Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 11

or-A PDDDDODD Santa Cruz Sentinel Saturday, March 27, 1993 Page All As you see it Black bear deserves its rightful place in nature PRo In the aftermath of an American tragedy Letter of the day The Opinion Page of March 21 offered an editorial titled "Bear hunters don't need the hounds." I would think the average hunter would be appalled at the way the state Department of Fish and Game allows hunters to hunt and kill black bear. In the same day's paper, we read about the great white shark. Thank God they will never do to the dangerous white shark what they have done, and are doing, to the black bear. Think about the way things were when bear (unabated) roamed the Santa Cruz Mountain range. The bear long ago became extinct, probably because March 12 About that deficit Jean Philipp wants someone to define deficit (letters, March 9): The federal government admits to a $4 trillion deficit.

There are about 250 million people in this nation. For each billion the feds owe, this amounts to $4 per person. It takes 1,000 billion to add up to a trillion. Each trillion means every man, woman and child owes $4,000. A family of four has a $64,000 portion of this federal deficit.

The interest on this debt is the biggest expense in our current federal budget. Unless we get out of denial, this nation will self-destruct. Much of this debt was a result of the arms race. This is what caused Russia to go bankrupt. What are we to do with all the missiles that were built to use against Russia? This spending madness has to end.

Let's hope it's not too late. Japan may have to rebuild our sad economy. Robert D. Crovo Santa Cruz March 12 Stop bashing Christians I'm curious, why is it becoming in vogue to bash Christians? Does it go along with Birkenstocks, Volvos and getting googoo-eyed over multicultural programs? I don't want to be left out, so how do I act? Do I denounce Christ so as to be in tune with the most enlightened savoir faire? What coffee shop do these beautiful atheists mingle in? I could covertly enter among them and, by osmosis, receive their non-spiritual humanism. What a marvelous high.

Then if I'm most fortunate, they might reveal to me the secret of the origin of the universe. Was it faxed from a designer studio in New York? The atheist persuasion is a cry for help. Look in their eyes sometime; they are terrified of their mortality. They desperately seek affirmation of God's existence but cannot get beyond pitiful, restricted thinking. So, in their troubled way, they lash out at those who have the peace of Christ.

"To condemn God as impossible is to pretend, with rash presumption, to know the limits of possibility." Michel de Montaigne said this in 1586. I've yet to see an atheist around here with even one-fourth of de Montaigne's intelligence. Theodore F. Meyer Santa Cruz March 12 We all deserve a decent home There was a letter in the Sentinel recently suggesting that housing was an inappropriate use for the Beach Flats. More beneficial would be the expansion of tourist-related businesses into that area, which would bring additional jobs and tax revenues to the community.

Considering that tourist industry jobs are among the lowest paying anywhere, having knocked down so much of what little affordable housing is still available, where would the people taking all these new jobs be expected to live? Not in Santa Cruz County, that's for sure. With housing costs here among the highest in the state, the question of where anyone of modest means is going to live is an increasingly serious one. What would happen if everyone making less than $35,000 a year suddenly left for good? Think about it for a minute. Nearly every business in the county would come to a screeching halt. Life here would quickly become impossible po matter how much money you made.

Clearly it is in no one's long-term interest to continue to ignore the problem of affordable housing. a It is essential for the well-being of the Santa Cm THE RECENT killing of Dr. Gunn in Florida has sent shock waves through the pro-life movement. How could someone who claimed to share our belief in the value of human life actually turn against that belief and kill a human being? This was an indefensible act, made even more horrible (if that were possible) by the perpetrator's supposed affiliation with the right to life movement. It makes a mockery of everything we believe in.

I am deeply saddened by this tragedy, for many reasons. Sad for the loss of a human being, sad for the bereft family and friends, and say beyond description for the future consequences of this tragedy. Already, the abortion industry is using this incident to paint the entire pro-life movement with a bloody brush, even though this effort requires a complete disregard of the facts. The facts are these: More than 99 percent of the pro-life movement is not involved in any acts of civil disobedience. The vast majority, in fact, strive to be apolitical.

The most common pro-life activities are connected with providing help for women and their babies, born as well as unborn. They provide real alternatives to abortion, and offer women non-violent, life-affirming choices that may include parenting, open adoption, closed adoption or temporary foster care. Nationwide networks exist to put women together with exactly the right kind of help for their particular situations. Many pro-life people make a point of avoiding political activism, out of a concern that any such activities could compromise the real work of providing assistance for women in need. This doesn't make good news copy, however; it's too boring.

Helping a woman relocate to another town with a comparable or better job, transfer of college credits, housing assistance, free medical care, child-care help and family counseling just aren't headline material. many thought the bear and humans didn't belong together. I believe the California black bear belongs in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Let the people who frequent these areas beware. In Australia, one of the most dreaded animals frequenting areas where humans live is the crocodile.

