Letters To The Editor

Editor:

I take respectful but substantial issue with the front page photo caption and headline “Islamophobia” on the cover of this week’s Capitol Weekly (Sept. 2) for the following reasons, which to me seem obvious to anyone following the Park 51/Ground Zero Mosque controversy.

First, the term “Islamophobia” is in my view and the view of a great many fair-minded Americans to be a political construct and a slur, used to stifle debate of an issue where the vast majority of Americans have legitimate questions and disagreements about Political Islam and its growing influence around the world for good or bad. 

Having thus maligned the good-faith opinions of over half the country by failing to note their concerns about the propriety (not legality) of the proposed Cordoba Center mere blocks from Ground Zero, the photo caption states as undisputed fact that there is a “rising tide” of “Islamophobia” “sweeping” the country. But there is no corresponding article anywhere in this week’s Capitol Weekly describing and detailing this “rising tide” and to what extent it is “sweeping” the country.

In fact, just the opposite is true: Americans of all faiths, creeds and colors have shown remarkable tolerance toward our Islamic fellow citizens both before and after 9/11.  

Your readers are left to accept this unproven claim at face value – there was no further examination of the issue in this week’s edition. 

How high is the tide, seemingly set to engulf the public consciousness? 

Where are the many verified and properly-reported examples of phobia violence or intolerance directed at Muslims in this country that would substantiate this outsized claim? 

In what areas of the country is its rise so plainly in evidence such that people of good faith can see it and call it out as we should all do if it existed? CW doesnt say. This does a disservice to your readers who have come to expect and rely on you for fairness objectivity and good research. I found this to be very, very disappointing piece of work in an otherwise impeccably well written and researched news weekly.

Mike Donovan,

Sacramento

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Editor:

This is in response to the article by Jon Ortiz, of the Sacramento Bee, regarding the Governor and his ‘Charts’ on jobs lost in California. 

These ‘Charts’, as stated i
n the article, show that California lost 1.1 million jobs last year.   Because of that, according to the Governor, State Employees should be furloughed three days per month!  I am trying to understand the logic.  Why isn’t he doing something to create jobs in California instead of making it worse?

In the article the Governor made the statement that ‘State Workers are not in touch with reality.’

That is an amazing statement from someone who is ultimately responsible to insure that State work is accomplished and asks and expects those same people to come to work every day, which they willingly do, to perform the State’s Business.  If I quit State employment and went to work for the private sector, would I than be considered someone who is ‘in touch with reality’ in his mind?

Before I started employment with the State, I worked 25 years in the private sector.  There are segments of the economy that are doing well;  are they ‘out of touch with reality’?  

State employees read the newspapers, watch the news, and are well aware of the hardships of the current economy and how it has affected friends, neighbors and co-workers.

And a lot of those hardships were caused by this Governor.

There is certainly someone here who is not in touch with reality; it is not the State Employee.  It is this Governor who, again,  demonstrates a weak mentality.  It makes one wonder where he obtained his GED Certificate, or, even if he has one?

Daryl Spiker,

Sacramento