How sad and shameful.

Lauri Grasse 

Sonora

“The health of our visitors is our paramount concern and we are making every effort to notify and inform our visitors of any potential illness...” 

— Don Neubacher, Yosemite National Park superintendent (Aug. 27 press release)

Yosemite National Park officials this week vowed they have strived for transparency in dealing with a hantavirus outbreak at the park, which has sickened four people and killed two others.

But, reporting by The Union Democrat has found, the process has been far more opaque.

In fact, delays in informing the public could have put some park visitors staying at Curry Village in harm’s way during the first and, particularly, the second week of August.

Why this would happen is anyone’s guess.

We found:

• Park and health officials in “late July” knew a 49-year-old Southern California woman had possibly contracted the rodent-borne virus at Curry Village in June. Experts determined the connection was too tenuous to make an announcement. A state epidemiologist said a single case wasn’t unusual enough.

• About a week later, Aug. 9, state health officials were investigating the first case at the park when they learned of a second hantavirus case also possibly involving a June stay at Curry Village. That victim, a 36-year-old Alameda County man, died July 31.

• By Aug. 10, the Curry Village-hantavirus connection had been more firmly established. Yet, apparently due to disagreements among park and health officials about timing the news’ release, still another week passed before word got out.

• The state Public Health Department finally issued an Aug. 16 statement confirming the first two cases and their connection to Curry Village.

While news reports two weeks after the fact may have reached many visitors or potential visitors, still another two weeks passed before the park began to directly contact people — that is, via email — who’d stayed at the park between June and August of the possibility of hantavirus exposure. Those emails started going out the night of Monday, Aug. 27.

The delays are inexcusable and could have put visitors in the first and second weeks of August in harm’s way.

How many is anyone’s guess — but the park says it has contacted 2,900 June to August guests of the cabins.

Park officials insist they have been forthright and transparent from Day 1. But that hardly seems true.

One could blame the creaking wheels of bureaucracy, or the difficulties in making the connections, for the delay, but that doesn’t seem to be the case either.

Rather, the situation reflects park officials’ reluctance to inform the public of “bad” news — like climbers falling to their deaths, tourists plummeting down waterfalls, or people drowning in high, fast moving rivers.

(They do breathlessly report the “good,” like groundbreakings or free admission days).

We’ve argued with little success that — beside the abstract idea that the public has a right to know what goes on in a National Park — valuable lessons can be learned by informing the public of such tragedies. Lessons like: Don’t dangle over waterfalls, beware of high rivers, climbing can be dangerous, be leery of deer-mouse droppings, etc.

We fear such a lesson, turned on its head, could arrive at park officials’ doorstep in coming days: That an early- to mid-August Curry camper, denied the ability to make an informed decision about whether to lodge at the Village, becomes ill or dies.

Degradation follows collectivism

To the Editor,

Communism and fascism are but two branches of the same”collectivist” tree. 

Central authority is usurped by a single leader and his followers who make all major economic, social, and political decisions. 

The “people” then no longer represent the source of all political power but become merely a means of attaining the utopian ends desired by the “dear” leader. 

We, the people of the United States, are being led down this path to our destruction. 

This “soft” revolution over time incrementally erodes the traditional values that have made us free and prosperous. 

Through legislative fiat by self interested officials at every level, we are forced to accept their values. 

Everything starts to appear upside down. 

The current collectivist movement is being led by our own president. 

A man who has been befriended and mentored by collectivist activists throughout his entire life including Frank Marshall Davis, Jeremiah Wright, Bernardine Dohrn, and Bill Ayers. 

Ayers, as a member of the radical Weatherman Underground, once said “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home. Kill your parents.” 

