Dear Mr. President, No Beauty Contest and Not About the Money

May 19, 2003

Dear President Bush,

Never mind Rosario Perry's plea for help. (“OPINION: Open Letter to President Bush,” May 19) He just woke up and realized that if you were to invade Santa Monica, he'd be out of his very lucrative job of harassing tenants and their SMMR advocates.

Since he has precious few skills in anything else useful to humanity, he'd have to go work for your administration or something, and Donald Rumsfeld probably wouldn't like Rosario competing to be your new chief of hyperbole and gross exaggeration.

Anyway, government service doesn't pay enough to keep Rosario happy. So, he'd probably start suing you too, to keep his income at the level it is now from suing the Rent Board and charging hapless landlords for his "services."

Alan Toy
(Eds. Note: Alan Toy is a member of the Santa Monica Rent Control Board)

May 19, 2003

Dear Editor,

Ah.... the debate continues -- long after to cows have come home. (“LETTERS: Taxing Taxes, Unfair Taxes,” May 16)

John Gorman appears to be one of the few to have bought Don Gray's argument (before the League of Women Voters) that no help for the schools is better than some help. (“Gloves Off in Parcel Tax Debate,” May 16) Why else the continuing debate over the form of the school funding measure?

Apparently he and Don believe that the subcommittee to select the form of Measure S is still working on options. It is not.June 3 is not a beauty contest between Measure S and other options.

It is positively the ONLY way to insure that our schools are not lighter by almost one hundred classroom teachers, as well as librarians, PE coaches and a whole bunch of other critical personnel come September.C'mon Don and John, it's really quite simple.

If Measure S fails, there will be a great many more third graders per class next year -- and fewer third grade teachers to teach them. That's a simple fact anyone can understand -- and no one can debate.

Marc Sanschagrin
Santa Monica parent and teacher

May 18, 2003

Dear Editor,As a parent of a successful student in the Santa Monica/Malibu Unified School District, I read with interest about the debate on Measure S. I was just curious as to how many children Mr. Gray has.

If he does have children, do they go to public school in Santa Monica? Does he realize that Arts education is being cut and that our school music program, which got our kids to national recognition this past year, will be cut?

Mr. Gray says in the article that if some people or businesses get a break and don't have to pay proportionately, that this is money our kids don't receive, and that we are selling our kids short.

Doesn't Mr. Gray, who, I'm sure, is an honorable man, realize that this isn't about the money - - IT'S ABOUT THE KIDS? If measure S does not pass, what is Mr. Gray -- and our city -- saying about our children THEN?
Just curious.