Educational values

I loved this issue of the Bohemian ("Degree of Panic," Aug. 19). I read it and laughed so hard and realized that I had it really good going to college. Thank you Santa Rosa Junior College and Dominican University. The article written by Jackie Johansen, "A 'Useless' Degree" had me laughing so hard since I know how she felt. The line "I could make sure that money is never a problem. However, I would rather live humbly, have the time to dip a Madeleine into lime blossom tea and let the taste of it urge my own version of Combray to bubble up from the depths of my being" is really for some what college is about. I, like Jackie, went to college to study what I am passionate about, creative writing and humanities. When I attended Dominican University, I was taught a new, independent way to think and view the world. This recession is teaching a lot of people who are able to go to college just how lucky they really are. A college education is worth the price since it is not about what one learns in the classroom but what one takes away from it for life.

N. Sartain

Santa Rosa

Scandal and the mlpa

Thank you for publishing one of the best Marine Life Protection Act articles I have seen to date ("Coastal Conundrum," Aug. 26). The unethical political maneuvering that it took to ensure the 2XA loss has left me quite disgusted with the process. There was open and transparent negotiation until the end when the Blue Ribbon Task Force felt the need to give the high-dollar eco side more of what they were paying for. Then, when it looked like 2XA could still win, the governor's office had to get involved in a bullshit move to invalidate the whole process (but ensure a win for the side that paid for the process).

I consider myself an environmentalist first and a fisherman second, but what happened was just wrong.

Dale Della Rosa

Martinez

The public option

Letter-writer Michael Zebulon is dead wrong (Letters, Aug. 26). No "very deep resentment" of Obama has been building "almost since Inauguration Day," except for the sore losers who voted for McCain.

Obama has said repeatedly that if you like your current insurance, you should be able to keep it. If you don't, there should be a "public option." That's a medical insurance plan offered by the federal government, like Medicare, that you can choose as your insurance coverage. The private plans would be required to compete with the federal plan for quality and cost.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the private health insurers, the American Medical Association, and the big pharmaceutical companies, are spending millions and millions, and are spreading lies, to defeat this healthcare reform bill. The rabble are roused by hearing such lies as the creation of a "death panel" in the reform bill.

The insurers have agreed to accept that part of the plan that would require them to take everyone who applies. The trade-off, however, according to the companies, would be that Obama would sign off on an "individual mandate." That means everyone would be required to buy insurance—quite a bonanza for the insurers. This can only work if we have an affordable and adequate public option, which the insurers are trying so desperately to kill.

Philip Ratcliff

Cloverdale

Higher standards

No review of Oliver at the Sixth Street Playhouse? We could expect that much from the PD, but the Bohemian? Are we to assume that the production is so bad, your reviewer, David Templeton, thought it best not to embarrass the theater and cast? Any comments from the esteemed Mr. Templeton?

Chris Lucas

Cotati

David Templeton responds: I do not review shows directed by Holly Vinson, because, as an occasional actor, I have been directed by her in past and hope to be again, I consider her a friend and mentor, and even if I could be objective about her work, reviewing it would open me to negative speculation and accusations of conflict of interest. I do look forward to seeing Oliver, though, as a fan of Ms. Vinson's work.

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