This collectivist persuasion followed the president into the White House with executive appointments of like minded individuals including Van Jones, self proclaimed communist and Anita Dunn, Mao admirer. Our free enterprise system, our Constitution, our very way of life is threatened. History shows what follows every collectivist movement: human degradation 

Randy Meyer 

Sonora

Divisive campaigning

To the Editor,

In 1980, when President Reagan asked Americans, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” it was still possible to campaign on a theme as simple as the job performance of the other guy. But now, 32 years later, the campaign hinges on a much more fundamental split among the voting population.

Romney appeals to voters who are dissatisfied with the last four years. 

Obama appeals to voters who are dissatisfied with America.

Obama is targeting narrow groups, stirring up conflicts over issues aimed at those groups, whether it’s union pensions, racism, immigration or birth control — a frenzied rush to polarize as many groups as possible and join them together into an acrimonious coalition, not so much for anything, as against Republicans — groups who are unhappy with America, not in the last four years, but in the last two-hundred years. 

No optimism, just deeply rooted pessimism about this country as a whole — the Democratic Party’s coalition against democracy.

There isn’t a single Obama voter anywhere who believes that four more years will make this country better. 

They believe Obama will: make the country a worse place for those people that they hate; grant their group more special privileges while America goes to hell.

Obama is running an un-American, anti-American campaign — a campaign to divide up, carve up and toss aside the laws and traditions of the United States and replace them with the power of arrogance.

Obama cannot win an American election, but he isn’t running in an American election — he’s running in a post-American election.

By the way, if liberals understood math they wouldn’t be liberals.

Ray Anderson

Sonora

Degradation follows collectivism

To the Editor,

Communism and fascism are but two branches of the same”collectivist” tree. 

Central authority is usurped by a single leader and his followers who make all major economic, social, and political decisions. 

The “people” then no longer represent the source of all political power but become merely a means of attaining the utopian ends desired by the “dear” leader. 

We, the people of the United States, are being led down this path to our destruction. 

This “soft” revolution over time incrementally erodes the traditional values that have made us free and prosperous. 

Through legislative fiat by self interested officials at every level, we are forced to accept their values. 

Everything starts to appear upside down. 

The current collectivist movement is being led by our own president. 

A man who has been befriended and mentored by collectivist activists throughout his entire life including Frank Marshall Davis, Jeremiah Wright, Bernardine Dohrn, and Bill Ayers. 

Ayers, as a member of the radical Weatherman Underground, once said “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home. Kill your parents.” 

This collectivist persuasion followed the president into the White House with executive appointments of like minded individuals including Van Jones, self proclaimed communist and Anita Dunn, Mao admirer. Our free enterprise system, our Constitution, our very way of life is threatened. History shows what follows every collectivist movement: human degradation 

Randy Meyer 

Sonora

Divisive campaigning

To the Editor,

In 1980, when President Reagan asked Americans, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” it was still possible to campaign on a theme as simple as the job performance of the other guy. But now, 32 years later, the campaign hinges on a much more fundamental split among the voting population.

Romney appeals to voters who are dissatisfied with the last four years. 

Obama appeals to voters who are dissatisfied with America.

Obama is targeting narrow groups, stirring up conflicts over issues aimed at those groups, whether it’s union pensions, racism, immigration or birth control — a frenzied rush to polarize as many groups as possible and join them together into an acrimonious coalition, not so much for anything, as against Republicans — groups who are unhappy with America, not in the last four years, but in the last two-hundred years. 

No optimism, just deeply rooted pessimism about this country as a whole — the Democratic Party’s coalition against democracy.

There isn’t a single Obama voter anywhere who believes that four more years will make this country better. 

They believe Obama will: make the country a worse place for those people that they hate; grant their group more special privileges while America goes to hell.

Obama is running an un-American, anti-American campaign — a campaign to divide up, carve up and toss aside the laws and traditions of the United States and replace them with the power of arrogance.

Obama cannot win an American election, but he isn’t running in an American election — he’s running in a post-American election.

By the way, if liberals understood math they wouldn’t be liberals.

