Santa Cruz Sentinel

October 16, 2002

Speed bumps on Seabright needed
I am a 79-year-old woman who lives near the corner of Seabright and Broadway. Every morning I walk from 8 to 9 a.m. I make several laps around Gault School. Why traffic would be sent down Seabright is beyond me. It’s narrow, there are too many bikes. How we have been so lucky not to have had a child killed there is amazing. Thank God for the crossing guard. Remember that this is a neighborhood with lots of children who use the school on weekends and after school. With streets like Cayuga and Branciforte that can easily end up on Seabright and Murry, why not put the speed bumps down Seabright and run the traffic down the wide streets? There is just not safe driving and walking on Seabright.

Gault School frontage is going to be a death trap, with parents letting children out of cars for school, bikes and excess cars. As it is, cars are going over the double line. Come on now, good fathers and mothers of our city — stop and think this through.

Virginia Butz

Santa Cruz

Watch hospital bills
On June 3, I developed tendonitis in my shoulder and went to Watsonville Community Hospital at 9:30 p.m. I was taken into an examination room so filthy the doctor refused to give me a shot until he cleaned the table.

I was seen by a doctor who squeezed my shoulder and diagnosed tendonitis. After an hour, a nurse brought a vial. The doctor returned and gave me a shot of cortisone, using approximately one-third of the contents of the vial.

A couple of weeks later I received a bill for this service. The hospital wanted $1,062; the doctor wanted $213.18. After I complained, the hospital re-audited the bill, dropping a $210 charge for a "minor surgical procedure." After numerous calls, I went to the hospital to discuss the bill. The itemized bill listed the steroid at $327. They said they used $136 worth of Novocain. They also charged me $69 for 10 4x4-inch gauze bandages. I informed them I hadn’t used any gauze bandages. They refused to remove the bandages from my bill, and ultimately gave me a package of bandages because I wouldn’t pay for items I hadn’t received.

When I complained about this bill, I was asked why I was complaining, that I should just let the insurance pay it. The problem is that I’m a self-employed businesswoman who pays for my own insurance policy. I don’t feel that a shot should cost in excess of a thousand dollars. It cost $1,065.18 at Watsonville Hospital to see a doctor for a 10-minute visit and to receive an injection.

This bill is unreasonable. I’m writing to warn consumers and Watsonville residents that we’re held hostage to the hospital’s high prices or be forced to drive to another city for medical care.

Diane Morgan

Watsonville

Give key to city to Saddam
It will be a glorious day when the Santa Cruz City Council and the Board of Supervisors invite that stalwart of the peace movement, Saddam Hussein, to receive the key to the city at the Town Clock. Osama bin Laden would be welcome too, providing he has not already been blown to bits by that evil fascist George Bush, who has the audacity to claim he is defending the country. As long as Saddam’s nerve gas, smallpox viruses and plutonium are only used against Manhattan and Washington D.C., why should Santa Cruz care? Heck, they could even eliminate Los Angeles while they’re at it. Think of all those cars we could get off the road.

We anxiously await the next foreign policy pronouncement from our local officials. They need a break from the endless debates about traffic and panhandlers. Perhaps they could smoke some more medicine to relieve the stress of contemplating the world’s problems.

David Emberson

Santa Cruz

Exit exam gives false security
The High School Exit Exam is nothing more than a pacifier to lull everyone into a false sense of reassurance that things are going well and serious measures are in place to insure that our public schools are delivering measurable meaningful results. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This paper’s editorial declared "the fact that most Santa Cruz County high school sophomores have passed this crucial test after two tries is good news."

Nowhere in either the front-page article, or the subsequent editorial, is any mention of the fact that this is an exam in which tenth graders are tested for mastery of eighth-grade math and language arts.

The "big deal" is that they get to graduate and get a diploma.

The only thing the HSEE assures is qualification for admission to a community college, to take remedial courses, or a menial labor job.

While our fearless leaders respond by pushing for more vocational schools, we forsake potential writers, artists, scientists, mathematicians and white-collar professionals, and are duped and lulled into complacency.

Martha Montelongo

Santa Cruz

Don’t give up on voting
When Democrats like House leader Dick Gephardt say, "Completely bypassing the U.N. would set a dangerous precedent that would undoubtedly be used by other countries in the future to our and the world’s detriment," and then vote to give Bush the power to completely bypass the U.N., one must seriously question the leadership capability (and, frankly, the intelligence) of our Democratic representatives.

It is very important that concerned citizens vote for an independent in the upcoming election (except for Democrats like Sam Farr, who earned our support by voting against the Iraq invasion). We must show politicians now that they can not be so spineless and two-faced. It is very important that some third party emerges to expand dialogue across the full political spectrum. For example, the Green party candidate for governor, Peter Camejo (who was excluded from the last Simon/Davis debate, in spite of the fact that polls showed 65 percent of Californians wanted him included), would actually win the election if all California voters who disagree with the war resolution (as shown by multiple polls) voted for him. Although it may be too much to ask for the outright victory of independents, we voters must make a strong statement now that we demand that our representatives follow our wishes. Don’t give up. Do vote. Send a message.

Chris Shaw

Santa Cruz

Local issues need to be heeded
Does it really need to be said that only someone who is certifiably insane would wish to go to war? That being said it seems three of our supervisors are infected with the elitist conceit that only they know best what county residents should think in matters of national policy.

As citizens, each of us has the right and the duty to let our Congressman and Senators know our views on such matters. I have done that; I hope others have as well. To permit the supervisors to assume that duty for us is to risk seeing our rights disappear into the voracious maw of "Big Brother." Nor am I comforted to know that our Congressman has gone so wobbly he must be propped up by a lukewarm vote of the supervisors.

Personal opinions of our supervisors may be expressed in the same way as those of the rest of us. Supervisors are not more equal than we.

I will be most appreciative if our supervisors will stick to the job for which they were elected — dealing with problems that have local solutions.

Pat Carrick

Aptos

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