December 25, 2002

talkback...

Tolkien's real story

I'm sorry, has Patrick Macias actually read The Two Towers? ["Force of Hobbit," 12/11/02]

"The main blame falls on a time-wasting love triangle between king-to-be Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), his elvish paramour Arwen (Liv Tyler), and newcomer Lady Eowyn (Miranda Otto). Other questionable changes occur when Faramir (David Wenham), the brother of Boromir from Fellowship, holds up the business of hobbits Sam (Sean Astin) and Frodo (Elijah Wood) by basically behaving as the polar opposite of his more honorable page-bound counterpart. Until the third-film payoff, it's not entirely clear how these changes improve on Tolkien's time-honored narrative."

Tell him to actually read the trilogy before he criticizes the movie for "going off on tangents" – by the way, each and every one of these events occurred in the story.

Maureen E. O'Connor

Foxboro, Mass.

Patrick Macias responds: Sure I've read the books, but have you actually seen the movies?

Pelosi's fan

Like clockwork, every primary and every general election, the Bay Guardian refuses to endorse Nancy Pelosi. For reasons that make sense to its editors and nobody else, Pelosi is not good enough to represent the people of San Francisco.

Comes now In This Issue (11/13/02), in which Tim Redmond quotes New York Times pundit Bill Keller saying that Pelosi's colleagues regard her intelligence, legislative acumen, and oratory as average at best. Those oats have been through the horse one time too many.

To the contrary, Pelosi is widely respected by congressional Democrats and Republicans alike as an intelligent, skilled legislator and a formidable campaigner for the causes she believes in.

While the Bay Guardian has refused to get over Pelosi's 1987 victory over Harry Britt, for 15 years Pelosi has applied her intelligence and skill to generate bipartisan support for progressive policies.

In 1989, when public consciousness about the World Bank was barely beginning to awaken, Pelosi studied the issues and generated bipartisan support for an amendment that requires the U.S. executive director of the World Bank to oppose project loans unless an environmental impact statement was released to the public 120 days before the vote. Critics of the World Bank recognize the Pelosi Amendment as a key victory that forced the bank to become more transparent and improve its projects.

The list of causes for which Pelosi has fought goes on and on and on. Closing the School of the Americas. Food stamps. Head Start. AIDS. Opposing "Fast Track" legislation. Opposing tax cuts tilted toward the richest. Medical marijuana. Clean air and water. Child care. These are just a few of hundreds of important causes for which Nancy Pelosi has worked to build support in Congress.

Joel Rubinstein

San Francisco

Tim Redmond responds: Our complaints with Pelosi have nothing to do with her election to Congress. Our problem is how she's behaved in office. Pelosi led the fight to turn the Presidio over to private interests, creating the first privatized national park in U.S. history and setting a terrible environmental and policy precedent. She has consistently operated as part of the Brown-Burton machine, helping the powerful interests who are allied with the machine control city hall. That's why we withhold our endorsement.

Beyond SUV limits

While Jane Sullivan offers an interesting proposal for combating the SUVs that clog our streets – and our air with their exhaust – in a typically liberal fashion, she is avoiding the real issue [Op-ed, 12/11/02]. Our entire society is so overdependent on cars that we have come to think of these machines, which account for about 40 percent of the Bay Area's contribution to global warming and require a good part of the oil we import, as entitlements.

But we are at the brink of environmental and geopolitical disasters that do not permit one able-minded adult exemption from thinking about the impact of the culture of car dependence on the planet – not to mention our waistlines – and then doing something to extricate ourselves from that impact. Whatever we do, we need to begin now, crafting thoughtful methods of relieving this dependence. The people of Bogota, Colombia, for example, have voted to ban all car traffic during rush hours by 2015. Too extreme? Face it: We either adjust our own lives – move closer to work, learn to take buses, organize and demand extended bike lanes and bike parking, or we let global warming and American militarization of the planet continue unchecked. The second scenario will certainly lead to increased incidences of terrorism and wars involving the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Susan Vaughan

San Francisco

Taxing SUVs

Great article concerning SUVs in San Francisco. But I think the argument would be stronger if you made the case that parking permit fees should be set by the weight of the vehicle. Should a light/short Geo Metro pay the same price as a long/heavy, 4,000 pound Ford Expedition? Since property taxes are based on square footage and value, why don't we come up with the same formula for SUVs?

James Hugh