Ray Anderson

Sonora

Walmart lawsuit

To the Editor,                                                                                    

In response to the article in the Aug. 23 Union Democrat regarding the lawsuit aimed at curbing Walmart’s expansion, I object to the fact that others are deciding how I can save money.  

What does it matter that Walmart can implement its own zoning rules without the requirement to complete an environmental impact review?  Why is this needed?

When Walmart originally bought or leased (I don’t know which) the property, the extra lot was included in the deal. The consensus, at that time, was they would be able to expand their store. Isn’t it the future now?

Mr. Domenic Torchia said he was against the expansion because he wanted to save jobs for the other grocery stores. Considering the economy and the prices of groceries today, I am in favor of it.  

I am a senior living on a fixed income. Any way I can save money would be helpful to me.  Would these other stores help me to save money and lower their prices?

Marge Jones

Sonora

GOP wants to privatize Medicare

To the Editor,

In response to Patricia DuFur’s Aug. 22 Letter to the Editor: 

Where is the $716 billion coming from that Patricia DuFur is talking about? I am sure she believes in the alleged raid on Medicare that Romney/Ryan have been campaigning on in one minute ads. 

Let’s look where it really comes from. According to the Affordable Healthcare Act it will come from reducing annual increases in federal reimbursement to hospitals, nursing homes and home health care agencies — to force a notoriously inefficient system to find ways of improving productivity. Another source will come from drug makers, device makers, and insurers — fees they can surely afford since expanded coverage for the uninsured will increase their markets and revenues. 

More will be saved by reducing unjustifiably high subsidies to private Medicare Advantage plans that enroll beneficiaries at a higher than average cost than Medicare. 

Romney/Ryan recently said they would restore the entire $716 billion in cuts by repealing the Affordable Care Act. 

The Congressional Budget Office says that would increase the deficit by $109 billion in the next 10 years. The Republicans have long had a goal of privatizing Medicare. Romney/Ryan would see that plan would begin. 

Carol Malispina 

Sonora

Hooliganism jailings

To the Editor,

Media outlets are condemning Russia’s two year imprisonment judgement of the Pussy Riot Three for hooliganism in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. After watching their stunt on Youtube, I agree imprisonment is warranted but two years is excessive.  

A modification may give appropriate justice: reduction to three months upon good behavior, sign agreement not to perform publicly for 2 years, all monetary gain from stunt go to the Cathedral they embarrassed. 

The U.S. media should not be shocked and exploit this event because of our prisons being crowded with long sentences for illegal drug transactors and three-strike trivial offenders.

Dennis Schneider

Angels Camp

The conservative agenda on unions

To the Editor,

The conservative agenda is anti-union. Apparently we’re better off when workers have no voice. Our government could foster labor and business cooperation, but it doesn’t. Since the 1970’s, union membership has declined from 40 percent to 9 percent. 

Graph the decline in union membership and the decline in middle class wages since the 1970s they nearly match. American workers are more productive but profits aren’t shared. Busting unions keeps your wages low. 

In “Upward Mobility,” America ranks 47th among the 47 industrialized economies, so much for the American dream. If worker wages had grown at post World War II rates, wages would be 30 percent higher today. 

Healthy unions fight wage gouging that funds excessive executive pay, and exports jobs overseas.

We deregulated the banks (another conservative idea), creating the recession. 

The bankers got off — what had been illegal was deregulated. It costs money to create jobs but we hate stimulus. 

The Tea Party thinks we create jobs by making the “recession creators” wealthier but there’s no evidence this happens. 

The top 20 percent of Americans hold 84 percent of the nation wealth — so where are those jobs?

And who’s paying for this recession? 

Who’s losing their homes, jobs, benefits, and pensions…the wealthy? 

“The recession creators” get tax cuts, while they’re claiming huge wage increases, and bonuses…why? 

Who’s there to stop them? 

American workers are paying for this recession.

In Scranton, Penn., the wages of the public workers including police and firemen were cut to minimum wage of $7.25. 

Wages, benefits and pensions are declining. You’re next. 

