With
   outrage

Senator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

   Dear Senator Boxer:
   I write to express my outrage with President Bush’s obscene submission of a budget that boosts the military budget to insure a militarization of our domestic efforts. Please oppose this budget!
   As a high school teacher who has worked very hard to show youth that they have value in society, I am disgusted with anyone who promotes war-making as the primary way we ensure our future. I guess that I am expected to say to youth and others, “Oh, the only way we can have jobs and maintain the American way of life is to put most of our money into guns, bombs and killing. What’s that you say? ‘How does that show we are valuable human beings?’ Isn’t it obvious? An American life is more valuable than anyone else’s on Earth, and we are able to prove it by being better at killing than others. What’s that you mutter? ‘But I need a safe place to live, decent food to eat, clean air to breathe, diverse materials to learn, physicians to stay healthy, many ways to practice my talents and show I can contribute to making society better. How can money for the military do that?’ bbbbrrrrrrrrring. Ah, the bell. Have a good day.”
   If the military-industrial complex is so good at its work, why did the nineteen guys with box cutters get through to kill so many of us? Oops, box cutters — are they weapons of mass destruction? How dare the President exploit people’s fears about terrorism as a way to give the Pentagon all that it has asked for long before 9/11 ever happened! If you and the Democrats in Congress do not oppose this fattened war-making budget, then one must wonder whether you to want to look good rather than really being good.
   Putting this military budget into the hands of youth would expose its fatty sloppiness because youth would have the guts to ask the tough questions. I hope you will, too. Please inform me and other Californians how you will expose this military build-up for its inefficiency and wrong-headedness that will make us weak at meeting human needs.
   With outrage,
   Ms. C. Gutierrez
   Peace Educator
   Santa Monica

   Goodbye
   to all that

   To the editor:
   About four weeks ago, I went to Sears to purchase a new stereo system. I picked out my purchase and asked if they would take a debit card and the sales clerk said yes. I presented it to him and he asked me for ID. I gave him a credit card that had my picture on it. He informed me he needed a driver’s license which I do not have or want to have.
   I was a little confused. According to the commercials on TV a debit card is the best you can have. No IDs needed. I also thought you could not ask for ID any more.
   In the past, I have purchased a refrigerator, stove, two microwaves, two TVs, a stereo, plus many small items. My card is accepted at Michael’s, Vons, Albertsons, Wal-Mart, Smart & Final and the P.O. with no questions asked. Never a problem.
   I guess Sears is doing so great that they can afford to turn down a good customer with a sure sale. I know one thing now – that I shall never go into that store again.
   The bottom line is, two weeks later, I went to Wal-Mart and made my purchase and used my debit card, so there.
   Diane Taylor
   Santa Monica

   SMC
   Responds to critics

   To the editor:
   Santa Monica Mirror readers should know that Santa Monica College is as deeply committed to the safety and welfare of our community’s children as any institution or individual in Santa Monica.
To suggest otherwise is inappropriate.
   The College has balanced the need of the community for a broad, professional, and success-oriented program with an equal sensitivity to neighborhood quality of life.
  Measure U has received the unanimous endorsement of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education and the unanimous endorsement of the executive board of the SMMUSD Parent-Teachers Association. Among the reasons are:
   • Already, through programs like preferential parking, the closure of a parking lot on Pearl Street, the elimination of access to parking from 16th Street, the move of the Admissions Office from the Pearl Street side of the campus to the Pico Boulevard side, and the implementation of online admissions and registration, the College has reduced student travel to the campus from streets on the south side of the campus to only 7% of the total, according to a recent City of Santa Monica study.
   • Also, through programs like distance education, teaching college-level classes at area high schools, providing instruction at local worksites, and providing stand-alone instruction at satellite campuses, the peak day-time main campus population is only 3% of the day-time population of the City of Santa Monica, according to another study.
   • Measure U will lead to even better outcomes. Measure U will remove an additional instructional program from the Pearl Street side of campus to an offsite location. It will also relocate the warehouse on 16th Street to an offsite location. It will provide the flexibility, if the community approves through a planning process, to relocate one of the campus buildings that needs to be replaced to an offsite location. It will provide the resources to improve the physical appearance of the campus borders along Pearl Street, 16th Street, and Pico Boulevard. Measure U also redirects parking to an offsite location.
   Today, the College serves the largest number of Santa Monica and Malibu residents as at any time in our history. Measure U provides the resources to preserve educational quality and further improve safety and welfare for our community’s children.
   Sincerely,
   Don Girard
   Director of Marketing
   Santa Monica College