People are warned in advance to stay away from the perimeter of rivers and lakes. The dangerous croc could be controlled by killing. But "Down Under" they feel the croc was here first it's the human who should beware. Walter H. Schlobohm Aptos entire community that everyone have a decent, affordable place to live.

B. Jefferson Le Blanc Santa Cruz March 12 We're blowing this town Well, here we are, two native Santa Cruzans, sitting on the front porch shaking our heads and gazing in puzzlement at our once pleasant and friendly berg that has been transformed into a place that is unrecognizable to us. Strangers have taken over and turned Santa Cruz into something to which we can no longer relate. We sadly feel that we have no other choice but to pull up stakes and head north to Idaho. Our only regret is leaving behind the many friends and acquaintances who have touched our lives over the years.

We bid you all a fond farewell and we hope our paths will again cross some day. Carol and Richard Fairhurst Santa Cruz March 12 We should keep the eagle When I first heard of the local VFW's proposal to replace a downtown historical monument with a politically correct version (statuary revisionism?) of a "peace monument," I was enraged. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the city of Santa Cruz was not going to give in. I commend Mayor Neal Coonerty for his commitment to the sense of pride, community service and history that are so essential to the survival of our culture, community and country. As a Vietnam veteran, I know many of us have suffered the pain of an unpopular war that has left many scars.

This must not, however, be allowed to detract from the honor of remembering the brave men and women who preceded us in proudly serving their country. Brian J. Evers Santa Cruz March 12 PV board's priorities wrong Pajaro Valley Unified School District trustees have announced their plan to lay off, among others, counselors, librarians and nurses. To "save the classroom," they sacrificed the direct, one-on-one services to students that those individuals provide. Ironically, lower-salaried temporary and probationary teachers will be displaced when many of these tenured professionals are reassigned to the classroom.

Here are hard choices they could have made: one principal for two schools; cut transportation at the high school; extend busing boundaries for middle school; curtail athletics; one superintendent instead of a triumvirate. Basic to education are students, those who work directly with them, materials and the faculty. Why not use this yardstick when deciding what has to be cut? We shouldn't be surprised if our children, when grown, fail to vote for schools and libraries or value physical and mental health professionals. The board's priorities send a clear message to students and the community of what is and what is not worthy of support. SharlyaGold Watsonville High School teacher Capitola The Sentinel welcomes letters on timely public issues that are no more than 200 words.

Editors may condense them even more to make room for as many letters as possible. You must include your name, address and daytime telephone number for verification purposes. Only your name will be printed. Stnfmt I Apolinar Acevedo Production Director Dill Patrick Composing Room Manager Edward Senft Press Room Manager Robert M. Hughes Controller LiFe? As others see it This was an indefensible Terry Martin The largest pro-life organization.

National Right To Life, has more than 7 million members. It does not picket or block clinics and is totally opposed to civil disobedience. Nevertheless, National Right To Life president Wanda Franz's statements condemning Dr. Gunn's murder (and, in fact, all violence) have been ignored. Instead, the focus has been on groups like Operation Rescue, with less than 2,000 members nationwide, and this new bunch called Rescue America, with what? Twenty guys in pickup trucks? All this attention has given these radical fringe groups a legitimacy they would never have had otherwise.

Giving extremists what they want publicity serves to encourage their civil disobedience and stirs up public antipathy toward real, help-oriented pro-life activities. This is the worst part of the tragedy. A woman with an unplanned pregnancy needs help. The abortion industry would like her to believe there is no choice except abortion. That's not true.

Violence is not the only solution to an unplanned pregnancy. Sadly, the abortion industry is using one tragic and indefensible act of violence the Gunn killing to put pressure on Congress to pass the Freedom Of Choice Act, which would prevent states from enacting any consumer laws to pro Anna Quindlen movement in this country. For what the murder of Gunn illustrates has been obvious for some time: The anti-abortion movement is being steered largely by its right wing, by the reactionary and the enraged. With their retributory rhetoric, their harassment of patients and their "wanted" posters for doctors that contain everything except the line "Dead Or Alive," the zealots have created an atmosphere at dozens of clinics across the country in which an act like the murder of Gunn was the obvious next step. And what has become increasingly obvious as well is that, like the author of the Jezebel tract, those who have hijacked the anti-abortion movement from its more moderate players come with an agenda that goes far beyond ending a pregnancy.

Anti-abortion hot lines now include information on how to protest homosexuals in the military and sex education in the schools. Judie Brown of the American Life League will inform you that the IUD is an abortifacient, and Randall Terry of Operation Rescue says that women belong at home. "Ke should be glad he was not killed the same way that he has killed other tect pregnant women from unsafe and violent practices. That's a key word. Safe.

