Hole Truth

Really? We are upset about donuts? Really? ("Crazy About Donuts," MetroMenu, April 8). Recently, my daughter and I decided to go one morning and see what the fuss was about at Psycho Donuts. There were at least 25 angry protesters, and only a few customers. We were not deterred. As a consumer it is my right to purchase donuts. The fact that this store has a gimmick to get people in the door is their right. It will initially get people through the door. If the product is good, it won't matter what they are called.

My daughter and I enjoyed the donuts and perhaps will be back. As a niece of someone with head trauma, I can tell you that even my uncle would partake of these donuts if they were good, and wouldn't care what they were called. I understand that there are those that find this in poor taste and offensive. I get that there are those that lost loved ones to mental illness, but protesting donuts hardly honors them. Wouldn't their time be best spent protesting insurance companies that don't support proper hospitalization and cover the medication that their loved ones need? Really? Donuts?

Diane Sarmento

San Jose

Off the Rails

Well, it's finally happened. Gary Singh has gone completely off the rail ("Hidden Histories," Silicon Alleys, June 3).

Gary and I have been friends for over fifteen years, so I've had a front-row seat to his various rantings. But this takes the cake! Tuesday Weld masterminding the '60s counterculture with the Illuminati and Moby Grape? I've known Dave Emory even longer than I have Gary, and even he would just shake his head at this one. This is the kind of stuff gives crackpots a bad name.

Jim Thomas

San Jose

An Open Letter To the President

I strongly supported you even before you announced. Wise, reasonable and, I thought, sharing my views on the war. Getting our kids out of the hornet's nest was my top priority. War to me is evil and mad; maybe sometimes unavoidable, I don't know, but horrible.

I know it's not simple, but nothing could be more important than stopping that shattering of minds and bodies and families. Not the economy, nothing.

Of course I can't tell you the answer to getting out sooner, but I think you have the head and the heart for it if anyone does. If it's a question of the recession going on an extra year or war going on an extra year, please put peace first.

Everyone should have a warm bed to sleep in and enough to be properly nourished. No one should be sent in to have their brains blown away or damaged inside their helmets. Our bombs should not be shattering other people's innocent children either.

Carol Straus,

Santa Cruz

Blame It on 13

Prop. 13 passed in 1979 and took 30 years to bankrupt the state of California. At the present time, there are insufficient funds to run the schools and prisons, maintain roads and provide a minimum of health care for SSI recipients. Filing for unemployment from pink slip to first check takes four to six weeks. The failure in our social welfare system is a consequence of Prop. 13. This inhumanity has resulted in a decline of our public schools; increase in crime; pot holes galore while license and plate fees increase. People, we are all bearing witness to the richest state in America falling into a banana republic.

Emanuel Marquis

Santa Cruz