Letters to the Editor 06.08.17

Eyes of the Beholder

Bad taste and inappropriate, yes. Yet she has been offending people most of her career and the world is still spinning (“Kathy Griffin and Donald Trump touch off firestorm via Sunset Center Facebook page,” posted May 30). If you don’t like her, don’t buy a ticket… I’ll take yours. As Jon Stewart said, “Since when did we start holding our comedians to a higher standard than our leaders?” Kendra Howell | via Facebook

Are you kidding me! This is obscene, and no matter who the president may be this is unacceptable. Michael Jimenez | via Facebook

She definitely has never been funny and her picture is not art, it’s sick. Trump is our president and whether you support him or not, it doesn’t change that fact. I am raising my son to respect our president and to be proud of living here in the U.S. Nicole Nancy Amaral | via Facebook

I wish people that are this upset over a comedian’s actions would put that anger where it will do some good for our country. Karen Cronn | via Facebook

If you don’t want to see the show, don’t buy a ticket. If the place is empty, that makes a statement. If it’s full, people want to watch the show. Monica Glatzel Williams | via Facebook

I hope Sunset stands strong. Koly McBride | via Facebook

Oh please! If they cancel her show, it proves, once and for all, that Carmel is a douchebag refuge. Will Larkin | via Facebook

Editor’s note: As reported in an update May 31, Sunset Center cancelled Griffin’s planned Oct. 13 show.

Negotiation 101

Of course MPC’s board fully supports President Walt Tribley (“MPC board extends Tribley’s contract with signs pointing to faculty strike,” posted June 1). Of course they support keeping faculty wages among the lowest in the community college system. Of course they shame faculty for speaking out in board meetings despite carefully crafted claims of their appreciation. Tribley and the MPC board are taking an awful gamble with our beloved school, blindly moving in a direction that will only drown MPC in real red ink and continue to drive down morale to all-time lows.

MPC’s administration exemplifies a top-down, authoritative, ends-justify-the-means culture. MPC needs leadership that is not bent on forcing impractical and expensive solutions in a place where they do not fit. MPC needs leadership that recognizes the need for a flatter, more efficient organizational structure that engages faculty to be responsive to the needs of our small-school market. Jon Mikkelsen | Salinas

Editor’s note: Mikkelsen is a business instructor at MPC.

MPC faculty never want to take responsibility for anything. Many of them are already paid well above faculty at other nearby colleges. And don’t let them fool you with that garbage “no raise in years” baloney. They’ve gotten raises, just not the ones they wanted. Boo hoo.

Meanwhile the school is bleeding [jobs]. Maybe students don’t want to be taught by professors too preoccupied with getting a raise. Corrie Jake | via web

Seeing the Light

Such a tragic end to two men who were obviously being led by their better angels that day (“A Stevenson alum rose up against inhumanity, and gave his life for it,” June 1-7). Both heroes, and both will be greatly missed. Let us celebrate them, The Helpers, and not make the terrorists (like the man who killed these two men) notorious. Stacey Wood | via Facebook

Such hatred and ignorance and the ultimate sacrifice. My love to the families. We must give total commitment to fighting racism, prejudice and inequality. Christa McKee-Lerbs | via Facebook

Wall to Wall

Thanks for last week’s feature article (“A border wall wouldn’t just block people. It would block wildlife too, and create a bureaucratic tangle,” May 25-31). I don’t think most people know how devastating a border wall is to wildlife. The Trump administration has no compassion for people, let alone wildlife. Congress is also doing everything it can to gut the Endangered Species Act. Knowledge of all these issues may be our only tool for change and action now and in the future! Nancy Ponedel Parsons | Pacific Grove

The narrative “Building bridges instead of walls” is a talking point for open borders. Now it is building bridges for the wildlife. They do not mention that the drug smuggling is rampant and terrorists are taking advantage of our open borders. But let’s keep the men and the wildlife coming over the bridge and forget about the danger at the border… ignorance is bliss. Marilyn Galli | Carmel

One More Thing

I’d like to add a bit of commentary to Paul Wilner’s excellent piece on Papa Nez (“Michael Nesmith changed the music business with The Monkees and MTV. The longtime Carmel Valley resident reflects in a new memoir,” June 1-7).

His Monkees-era work, which spans the psychedelic (“Daily Nightly,” “St. Matthew,” “Tapioca Tundra”), pure pop (“All the King’s Horses,” “You Told Me,” “Mary, Mary”), and singer-songwriter-ish (“While I Cry,” “Carlisle Wheeling”), stand toe-to-toe with the best work of his 1960s contemporaries.

I encourage everyone to fire up the Pandora pronto and “write”* this wrong!

(*That’s a pun on another great Nesmith song.) Mike Scutari | Monterey