LETTERS

Pelosi's minority leadership

At Rep. Nancy Pelosi's town hall meeting she said it was up to each Democratic member of Congress to make his or her own decision about the war. But 2006 is an election year, and the Democrats are trying to take back the House. A divided party that fails to present an alternative to Bush's war is not going to attract enough voters to win. The majority of Americans are against this war, and want to see the billions spent on war going instead to improve our schools, provide health care, and rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. It's time the Democrats present an alternative to Bush's disastrous policies, and Rep. Pelosi should start providing some leadership.

Nancy Mancias

San Rafael

In Jeb country

I wish I had a paper in my area that would take an equally strong stance on impeachment ["The Case for Impeachment," 1/25/06]. Again I find myself envying the citizens of San Francisco!

Keep the faith, and I'll keep doing what I can to spread the word in Jeb country.

Michael Fox

St. Petersburg, Fla.

The dead MSM

Writing from Mexico: Thank you for saying that George Bush and Dick Cheney should be impeached. If we really had a free press in our now nearly dead mainstream media, we wouldn't be in so much trouble in this once great experiment in democracy.

Patsy Lowe

Mulege, Baja California Sur

Real terrorism

Today the attorney general and head of the FBI announced 65 domestic terrorism indictments against environmental activists. All of the discussion and justifications presented at the press conference would have pertained much more effectively to hate crimes and anti-LGBT violence, which actually put people in fear of their lives and well-being, rather than crimes against property, as was the case in the 65 indictments. No mention was made at the press conference of any resulting personal injuries or deaths.

It is clear that the present government cares much more about crimes against property than crimes against minority communities, which are intended to instill the fear of death, fitting perfectly the definition of terrorism. Wouldn't we agree that anti-LGBT school bullying is also domestic terrorism? Don't the recipients of such conduct feel terror? Doesn't it tend to instill an atmosphere of being forced to hide out of fear of harassment and injury? What does the present administration care about such matters affecting the health and safety of our children?

John Daniel

San Francisco

Descended from Pocahontas

I must take offense at your review of The New World, as the author presumes more than he knows ["Native Son," 1/18/06]. Pocahontas is referred to as a "myth," but if this were true, I would not be alive today. Barring any unrecorded hanky-panky (probably to be verified eventually through DNA analysis), I am the 10th generation of a direct line of descent from Pocahontas and John Rolfe.

There are very few people on the direct line of descent (due to a startling number of divorces in the first few generations after the Pocahontas-Rolfe alliance), so my family has always taken great pride in this connection to the original peoples of North America. As we also have professional genealogists in the family (who were actually inspired to pursue this career choice due to the interest in reverifying our lineage), there is a huge volume of supporting evidence (public records, etc.).

The only "myth" is whether John Smith's published account is factual or embellished for his own ego. But this is irrelevant to the case for Pocahontas and Rolfe.

As I am certain that the reviewer meant no harm in his comments, and may have intended them to pertain specifically to the romanticisation of the Pocahontas-Smith axis than to Pocahontas herself, I thought I would at least set the record straight.

Mark Schmieder

Oakland

Taking back the mayor's race

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is currently considering legislation that will strengthen public confidence in our elections and encourage citizens to participate in government – a measure to establish public financing for the mayor's race (Ordinance 051773). The League of Women Voters of San Francisco strongly supports this much-needed reform.

A little League history on this matter: The League is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to making democracy work. For nearly 40 years, we have worked at all levels of government for campaign finance reform. After a number of studies – and a few court battles – the League concluded that the best long-term solution to the abuses in our electoral system is to build support for public financing.

The measure now before the board is technically sound, and the costs of implementing it are reasonable given all that we will gain. The playing field will become more level; a greater number of women and diverse candidates will have the resources to run (without spending all their time fundraising); and citizens will be energized to vote as the result of a lively debate featuring more voices.

Jody Sanford

President, League of Women Voters of San Francisco San Francisco

For the record

In the Local Live review on Breezy Days Band (1/25/06), the name of one of the guitarists was misspelled; his name is Lyal Michel.