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Black & White, but not very green
I’m pleased that the Black & White Ball was enjoyed by the 5,000-plus participants. The fireworks had an unintended audience of thousands of others within earshot. A scant mile away, I was awakened thinking The City was being bombed. Neighbors downstairs hit the floor to escape the gunfire. Assuming that some city agency approves the use of fireworks for any event, I urge them to apply San Francisco’s precautionary principle. The noise is one problem; another is the release of toxic chemicals in the fireworks. Exciting, beautiful — but definitely not a green happening. San Francisco Important facts omitted Your article on homeowners associations omitted important facts (“Dangers hidden in homeowners groups,” June 2). The article provided no context for judging the reasonableness of the special assessment for Colina Condominiums. How old is the complex? What repairs are needed? Do current assessments cover operating expenses? What is the community’s annual budget? These questions matter because your article suggests that all special assessments are the result of “mismanagement,” but provides no supporting facts. Although HOA managers are not required to be licensed, hundreds of managers are recognized as certified if they have completed state-specific training programs. Hardly without “oversight,” HOAs have been subject to dozens of new laws in recent years. While your article mentioned some of these, such as new restrictions on foreclosure and increasing access to financial records, it omitted laws that limit annual assessment increases and require majority owner approval for special assessments greater than 5 percent of the HOA’s expense budget. President, California Association of Community Managers Mars money a waste It’s nice to know we’ve spent billions on Mars as we suffer cuts to our dental benefits. San Francisco Change unlikely with Obama The headlines are in every newspaper from sea to shining sea. Barack Obama is the first black man to claim a major party’s presidential nomination. The African-Americans are celebrating it, and white Americans are saying it. Will we ever move past this color thing and just be Americans? Is anyone looking at the man? What has he done, and what can he do? Personally, the only thing I see in color is the stars and the stripes on our nation’s flag. My vote will always go to the American that I trust the most to keep that flag safe and strong. San Francisco Ability to unite America At last the Democratic primaries are over! And, for the first time in my 36 years as a voter, we have a presidential candidate with whom I’m really satisfied. We finally have a candidate who can lead and who can bring most of us together. It’s good to feel enthusiastic about a presidential candidate for a change. I am especially encouraged because Obama is an inspiration to our youth. Obama can unite us and make America stronger because of his ability to inspire us all. Use that in a sentence? Scripps National Spelling Bee officials should offer President George W. Bush the pronouncer job for next year’s competition. Can you imagine President Bush pronouncing words like “prosopopoeia and numhah”? Would you miss a “GWB the-spelling-bee-pronouncer event”? Never! Tolerance for JROTC In response to your June 2 aricle “JROTC still marching strong,” it is blatant hypocrisy that the liberal, anti-military professional America haters who want to abolish the JROTC program and call themselves “pro-choice,” apparently don’t extend that concept to those students who choose to voluntarily participate in the JROTC program. Imagine what the outrage would be if a group of activists wanted to abolish a voluntary gay rights or peace advocacy student organization. I imagine these same anti-JROTC agitators would be up in arms about that. But they have no problem trying to ram their ideology down the throats of others trying to deny students the right to voluntarily participate in the JROTC program. I guess the so called San Francisco virtues of tolerance and diversity don’t apply when you don’t conform to the far-left political orthodoxy. San Francisco |
