Public Comment

Short Takes on Big Stuff

Carol Denney, Helen Rippier Wheeler, Ron Lowe
Friday March 15, 2013 - 03:04:00 PM

Thank you for Steven Finacom's excellent rebuttal of the annual weep-in over Telegraph Avenue. I get my largest hanky out once a year to accommodate the fact-free flow of tears most of the media laps up over Telegraph Avenue's mythological woes. 

Carol Denney 


District 8 Supervisor Gordon Wozniak, quoted on berkeleyside.com, told the Council: "There should be something like a bit tax. I mean a bit tax could be a cent per gigabit and they would still make, probably, billions of dollars a year… And there should be, also, a very tiny tax on email," perhaps one-hundredth of a cent. 

He said this would discourage spam and not have much impact on the typical Internet user. Wozniak went on to suggest a sales tax on internet transactions that could help, in part, fund "vital functions that the post office serves." 

Alas, the senior citizen/older person/elder is not likely to be a typical Internet user, and is even less likely to reside in District 8 or a UC,B dorm. Senior citizens are increasingly using the Internet by means of instruction and accessibility at public libraries and some senior centers. Low-income seniors and disabled persons, especially the hearing-impaired, rely on email to communicate with the "outer world." For them, there is no such thing as a very tiny tax.  

Helen Rippier Wheeler 


It must be terrifying to live in Wayne Lapierre's world. The NRA's leader has demonstrated how far off the deep end his organization has gone by arguing against any new gun control laws whatsoever.  

LaPierre insists that every sane American should be loading up on as many firearms as possible, describing the country on the edge of fiscal and social collapse. His America is full of terrorists, gangsters, and roaming mobs of looters and rapists prowling the streets, looking for unarmed prey. And to think, there are millions more just like him.  

It's a wonder the guy ever comes out from under his bed. In reality, violent crime is at a two-decade low.  

Guns, moreover, are far more likely to be used in homicides and suicides than in self-defense. But survivalists like LaPierre live in their own little world - a cold and scary place where you can't trust anyone, and only lethal force can protect you.  

Ron Lowe  

Nevada City, CA