Another term for Morrison

As a progressive Democrat, I agree with your April 7 editorial, "Reelect Jane Morrison." As current chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, Morrison has worked to unite the various parts of the local Democratic Party's grand coalition and elect progressive Democrats to public office. She has the respect of Democratic activists as well as Democratic office-holders.

It is important for Democrats to show their support for Morrison and the progressive forces within the Democratic Party by attending the next Democratic County Central Committee meeting when the vote for chair is taken: Wednesday, April 14, 7 p.m., California State Office Building, 455 Golden Gate, S.F. For more information, call the DCCC at (415) 626-1161 or go to www.sfdemocrats.org.

John Mehring,

San Francisco

Newsom's good economics

I could not let the nonsense espoused in the Bay Guardian's March 31 "Newsom's Bad Economics" editorial and Matthew Hirsch's online article "Newsom's Class Consciousness" go by without responding. The idea that Mayor Newsom's attracting existing businesses to San Francisco is "entirely separate from the pressing problems of poverty and homelessness" is absurd. The mayor knows that in order to create jobs, San Francisco must have a thriving economy. Attracting companies that employ 350 well-paid workers helps spur the economy. Gymboree and biotech companies will create new small-business service providers with entry-level jobs.

Howard Epstein,

San Francisco

Planning to live

Reading Annalee Newitz's story about her friend who anticipated an early death after open-heart surgery ("Planning to Be Dead" [Techsploitation], 3/31/04), I was reminded of a 98-year-old woman I took care of in intensive care when I was a medical resident. She'd been born with a heart defect long before there was such a thing as open-heart surgery. She was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. She was unconscious and was slowly dying. She had told her primary doctor that she wanted every possible heroic measure if she was sick, because she didn't trust doctors. "The doctors told me I'd never live to my 20th birthday," she had said, "and all those doctors are dead now." The night she died I stood at her bedside and ordered every intervention I could think of until nothing worked.

Newitz's story was also personal for me. I had open-heart surgery when it was still very new, almost 40 years ago. It's true that a patched-up, scarred-up heart isn't quite as good as the floor model. It beats a little oddly sometimes, and sometimes its scarred-up lining gets painfully inflamed. Both those conditions are potentially life-threatening, but mostly they're just a nuisance. I'm saving for retirement, and if I go early, my mom or a good friend will get the money. But I'm planning to live to 98.

Paul Quick, M.D.,

San Francisco

Save the 5 Fulton!

I am a native San Franciscan, a lifelong Muni rider, and one of the many who contribute to the quality of life every resident enjoys by making a decision to ride public transportation. Unlike the majority of residents who choose the convenience of automobiles over the greater public good, I indirectly create less traffic, more parking spaces, and cleaner air.

Now, just months after a 25 percent fare increase, Muni is proposing to make drastic cuts to service, leaving me and other riders with less incentive to stay out of our cars. I live directly on the 5 Fulton line, and for years this line has been a part of my daily commute. On Divisadero during commute hours, buses can already be too crowded to enter. Reduction of service will cause even more crowding, and ultimately less ridership. But even more disturbing is the plan to cut out the 5 Fulton owl service. Public transportation provides the only low-cost way to travel in the city late at night. This provides an alternative to driving while drunk and makes the streets of our city safer for everyone.

Charles Hurbert,

San Francisco

Matt's exit

So Matt Gonzalez "dropped the political equivalent of a thermonuclear bomb" by deciding not to run again ["After Matt," 3/31/04]. (Memo to Messrs. Jones and Redmond: sign up for the next available seminar on Avoiding Bombastic Journalistic Clichés.) Well, while the Bay Guardian is wringing its hands over where the left is going, the rest of us have a few questions that the media hasn't bothered to ask: If Matt Gonzalez is not all that enamored of politics (all those meetings!), then why the hell did he run for mayor in the first place? And what does his sudden exit say about what sort of mayor he might have been?

Mike Schaefer,

San Francisco

For the record