Calls for Masry to resign are politics as usual

Regarding Jere Robings’ letter calling for the resignation of T.O. City Councilman Ed Masry in the Aug. 18, here we go again. Yet another politically mobilized effort to gain power by trying to remove people from office.

Unfortunately, ever since Councilmember Masry first took ill, it has long been rumored that supporters of the council majority have been hovering like vultures, waiting to convert Mr. Masry’s downturn in health into a political opportunity. Mr. Robings’ letter merely proves it.

From the failed recall attempt of a popular slow-growth councilmember to the wrongful ouster of planning commissioners, to the politically motivated censure of another popular slow-growth councilmember to the forced resignation of a longstanding and honorable civil servant, to the most recent call to remove Mr. Masry from the council, Mr. Robings and his side of the political divide have long sought to remove public servants with whom they disagree, even if they have to make up reasons to do so. 

It appears they just can’t help themselves.   While Robings calls for Masry’s ouster, I’m calling on Agrees that buses can reduce school gridlock Councilmember Masry to stay in spite of him. I am quite sure that Mr. Masry will be back to council meetings when his health permits. 

Let’s offer him and his family encouragement to see him back instead of calls to push him out. No one deserves to have a health challenge compounded by a callous political attack. Kicking someone when they’re down is not an admirable trait.

For those reading this letter who are as tired as I am of the lack of civility toward good people, your community needs to hear from you. Write a letter and let the public know how you feel.  Mic Farris Former Chairman, Thousand Oaks Planning Commission, appointed by Councilmember Masry Newbury Park

Thanks for the excellent Aug. 18 editorial regarding dangerous traffic at schools.

Yes, school buses do work! They’re the safest mass transportation in the world and they contribute to a cleaner environment.

The federal government estimates one school bus is equivalent to 84 cars. I’ve been in the school bus business for 45 years and once was the director of a Displeased with the president in every way 1,000-school-bus fleet. The most dangerous place in school systems is the school driveway, not from buses but from parents’ cars.

To make matters worse in the Conejo Valley, many of our schools were not built to handle heavy traffic (bus loading lanes should always be separated from passenger car lanes).

Thanks again for your insight–– we don’t need another committee. The problems are there every day: we need some action. Anthony R. Miller Thousand Oaks

I tend to stay out of the public debate about the war in Iraq and President Bush, but the letter of Aug. 18 (“Military casualties in Iraq are the cost of freedom”) has struck a chord.

The letter’s author tries to put a positive spin on the U.S. invasion of Iraq by voicing Bush rhetoric about the “price” of freedom. By comparing the “loss of less than 2,000” soldiers to the 40,000 lives lost to automobile accidents annually in the U.S., the author implies it is a small price to pay.

If one ignores the 25,000 Iraqi civilian deaths as insubstantial (which would equate to 450,000 U.S. traffic fatalities, so I’d say that the Iraqi price has been a bit steeper), then it could be said to be a small price to pay––if the threat were legitimate, which it was not.

Let’s not forget Bush’s reasons for going to war in Iraq: weapons of mass destruction and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

It was widely known before the invasion that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and we have found just that: nothing. It was also widely known that Saddam Hussein harbored no terrorists because there was only room for one terrorist in Iraq–– Saddam himself.

Thus there were no WMDs and no connection to 9/11.

So what does that leave? It leaves a president with either a personal agenda or a problem with the truth.

The author states her admiration for Bush and invites other world leaders to “stand on his shoulders and bring peace and prosperity to the entire world,” as though he were a strong man worthy of such accolade.

On the contrary, I contend that he is a weak man with a vision of the world, and the United States’ role in it, that is sadly antiquated. He is morally weak. One only has to think of the words “Abu Ghraib,” “Guantanamo Bay” and “obsolete” Geneva Conventions to illustrate. Thanks to Bush and his underlings, the U.S. is no longer viewed as the moral beacon it may once have been.

He is fiscally weak. There isn’t a spending bill he hasn’t signed while in office. His spending habits have resulted in the largest budget deficit in our nation’s history.

Unfortunately, we’ll all be paying the bill for this long after he is gone.

He is politically weak. Only a fool would proclaim a 51 percent majority in an election as a “mandate.” He represents the antithesis of democracy by shrouding his government in levels of secrecy not seen since Nixon.

His policies are weak. We have gaping holes in our borders and our shipping ports are wide open to the terrorist threats he has cultivated during his time in office. He proudly touts education reform law, but then fails to fund it. By gutting the EPA, he has set back environmental protection, once championed by prominent Republicans, by decades. Invading Iraq was not about fighting for freedom, or against terrorism, and Bush is not a strong man worthy of admiration for having done so. We can do much better in this country, but first we must expect better. Kevin Redner Newbury Park

Postal service works well for her

I read the letter from Claire Malis of Pomona about the forwarded postal service and felt I had to respond. We moved to Thousand Oaks from Torrance in September 2004 and I organized to have our mail forwarded— which it has been successfully.

We have our mail placed on hold whilst we vacation and have never had a problem. As foreign