And the recession creators are just laughing, saying, “No new taxes… unions are bad.” 

And when wages are low enough, “You can shine my shoes!”

Robert Carabas

Sonora

Something’s fishy

To the Editor,

In a recent article “Muddy Water No Fish Danger,” that ran Aug. 28, it is stated by Forest Service biologist, Crispin Holland, that “Our native species are adapted to these kind of natural disturbances,” in reply to the excessive amount of sedimentation in our waterways lately because of Sierra Nevada thunderstorms, downpours, and hail storms.

He also goes on to state this sediment introduced into the waterways is actually beneficial to certain species and helps keep the natural balance. 

No, what is odd to me is it’s supposedly sedimentation that us dredgers were supposedly causing that was evidently “harming,” the fish, and the ecology of the water way? 

As dredgers and the past studies have shown, we know that what we were doing was not harming the fish either, yet it was still banned. It is also odd that there has been record salmon runs the last few years?

What gives? Something smells fishy … and its not the fish.

C. Stemler 

Sonora

Safety is everyone’s responsibility

To the Editor,

Regarding the Aug. 22 guest column from the Los Angeles Times, “How to make Yosemite Safer.”

Thanks the Boy Scouts of America for making our wilderness national parks safer for so many years. Kids in scuffy blue and yellow uniforms experienced their first hikes and tents thanks to the BSA, and the uniforms they wore were insignias of safety: The scout bandana was a cravat — first aid!   

Most of that technical know-how — how to survive in a wilderness place — has gone to the BSA wayside, but the main roads to wild places are still much traveled.

What we need to do is to rekindle an interest in the awareness of dangers and survival, as the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training of the American Red Cross does. 

I say teach CERT in schools as a requirement for high school graduation.

Likewise, we need to instruct park visitors in routine safety.  

More signs (a.k.a. speed limits) will be ignored. Handing out leaflets is asinine where functional illiteracy hovers at the rate of 1 in 2. What we need to do is to invent a comic strip feature that teaches kids (and adults) safety in the parks, Yosemite included.    

How many people see in the depths of their mind’s eye the slick-rock scenario that takes lives year after year and fall after fall — the same lesson pending ad infi-nauseum. 

Blame the parks! How to make Yosemite safer, as if we can engineer safety into wilderness.  

 Bah, humbug!   

We need to teach people painlessly (even those who read poorly) about the dangers inherent in nature and the need for personal survival skills.

Safety is not just the responsibility of those who wear the broad-rimmed hats — it’s your responsibility too ... and yours ... and yours!

Bud Hoekstra

San Andreas

No such thing as ‘legitimate’ rape

To the Editor,

In regards to Todd Akin.

There is never, never such a thing as a “legitimate rape,” as per Todd Akin.

Rape is a horrific crime with terrible consequence to the victim — sometimes venereal disease and even worse, a pregnancy.

For Akin and others of his ilk, I think a little middle-school sex education might broaden his intellect, if he has any.

If a woman is not on birth control and the cycle of her menses is at the fertile time when she is raped — pregnancy can happen. 

As to what she chooses to do at that time is her business alone. Not yours, not mine and certainly not Akin’s.

Nancy Czito

Jamestown

Electoral college

To the Editor,

I take exception to many of the statements in CB Maxwell’s letter in the Aug. 14 paper.

First, “The Electoral College is a foundation of our republic and constitution” — Huh!

Isn’t it just a method of electing the president and vice-president. This antiquated method may have been useful in the early days of this country when transportation and communication were primitive, but it certainly isn’t needed today.

In most states, all of the electoral votes go to the candidate who received the majority of that state’s vote. In effect, nobody else’s vote counts. If you happen to live in a state where the majority of the votes are Democrat, for example, and you vote for a Republican or Independent presidential candidate, sorry your vote won’t count toward electing the Prez.

