Firefighters and medics

I am a medic firefighter for the San Francisco Fire Department. You certainly hit the nail on the head in your article ["Burning Cash," 6/30/04]. In particular, I am following the department's hiring plans, which include hiring more single-function firefighters. I can't tell you how much this galls me, watching wave after wave of firefighter hiring when most of us haven't finished our entire probation after seven years. [Union chief John] Hanley has resisted emergency medical services since the merger, opposing advanced life support engines using many guises, the latest one being the 15 percent higher pay a dual-function medic-firefighter gets. Have you ever heard of a union trying to cut a city's costs? For some reason he believes San Francisco is different from any other city in the world. It isn't. What we mostly do is medical calls. I appreciate your well-researched story. Please keep up the pressure. It is all the politicos understand. It is disturbing to me that the current chief appears to be just another pawn controlled by the union. I hope that doesn't turn out to be entirely true.

Name withheld on request
San Francisco

Daly is right

Chris Daly is to be commended for placing his fine resolution condemning the war in Iraq on the ballot. Our city and state have both suffered mightily at the hands of the Supreme Court-appointed regime in Washington, D.C. My question is, why did the remaining seven supervisors fail to support this resolution?

Aaron Peskin and Fiona Ma both say that they are voting for John Kerry. Kerry voted for the resolution that gave the power to invade Iraq to Bush. He intends to stay in Iraq and may well increase U.S. forces there. It is unclear that a vote for Kerry is a vote for withdrawal. Ma, queen of the equivocal statement, elucidates her views by giving one of her typical wishy-washy responses. She claims that we "should bring our troops home" if Iraq is stable and democratic. I'm not sure in what century this is likely to happen, but it will not be in our lifetimes. Frankly, I'm still waiting for "democracy" in this nation, and I'm not holding my breath.

In particular, I am disappointed in Sups. Sandoval and Peskin for failing to support this resolution. San Franciscans need to make their voices heard loud and clear on this issue. There is a direct correlation with the budget cutbacks we face here and this illicit invasion. Our local leadership, as well as our congressmen and senators, should be leading the way on this crucial issue.

Harry S. Pariser
San Francisco

Nader and the GOP

Chris Kavanagh's missive cheerfully omits Ralph Nader's own political dirty laundry [Letters to the Editor, 6/30/04]. Nader, as I recall, billed himself as someone who could allegedly siphon votes away from Bush's reelection efforts. However, consider these people and organizations: the Florida Republican Party, the Reform Party (collection of disaffected Republicans), Richard J. Egan (millionaire major donor and Bush fundraiser), Citizens for a Sound Economy (strongly Republican organization), and Oregon Family Council (another strongly Republican organization). All of these individuals and organizations are aiding Nader's efforts to get on the ballots of battleground states. Yet all of them are also dedicated to ensuring Bush gets reelected in November. To date, Nader has neither renounced these Republican organizations' efforts or returned their money.

Peter Wong
San Francisco

Bashing Nader

I'm sick and tired of mainstream Democrats and so-called progressives bashing Ralph Nader, a man who has dedicated his life to improving the lives of others and who selflessly lives on a small amount of his money, giving away the rest to causes in which he believes. The latest of this garbage is a letter to the editor in your July 7 edition by Paul Page, in which he holds up the Green Party as an unassailable entity.

Page states that Nader sounds "like a sore loser" after the Green Party sided with its more-conservative members and nominated David Cobb as its presidential candidate, whose platform is to collaborate with the Democrats instead of actually running a campaign. As Nader said, what is the point of running for office in this country as a third-party candidate if one does not use the only leverage available, which in this case is to pressure the Democrats into taking more-progressive positions by threatening to cost them the election in "swing states"? Mr. Cobb's position of only running in uncontested states makes his candidacy a joke, and you can bet that the Democrats are laughing all the way to the bank with their corporate donations.

Furthermore, the Green Party has become untrue to its roots, just as the Democratic Party has. The Green Party was formed by Petra Kelly in Germany in the 1970s, with the main planks of its platform being peace and the environment. The party, at least in the United States, has become more of a red party, giving priority to social issues and virtually forgetting about the environment. For example, the San Francisco Green Party supported Measure A in 2002, an environmentally destructive initiative that will cause harm to the Tuolomne River by stealing even more water from it, all in the name of improving our water system.

Jeff Hoffman
San Francisco