Copyright 1999 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San
Francisco Chronicle
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JUNE 8, 1999, TUESDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A20; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LENGTH: 1368 words
HEADLINE:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
BODY:
FANNIE MAE MORTGAGE
PLAN IS UNFAIR
Editor -- Given the facts, Mayor Brown's and Senator
Feinstein's grandstanding for the cheaper mortgage program announced last week
by the Federal National Mortgage Association is deplorable. The program offers
non-U.S. citizens (green-card holders) the opportunity to purchase homes in the
Bay Area with almost zero down payment. This program is completely inequitable
to hardworking citizens who have been toiling for years to save for a
traditional mortgage requiring 20 percent down. It also raises prices for
traditional buyers by creating additional demand.
A migrant
green-card-toting single worker will have an unfair advantage over a working
couple with kids. Shame on Brown and Feinstein for calling this a "real coup"
for the Bay Area.
BRAD CRAIG
Wells Fargo Investments
San
Francisco
.
OPEN PHONE MARKETS
Editor -- Access charges
are yet another battle in the ongoing struggle to deregulate the local phone
market. These roadblocks to competition continue to deny phone users real choice
("Consumer Groups Decry Phone Proposal," May 12).
The Telecommunications
Act set aside its 14-point Competitive Checklist for PacBell and the other Bells
to follow in opening its local markets in order to avoid this kind of
controversy. While the conflict plays out before the California Public Utilities
Commission, not one local Bell Company, including PacBell has met the act's
requirements and competition remains on hold.
A level playing field is
essential for other carriers to operate in PacBell's local monopoly. Customers
cannot receive the benefits of lower prices and new services until competitors
have access to the network. Phone users are ready and waiting for choice.
MARK PHIGLER
President
Americans for Competitive
Telecommunications
Walnut Creek
.
AID FOR MARIN
SCHOOLS
Editor -- As a resident of the Shoreline School District in west
Marin County where my son is a student, I would like to make your readership
aware of a critical federal funding program, which supports our schools. Section
8002 of the Impact Aid Program provides payments to school districts in lieu of
property taxes on lands that are national parks. Recently, President Clinton and
the House Appropriations Committee have recommended discontinuing this funding.
Over 60 percent of the land in the Shoreline District is federal, the
Point Reyes National Seashore. Payments of the Section 8002 support have been
inconsistent and the district is still awaiting partial payments from 1995. The
payments are essential to providing our children with a quality education. It is
not just the payments that are critical, but the fact that the government has
not been prompt with the promised aid, making it tremendously difficult for the
district to manage its budget.
People from all over the San Francisco
Bay Area enjoy the beauty and solitude that Point Reyes National Seashore and
other national parks provide -- and many have fought hard to keep these lands
from being developed. But, please, do not make the children of West Marin and
other communities pay for these treasured public lands by sacrificing their
education.
Please contact our elected representatives and ask them to
continue the Section 8002 of the Impact Aid Program.
LORETTA FARLEY
Inverness
.
ORAL LEE BROWN
Editor -- Wonderful!
You have finally found a real hero to feature on your front page. I refer to
Thaai Walker's June 2 story on Oral Lee Brown, who has spent serious time and a
large part of her income to fund and empower underprivileged Oakland kids to
rise above their limited circumstances and become qualified college students
with real chances in life.
It is a real joy and inspiration to read on
your front page, for a change, about a real person who has made a herculean
effort to help other people in real ways. The story is a welcome change from
your normal parade of stories designed to portray a mountebank like Bill Clinton
as a hero as he races about the world, at taxpayers expense, to seize his "photo
opportunities" at the scene of every major tragedy or disaster. He says he
"feels the pain" of the victims, looks lugubrious, bites his lip in his charming
way and tells them all "he" will give them money. Oral Lee Brown gives her own
money. Clinton gives none of his own money. The only money he "gives" is the
taxpayer's money, and those gifts have to be authorized by Congress.
Why
can't you cut down on your adulation of Bill Clinton, the phony hero, to make
room for more stories about real and decent heroes?
ELLWOOD HOSKINS
Pleasant Hill
.
THE DANGERS OF SEX
Editor -- In
response to your May 24 Open Forum article entitled, "The Silence Must Be
Broken," I would like make a few comments. This may sound obvious to uninfected
heterosexuals and simplistic to the gay community, but the best way for gay men
to protect themselves and their partners against the spread of AIDS is to assume
that everyone they are intimate with is HIV-positive, and only engage in
protected sex. I concur with Pat Christen that the steady drop in the annual
infection rate in San Francisco from 8,000 cases a year to 500 is a major
achievement, but the time for discussing one's status openly and honestly has
come and gone.
However, in order to really stem the spread of AIDS in
San Francisco, the sex clubs must be closed, the baths must not be permitted to
be reopened, and the more notorious gay bars should be observed by the
authorities for the sale and consumption of drugs as well as public sex. (It's
rampant, and the police and our elected officials know it, but for some
disturbing and unexplained reason, they continue to allow these businesses to
operate!)
It's unfortunate that in a sophisticated city such as San
Francisco, the gay sex and drug culture of the 1970s and '80s continues to
stifle our community today. The gay and alternative press, along with their
advertisers, especially the bars and clubs, has an obligation to promote a more
health-conscious image.
LEE SCHOENBART
San Francisco
.
NO FAN OF AMMIANO
Editor -- Despite John Wildermuth's story in
the June 3 Chronicle, support for Supervisor Tom Ammiano is far from universal
in the Castro/Upper Market area. As a 21-year resident of that district, I have
many friends and neighbors, straight and gay, who find Supervisor Ammiano
abrasive and autocratic, and who despise his politics of class resentment and
envy.
Although I am a self-described liberal, the only way I'd ever vote
for the supervisor is if he were running against Gary Bauer or David Duke.
Personally, I believe nothing would rally support for Mayor Brown faster than
Supervisor Ammiano's entry into the mayoral campaign.
ROBERT W.
MELBOURNE
San Francisco
.
LIFE'S VULGARITIES
Editor -- Although it may be politically incorrect, I, too, like the
people in Michigan, believe that children and women should be protected from the
vulgarities of life, including those of language. I also believe they should not
be allowed to vote or drive. This further protects them from the vulgarities of
life.
MIKE ZELINSKY
San Francisco
.
FOGGED IN IN
MILAN
Editor -- For many happy years I lived for a month or two each
year in Italy. My favorite airline to make the journey from London was always
Alitalia. Normally, I flew direct to Rome, but on a few occasions to Milan. It
seemed that whenever I chose Milan it was "fogged in," so after waiting 24 hours
one time and 48 hours the next, I found it more convenient to fly to a city in
Switzerland and complete the journey by train. Alitalia is the fun way to fly --
good food and wines, great cabin staff. But to Milano? How many flights will be
diverted?
HUGH L. JONES
Sonoma
.
379TH BOMB
GROUP
Editor -- All former members of the 379th Bomb Group, who served
with the Eighth Army Air Force in Kimbolton, England, in World War II from
mid-1943 to mid-1945 are asked to join us at a reunion to be held in Tucson,
Ariz., September 8-11.
Please contact Jan Rumberger, group association
secretary, 925 Hertzier Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055.
JOSEPH E.
D'ANGELO
Publicity Committee
379th Bomb Group Association
Philadelphia
LOAD-DATE: June 8,
1999 