It would take an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to change the system, and would be extremely difficult to accomplish. But, if enough state voting laws are changed, the method of electing the president could, in effect, be changed to the popular vote. This change has already been made in several states. 

Let’s encourage our state to do the same.

The means to accomplish this is very simple — have the state’s electoral votes go to the candidate who receives the most popular votes (in the whole country). 

Voila, the president (and VP) would, in effect, be elected by the popular vote (so, everyone’s vote counts).

Another benefit of eliminating the Electoral College would be the elimination of “battleground states!” 

Hoorah!

Jerry Fueslein

Groveland

Correction

 An Aug. 15 letter from Dolores Kipp contained incorrect information regarding Union Bank of California and its advertisements. It also contained incorrect information about President Obama’s chief of staff.  

Something’s fishy

To the Editor,

In a recent article “Muddy Water No Fish Danger,” that ran Aug. 28, it is stated by Forest Service biologist, Crispin Holland, that “Our native species are adapted to these kind of natural disturbances,” in reply to the excessive amount of sedimentation in our waterways lately because of Sierra Nevada thunderstorms, downpours, and hail storms.

He also goes on to state this sediment introduced into the waterways is actually beneficial to certain species and helps keep the natural balance. 

No, what is odd to me is it’s supposedly sedimentation that us dredgers were supposedly causing that was evidently “harming,” the fish, and the ecology of the water way? 

As dredgers and the past studies have shown, we know that what we were doing was not harming the fish either, yet it was still banned. It is also odd that there has been record salmon runs the last few years?

What gives? Something smells fishy … and its not the fish.

C. Stemler 

Sonora

Safety is everyone’s responsibility

To the Editor,

Regarding the Aug. 22 guest column from the Los Angeles Times, “How to make Yosemite Safer.”

Thanks the Boy Scouts of America for making our wilderness national parks safer for so many years. Kids in scuffy blue and yellow uniforms experienced their first hikes and tents thanks to the BSA, and the uniforms they wore were insignias of safety: The scout bandana was a cravat — first aid!   

Most of that technical know-how — how to survive in a wilderness place — has gone to the BSA wayside, but the main roads to wild places are still much traveled.

What we need to do is to rekindle an interest in the awareness of dangers and survival, as the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training of the American Red Cross does. 

I say teach CERT in schools as a requirement for high school graduation.

Likewise, we need to instruct park visitors in routine safety.  

More signs (a.k.a. speed limits) will be ignored. Handing out leaflets is asinine where functional illiteracy hovers at the rate of 1 in 2. What we need to do is to invent a comic strip feature that teaches kids (and adults) safety in the parks, Yosemite included.    

How many people see in the depths of their mind’s eye the slick-rock scenario that takes lives year after year and fall after fall — the same lesson pending ad infi-nauseum. 

Blame the parks! How to make Yosemite safer, as if we can engineer safety into wilderness.  

 Bah, humbug!   

We need to teach people painlessly (even those who read poorly) about the dangers inherent in nature and the need for personal survival skills.

Safety is not just the responsibility of those who wear the broad-rimmed hats — it’s your responsibility too ... and yours ... and yours!

Bud Hoekstra

San Andreas

No such thing as ‘legitimate’ rape

To the Editor,

In regards to Todd Akin.

There is never, never such a thing as a “legitimate rape,” as per Todd Akin.

Rape is a horrific crime with terrible consequence to the victim — sometimes venereal disease and even worse, a pregnancy.

For Akin and others of his ilk, I think a little middle-school sex education might broaden his intellect, if he has any.

If a woman is not on birth control and the cycle of her menses is at the fertile time when she is raped — pregnancy can happen. 

As to what she chooses to do at that time is her business alone. Not yours, not mine and certainly not Akin’s.

Nancy Czito

Jamestown

Electoral college

To the Editor,

I take exception to many of the statements in CB Maxwell’s letter in the Aug. 14 paper.

First, “The Electoral College is a foundation of our republic and constitution” — Huh!