Legal abortion is sold as a safe alternative, but the Freedom Of Choice Act would remove many important safeguards that are standard medical practice, including the requirement that abortions be performed by doctors. That would bring back the "back alley" with a vengeance. Setting aside for a moment the ethical question of the unborn child's humanity, there still remain many practical reasons to be concerned about abortion. Lack of consumer safeguards for women patients has always been a problem with the male-dominated medical history, which includes abortionists. Before undergoing any medical procedure, women deserve to know about potential risks to our physical and emotional health.

We deserve to know that abortion can cause miscarriage of a later, wanted child. We deserve to know other valid options exist, and how to contact those who provide them. Among other things, a woman has a right to know how developed her child is before making an irrevocable decision. She deserves to know what will be done to her body, and her child's body. A "choice" without complete information is no choice at all.

It's coercion. If "pro-choice" activists cared as much for women's consumer rights as they do for political clout, maybe we wouldn't have to deal with things like silicone implant complications, the Dalkon Shield, needless hysterectomies or abortion-induced sterility. Terry Martin is a free-lance writer who writes for publications at all ends of the political spectrum. She is a member of Feminists For Life, a Seamless Garment Network group opposed to violence in all forms. She lives in Scotts Valley.

people, which is limb by limb," said one anti-abortion advocate of Gunn's murder, her compassion extending only in utero. "If we really believe they're child killers, it may be justified," said a former police officer who is now in training to become an anti-abortion commando, jamming clinic phone lines and picketing doctors at their homes. I know that there are others, thoughtful and empathetic. I've listened to the voices of Helen Alvare, the intelligent and articulate woman who speaks on this subject for the American Catholic bishops, and Nat Hentoff, the friend of the First Amendment who tweaks the notion that abortion opposition is synonymous with fundamentalist Christianity by de- scribing himself as a Jewish atheist. I was heartened when the president of, a Texas anti-abortion organization re- viled the shooting of Gunn.

"You don't; win a moral war through force or coer- 1 cion or intimidation," he said. "You wih through reason." But those who talk in a heartfelt way of abortion as the taking of life are being! overwhelmed by the zealotry and tactics of those who consider criminalizing aboi tion the first step toward eliminating the! ascendancy of the offending Jezebel. For years they have talked about valu-! ing life when what they really value is a way of life long gone. It's not only time for advocates of legal! abortion to oppose this zealotry. It's time for those who are opposed to abortion and who shrink from putting bloody pic-j lures in me man, noxious acia tnrough the clinic keyhole or a bullet in a good i man's back to speak out, too.

Those whose ethos is a seamlQssii; ment of respect for life, not oneoi mf j. gation and control, must speakloutfeviii' their cause is to have any Respect for life is a seamless garment SOMEONE looking out for the sorry state of my soul sent me "The Spirit of Jezebel," a religious tract originating with a pastor in Texas that takes a kind of seamless-garment approach to the problems of the United States. It's all women's fault. Equal opportunity, the wearing of slacks, women in the military and on the bench, feminism, even bobbed hair all have contributed to the disintegration of American society. And the solution is clear: "Women were never made to be in the work force outside the home, but to marry, bear children, and guide the house.

The young women are not exhorted to become professional business women, to be some man's boss or submit themselves to another head, but are under the father's authority until marriage, when the husband becomes her only head and authority and her provider." To say that if this pamphlet had been written about the proper subservient role of black Americans it would be the most flagrant form of racism is to state the obvious. To say that it inveighs against legal abortion is probably stating the obvious as well. But the obvious has now become news, ever since Dr. David Gunn was shot in the back outside a Florida abortion clinic. The assailant was a protester named Michael Griffin who was so committed to the well-being of women and children that his wife once charged in court documents that he'd been violent with her and their two young daughters.

The man leading the protests at the clinic where Gunn was killed was a former Ku Klux Klan member who once broke into a clinic and slammed an administrator into the wall. None of this came as much of a surprise to anyone following the course of the anti-abortion Santa Cruz County's newspaper (408) 423-4242 or 688-6512 SANTA CRUZ, CA 95060 David B. Regan, President and Publisher John L. Lindsay, General Manager 207 CHURCH ST. Tom Honig Editor Marybeth Varcados Managing Editor Karen Clark Editorial Page Editor Donald Miller City Editor Karen Carnot Advertising Director Dorothy McCoy Retail Adv.

Manager Heather Davis Classified Adv. Manager Mardi Browning Douglass Circulation Manager The editorials on this page represent the opinion of the newspaper's editorial board. Members of the board are: David B. Regan, John L. Lindsay, Tom Honig, Marybeth Varcados and Karen Clark.

Anna Quindlen, The Nw York Tii.