Clouded Judgement?

I am both amazed and astonished by the lack of attention and editorial integrity by your investigative staff ("Evil White Rain," by Brodie Jenkins, the Conspiracy Issue, Aug. 27). The issue of aerial spraying and the government data of high levels of heavy metals in our residential water supplies and soil should be of great alarm, I would think. Yet your paper chose to minimize over four hours of interviews with Rosalind Peterson and me, and publish the article in the "Conspiracy Issue," which we both asked Brodie to not use as a term in the article. Why?

We did nothing to warrant the title "Evil White Rain" nor did we make any accusations to elicit a notion of conspiracy. We did however, give Brodie years of government documents and research which showed extreme spikes in heavy metals in our soil and drinking water supplies throughout Northern California, and documents identifying at least 60 weather modification programs across the Western United States, many of which use heavy metals in their spraying and seeding of clouds or creation of clouds.

We do not deal in conspiracies. We gave Brodie government documents and research. We asked only that your paper print the truth and the facts given.  This is a much bigger issue than the little article you so feebly published. We were led to believe you and your paper cared about this issue, as it affects all of our community's health. The issue is complicated and of grave concern.

 I am completely puzzled by your lack of concern. We came to you because we believed in your investigative reporting on important issues. I have now lost faith and belief in that idea.

I would ask that you reconsider a much more detailed article on this issue and dig a bit deeper into research. Many people in Northern California are very concerned and receiving no information. We see the jets, we witness and film the contrails, we watch as our bright blue skies are covered in white, poisonous clouds.

Have you ever taken a look at our once clear Sonoma County hills and asked yourself, "What is all that white haze, day after day, and where is it coming from?"

Len Greenwood

Cazadero

  'White Evil Rain' is a lyric line from a Beck song titled 'Chemtrails,' not an indictment of your work.

To Have 'Erred' is Human

Wondering ultimately what to do with my mother's ashes, which I hold at home, I was thrilled to read Gretchen Giles' article "Dying Art" which embraces this question (Sept. 24).

I recall poet Randall Jarrell's statement that a poet uses more of the word than most readers are accustomed. I refer here to Giles' conscious or unconscious use of the word "undeterred" at the beginning of the third paragraph from the end of the article. If "interred" means "buried," and if "deterred" could be a creative alternative for "disinterred" meaning "unburied," mightn't the word "deterred" have a double meaning and also mean "unburied"? Following this bit of linguistic logic, perhaps it wouldn't be much of a stretch to conclude that "undeterred" once again could mean "buried," as in "Perhaps it would be best were my entire subject to be undeterred."

Thank you for the article and your indulgence.

Ed Coletti

Santa Rosa

In Favor of Family Farming

Talk about the Big Lie!  The article on the Drake's Bay Family Farms ("Shell Games," Sept. 17) ends with a quote from Neal Desai of the National Parks Conservation Association saying, "By protecting Drakes Estero, we are protecting all other wild lands from commercial development coming into it." The Drake's Bay Family Farms is not Standard Oil or a commercial development company, it's a family farm.  And it's not "coming into" anywhere, it's already there, and has been already there for years.  Family farms are what made this nation great.  Extend the lease, keep family farms alive!

Jerry Werzinsky

Novato

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