Isn’t it just a method of electing the president and vice-president. This antiquated method may have been useful in the early days of this country when transportation and communication were primitive, but it certainly isn’t needed today.

In most states, all of the electoral votes go to the candidate who received the majority of that state’s vote. In effect, nobody else’s vote counts. If you happen to live in a state where the majority of the votes are Democrat, for example, and you vote for a Republican or Independent presidential candidate, sorry your vote won’t count toward electing the Prez.

It would take an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to change the system, and would be extremely difficult to accomplish. But, if enough state voting laws are changed, the method of electing the president could, in effect, be changed to the popular vote. This change has already been made in several states. 

Let’s encourage our state to do the same.

The means to accomplish this is very simple — have the state’s electoral votes go to the candidate who receives the most popular votes (in the whole country). 

Voila, the president (and VP) would, in effect, be elected by the popular vote (so, everyone’s vote counts).

Another benefit of eliminating the Electoral College would be the elimination of “battleground states!” 

Hoorah!

Jerry Fueslein

Groveland

Correction

 An Aug. 15 letter from Dolores Kipp contained incorrect information regarding Union Bank of California and its advertisements. It also contained incorrect information about President Obama’s chief of staff.  

Thanks to good samaritans

To the Editor,

On Aug. 20 at approximately 12:20 p.m. our GMC Acadia was hit by a driver not paying attention on a dangerous stretch of O’Brynes Ferry Road just south of Lake Tulloch Bridge. It was a very terrifying experience. 

Due to a dead cellular area, cellulars did not work but our 2-meter amateur radio did. AE6LA/Ken answered our call for aid by calling 911. 

A Mom and teen daughter came to our aide with moist towels, water and comfort while we waited for EMS. 

An off duty paramedic assisted in calming me while the first responders were assisting in freeing my husband from the car. Names were shared with me but I was so traumatized that I can’t remember the names of those who offered aid. 

You know who you are; know that you hold a very special place in our hearts. Thank you!

Miriam Brown

Copperopolis

Tax cheats

To the Editor,

Tax cheaters are traitors. If Mitt Romney won’t prove that he’s not one then he’s unqualified to be president.

Bob Wetzel 

Murphys

Good neighbors

To the Editor,

We too were affected by the Monte Grande Road fire on Aug. 7. We are thankful that Cal Fire did a wonderful job and the fire was stopped across the road from our home. 

Talking with neighbors further up the road, a special vote of thanks goes to all the Covers over the hill. Had it not been for their quick response and a big caterpillar plugging up the hill toward our subdivision, several more homes could have been lost. We may not know the Covers personally, but we have never heard anything but good about them and their work efforts. Maybe it is time that some of us get better acquainted with them.

Ramona Cook

Monte Grande Heights

Misconception
of  AB109

To the Editor,

AB109 was put into effect to reduce the prison population and give counties jurisdiction over the sentencing and housing of inmates that otherwise would have gone to prison. Prison population has reduced, but on the other hand Tuolumne County and other counties like it have increased in population size. Before AB109, if you were sentenced to prison, you would serve your time and, when released, you had a parole officer who would monitor your employment, your living environment and monthly drug tests. Being on parole, you had the opportunity to have a full time job with no interruptions of daily reporting. 

Since AB109 has come into effect, Tuolumne County has taken it upon itself to give all their released inmates daily reporting, classes and random drug tests multiple times during the week resulting in missing a check in or dirty test. Results: More county time payed for by the tax dollar. Does anybody see a pattern here? 

Wake up people. AB109 is a straight setup for failure for people wanting to get back on their feet. How could you possibly make ends meet or have an employer that will hire you when you have to take so much time off for these unnecessary guidelines of Tuolumne County probation? With this said, the results end in more crime when otherwise decent people trying to make ends meet end up having to resort back to crime in order to survive because of these extreme guidelines that they have to follow. AB109 is a setup for failure.

Richard Klidies 

Sonora