Dear Editor,
I have to say I was absolutely appalled at the Jan. 6 front-page
article about the potential strip club in Gilroy.
I am an 18-year-old young lady who’s lived in Gilroy all her
life and I never thought something so vile would potentially deface
our town.
Young woman who’s ‘proud of my hometown’ says reject strip club
Dear Editor,
I have to say I was absolutely appalled at the Jan. 6 front-page article about the potential strip club in Gilroy.
I am an 18-year-old young lady who’s lived in Gilroy all her life and I never thought something so vile would potentially deface our town.
I have a lot of respect for Mayor Al Pinheiro’s emphasis on keeping an open mind, but I have to agree with Councilman Perry Woodward. The kind of people and situations a strip club promotes is not what our town needs.
Strip clubs promote debauchery and women degrading and exploiting themselves for a meager few dollar bills. I’m sure that when the first settlers arrived in Gilroy, this is not the kind of image they anticipated for Pleasant Valley.
Also, people from all over the world shop at the outlets and bring their children. How are parents supposed to explain to curious children what’s going on across the street?
Also, if there’s alcohol in the equation, innocent citizens can be mugged, raped and even killed. It just makes me so sad and sick to my stomach when I think about all the lives that could be tragically affected by the opening of a strip club.
At only 18, I understand that I don’t know much but I do know that I’m too proud of my hometown to see it condone something like this.
Ashley Schroeder, Gilroy
Allowing a strip club to open would be a ‘travesty’ for residents and PD
Dear Editor,
Allowing a sleazy strip club to open in the El Amigo building, which by the way sits curbside on San Ysidro Avenue, would be a travesty against the residents of Gilroy and our over-taxed police department.
Bobbie Bockes, Gilroy
A word on the choices for women while confronting a rape situation
Dear Editor,
In her Dec. 24 column, Cynthia Walker gives well-deserved “kudos” to a young woman for fighting back and successfully averting a rape attempt. While I concur with Ms. Walker’s assertion that rape is never justified, regardless of the victim’s choices, it is important to keep in mind that in the majority of rape cases (approximately 80 percent) the victim knows and trusts the perpetrator.
Rapes can and do occur anywhere and at anytime. The most common places for a rape to occur are the victim’s home, the perpetrator’s home or in a vehicle. Sexual assault continues to be a serious social epidemic. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey – the country’s largest and most reliable crime study – there were 272,350 sexual assaults in 2006 (the most recent data available). Last year, our agency provided services to 130 local rape survivors. In spite of the pervasiveness of rape, society is often reluctant to deal with its root cause; rape is a violent crime that is motivated by power, not by sex.
Sexual assault continues to flourish because the focus and responsibility for its prevention is disproportionately placed on the victims. While we share Ms. Walker’s desire that all perpetrators of rape be brought to justice, for women it is, and always has been, a case of survival first, justice second. Unfortunately, we do not have a “does and don’ts list” for potential rape victims; nor do we believe in the existence of a universal solution that will produce positive results in every assault.
As sexual assault advocates, our role is to provide information and empower individuals to make their own decisions. How a person chooses to react to a sexual assault depends on their assessment of the situation – and only they can make that judgment call in that moment.
Fighting back: There is no guarantee that fighting back will work, and it may increase the probability of serious injury, especially when there are weapons involved. Resisting an attacker is only one of many options for a woman. Fighting back happens in many different ways, and sometimes after an assault. If you do choose to fight, remember everyone has sensitive areas, including the groin, eyes and the instep of the foot.
Acquiescence: Acquiescence is a valid survival strategy and definitely not equivalent to consent. Women are intelligent and know when the assailant physically outmatches them, or if other factors (i.e. weapons) pose a significant danger. Rape is a devastating crime with long-term effects. If you or someone you know was sexually assaulted, it is important to remember that nobody “asks” to be raped and it is never the victim’s fault..
The victim’s choices during the rape about whether or not to fight back were good ones – they survived. No one can tell a survivor what he or she “should have done”; they weren’t there. The fact that the survivor is alive is all that matters.
Sexual assault survivors are not alone! Community Solutions’ offers free and confidential sexual assault services, including 24-hour hotline, (877-363-7238), peer counseling, advocacy, individual and family therapy and resource and referrals. We are here to support survivors through all stages of recovery. The responsibility for sexual assaults falls in just one place – with the perpetrators.
We must never forget that fact and must continue to hold them accountable for their actions.
Perla Flores, program director, Solutions to Violence Department, Community Solutions
Raise taxes? What on God’s green earth are they thinking?
Dear Editor,
I stand amazed at the bunch – or at least five of the bunch – who are the supposed guage of the “Community Pulse.” Their pro-tax comments in response to the question, “Should legislators rely on raising taxes or cutting employees and programs?,” make them a collective laughingstock.
You should at least print the names of the people who product the quotes (so the three who had the sense to lean toward cuts are distanced from the five morons). The two most ridiculous, laughable, and ignorant Pulse statements are, “In Mexico, taxes are at 19 percent. In France, nearly 75 percent. At 10 percent taxation in California, I’m thinking we’re still getting a bargain,” and, “(Raise) taxes. We’ve been cutting, cutting, cutting for years and years. Now it’s time for us Californians to step up.”
California already has the highest income tax in the nation, the highest sales tax rate, the highest gas tax, and the highest corporate tax in the West. Our property tax is at the national average. According to the Tax Foundation, this combines for the 47th worst business tax climate in America. What more do they want?!
Does anyone remember when they raised the base sales tax rate from 6 to 7 percent in the 1990’s? (This one percentage point is a 16.7 percent increase!) They promised to bring it back down when things got better. They broke their promise: Things got better, and Gov. Grayvis gave fat raises to every public employee UNION (of whom the prison guards were the first) who came for a hand-out.
Now they’re coming crying about how they need more taxes or they’ll go broke in a month. Our small, private-sector investments (401-k, etc.) have shrunk an average 40 percent, but oh, according to the author of the second of the stupid quotes above, we need to keep the precious public employee unions (the chief cause of the present state budget problem) regardless of our own losses.
Fortunately, the voters had the wisdom to keep the two-thirds supermajority in place to prevent tax hikes.
Alan Viarengo, Gilroy
