SEPTEMBER 4, 2009
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OPINION
EDITORIALS, LETTERS & COMMENTARY
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The time to speak up is fleeting Those who doubt that changes to the Delta are coming need only look as far as Sacramento, where there are currently five pieces of legislation – known as the Delta Bill Package – on the Senate floor. This bundle is believed by many to be the first step toward securing Gov. Schwarzenegger’s hoped-for legacy of a peripheral canal, which would forever change the fragile Delta ecosystem. But just because the plan DITORIAL has already built up a head of steam doesn’t mean the game is over. If Delta residents don’t make more noise very soon, however, it will be. Schwarzenegger is on the record as saying he supports a canal as a way to restore the Delta’s strained resources, and has enacted plans to construct the $3 million to $3 billion (depending upon which agency you ask) project under the Endangered Species Act. Northern Californians have come late to the governor’s party, but southern Californians have been there all along and are organized, focused and driven. For months now, supporters have been steadily campaigning for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a proposal that according to the Department of Water Resources Web site, “is to provide for the conservation of at-risk-species in the Delta and improve its reliability as the hub of the state’s water supply system.” In a matter of weeks, construction on the 2-Gate
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Fish Protection Project – which is part of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan – will begin along Connection Slough and Old River near Discovery Bay. The PR blast is that the automatic gate project is a rerouting trick to protect the spawning Delta smelt from committing suicide as they swim into the water pumps on Old and Middle rivers in Byron. According to the entities involved – the State Department of Water Resources, the Federal Bureau of Reclamation and the Southern California Metropolitan Water District – this automatic gate system will save the smelt. Proponents also claim the gates will help preserve the struggling Delta ecosystem and sustain the 1,000 miles of waterways for generations to come. Boaters in East County are naturally concerned that the emergence of the fish gates will tax their ability to motor in and around the Delta, but there are many who contend the real issue is not about restricted recreation, but rather restricted water flow, and if Northern Californians don’t start speaking up – and soon – they will have little recourse. The good news, however, is that there has been some movement in East County to stop –or at least plug a hole in – the looming canal, including the recent Million Boat Float protest to Sacramento. Organizations such as the Contra Costa Water Agency are also fostering awareness by speaking before small groups and organizations. And, if you believe the pollsters, opponents are making some progress. A recently released survey
LETTERS Inside look at teacher’s life Editor: I was in line at the grocery store today and I couldn’t help overhear a conversation between the two women behind me in line. They were apparently very unhappy with one of their children’s teachers, and were saying some pretty unkind things about her. I’m a teacher, and I listened, but I didn’t say a word. I’d like to say a few now, though. What is a teacher anyway? Most people think we are those lucky people who get all that time off, and work that really short day, and get to have tons of fun working with children all day long. They
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are partly correct, but I’d like to share a few teacher facts with you. First, we do consider ourselves lucky that we get to work with your kids for a living. It’s what we do, and it’s what we love or we wouldn’t show up every day with a smile on our face and a hug for your child. But we are more than that. We patch them up when they get that skinned knee or those blisters on the bars. We spend huge parts of our day fixing the wounds that hurt far more, the ones inflicted with words. We hug them when they cry because something happened at home that they just don’t know how to process. We don’t, either, but we care so much that when they hurt, we hurt too. When they are hungry, because they had no breakfast, we make sure we have food in our room for them to eat. We skip our breaks and work with kids in our room who are struggling academically or emotionally. We skip our lunch breaks to eat with our students who need that time with us for a hundred different reasons. We do instructional intervention after school to try to boost those children who need our help academically. We do it because we care. Our paid day ends at 3:30 p.m., but if just once, you drive by your child’s school at 5 p.m. you’ll see that most of us are still here, working hard, without pay. We come in on weekends to catch up on correcting the mountains of papers that must be
conducted by EMC Research on behalf of Restore the Delta, states that more than half of the 800 registered California voters contacted by telephone were opposed to a canal after being given “some additional information, including some basic facts about the canal and the Delta,” the report read. But the truth is that the governor doesn’t need the public’s blessing to build the canal; only the votes of his handpicked blue ribbon committee. Conversely, it is also true that there is little likelihood that one of the components of the canal – the 2-gate project – can be stopped. Still, there are ways to make a difference. Environmental public hearings will be held, and those are powerful places for people to stand up and lend their voices to the process. Public outcry might not stop the ERIs from going through, but they can be shaped into a better compromise, or at the very least, a less-horrible outcome. There are also multiple lawsuits already underway on behalf of farmers and local water districts and it’s probable that additional suits will follow. Delta dwellers might not be able to change what is already in motion, but that shouldn’t stop them from being counted – and soon. For more information on the canal and 2-gates project, go to www.restorethedelta.com. or www.calsport. org, where you can also click on a link to post comments to local legislators.
EDITOR
scored and entered into the computer grade book. We run copies for the next week, plan, and organize. It’s time away from our own families, but we have to do it in order to be ready for the next week. Our families are not happy about it, but eventually, they give up arguing and realize it just comes with the job. We do it because we care. We stay late to conference with you, because you can’t, for whatever reason, take time off to come in on our time. We come back voluntarily for evening activities and performances. We are the ones you see at the soccer fields, baseball games and dance classes with the huge bag of papers that we are correcting madly while trying to be there for our own kids too. We take work with us on vacations and spend thousands of dollars a year out of our own pockets to buy the things we need to make your child’s experience the best that we possibly can. And, for all of this, we do not get compensated financially. Remember, our paid workday ended at 3:30. There is no such thing as overtime in teaching! We don’t think twice about any of it, though, because we do it because we care. As for all that time off, I don’t think most people know that we are paid for the 180 days your child is in school plus four teacher workdays per year. Our nine-month check is then chopped into 12 smaller ones so that we have income when school is not
in session. So you see, we are not paid for the time we do not work. That is probably the biggest misconception out there! I guess all I’m asking is that the next time you are about to do some teacher bashing in a public place where anyone can hear you, please try to remember that we work very hard for your children. We do the best that we possibly can, often without pay, but we do it because we care. Marie Wirth Bethel Island
With sincere gratitude Editor: The entire Gursky family would like to express our gratitude to the community for the outpouring of support and comfort we have received to help us through our loss. Roy loved and respected his community, and it is so clear that the community returned this by the response our family has received. With sincere gratitude, Lynn Nathan and Adele, Stephen and Sarah Barry and Kathy Michael and Belinda and all the little Gurskys! Lynn Gursky Brentwood
Seeing health care through different lenses Editor: I am a transplanted Canadian who has had plenty of personal experience with see Letters page 19A