August 17, 2006

ValleyViewpoints

Letter writer left out details of her own actions

Editor,
I am writing in response to a letter to the editor written by Stacy Lee in the Aug. 3 issue of the Almaden Times regarding “Allowing children to shoot birds disrespects wildlife.”

My name is Susan Kemp and I am the aunt of “the boy pointing the gun.” I am “the other Twin Creeks resident she informed” and I am a third-generation Twin Creeks inhabitant and I am an owner of Twin Creeks.

I take great offense to what Ms. Lee wrote in her letter about who and what we are. She has also advertently left out a few details of her own actions.

The Minkel and Kemp families have been a part of the history of Twin Creeks for four generations now. We have a great love of the land and of the traditions that were started here at Twin Creeks. We all have past stories of parents, grandparents and great grandparents who spent their summers here. We walk and fish in the same creeks, we have all learned how to swim in the same pool, we walk in the same paths and we hunt in the same hills. We try to fill our children with the same traditions that have been passed down to us. I walk around my property and look at trees that the “gun-pointing boy’s” great-grandmother planted.

Ms. Lee was unfair in her letter. She did not say how she treated my nephew and how upset he got. She did not say how she called the sheriff’s department on him and she did not say that “the gun” was a BB gun!

People will have a difference of opinion on this subject. I understand and respect that. But do not attack my 8-year-old nephew with your views on my property.

Susan Kemp
Twin Creeks

Hunting shows complete contempt for our natural surroundings

Editor,
In the August 10-17 edition of the Almaden Times Weekly there was a letter to the editor from a “Concerned Mother.” I would like to respond to that letter writer.

You say that you are teaching your sons respect for the land at Twin Creeks. What possible reason do you have for teaching them to shoot birds out of trees? You say for generations your family has hunted there and will continue to do so. What is it that you hunt? Squirrels? Rabbits? Bob cats? Foxes? Coyotes? Geese? Ducks? Are they food for your table or do you just kill for the sake of killing?

I don’t believe that this equates to respect for the land, but rather the opposite: complete contempt for our natural surroundings

Eileen Egan
Calle Ventura

Another view from a non-Starbucks customer

Editor,
Your column, StreetTalk, in the Aug. 3-9, 2006 Almaden Times was an interesting study in current trends in journalism. "Who do you think is behind Hezbollah's recent rocket attacks on Israel?" you ask. I think that question in court would be considered “leading the witness,” so I object!

The article “A Letter From Chomsky and Others on the Recent Events in the Middle East” (visit www.chomsky.info and click on What’s New) might give you a rather surprisingly different answer from those of your interviewees.

Sent to you by a concerned and saddened citizen of the United States, which claims to have but does no longer a government for, by and of the people. “Let the people know the truth and the truth shall set them free.”

Shirley Harned
Crown Boulevard

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