3 letters: Historic district downtown; U.S. a Christian nation and Demos creating class envy

City needs to get off the dime and follow through on historic district guide to aid downtown

Dear Editor,
When one mentions “Historical District,” I find that people’s eyes open wide and their faces turn sideways into a rather blind stare.
What’s really fun is when you say “Historic Preservation Guidelines.” Peoples’ eyeballs glaze over, and in my imagination I see their eyes start to spin. What I cannot imagine is what they are envisioning. I sometimes wonder if what they are seeing is our Founding Fathers coming to life marching into town with big sticks, making everyone spend lots of money to create some kind of a downtown-wide museum, in which everyone has to dress in costume to maintain the illusion of an antiquated world of 1880. Damn the economics, full speed ahead!
Pooey. Fully developed historic districts can be energized current-day market places, with prospering businesses in well-maintained structures, pulled together in their original style. Such places exist, and such a place can exist in Gilroy.
For many years now, Gilroy’s local history supporters have held on to the hope that the City of “Gilroy would see the light and support Gilroy’s Local Historical District ordinance with an appropriate guidelines ordinance to provide standards that would protect our local districts. You could say that the Local Historical District Ordinance, which we have, is comparable to the body of an automobile, and the non-existent Guidelines Ordinance, which we don’t have, would be the wheels and engine that makes the car run.
The downtowns of years ago are gone. Very few people go to a downtown because they have needs. People go downtown for the non-necessary, added-value retail items, or for leisure purposes like eating out, music, and theater.
When local downtowns become optional, there needs to be a different kind of attraction to make these former city centers economically viable. An historic district can be a powerful attraction in this world that is becoming more and more homogenized, and provide an identity that a community can take great pride in.
Our downtown’s many, many traditional buildings, can, slowly over time, with reasonable amounts of investment, be preserved, or rehabilitated, or restored into a unique, functional Gold Level Historic District.

Carol DeSantis, Gilroy

A few more points to ponder in debate over the United States being a Christian nation

Dear Editor,
This country has been known here and throughout the world as a Christian nation. On recent a survey 75 to 76 percent of our people stated they believe the United States is a Christian nation
Go back to our Founding Fathers and see what their beliefs were and understand that the First Amendment says the government shall not make any laws regarding the establishment of religion. The Founding Fathers did not want any laws stating you must be a member of any religious group. That still stands.
The government need not sponsor the display of religious significance but must not prohibit it. And, as a veteran, I do hold dear the fact you can voice your opinion openly and display whatever you want as long as it is done in a tastefully accepted legal manner.
Take the opportunity and pull the pictures of the east entrance to the Supreme Court and look above the pillars. What were they thinking? Could that be where our laws came from?”
Regarding the pledge, it was changed during a time of widespread hysteria to separate us from a godless nation. I would not call it hysteria when we’re dealing with a threat of Communism. But it does show what happens in a godless nation.
It is commonly known what went on in the times of Constantine, and it is also not news that Jesus was not born around December. There are a multiple of things like the tree, gifts and other traditions that are associated with Dec. 25. But this is still a time for Christians to celebrate the birth of the Christ child, so whatever the date it’s OK with me.
Using the Bible as a reference is good, but you may want to read some of the works of Elavius Josephus, a great historian born in 37 or 38 A.D. I have a four-volume set of his works.
Prayer has not been totally banned, but prayer and the Bible along with other Christian beliefs are being pushed aside. We need to ask ourselves are we as a society getting better? My goal in writing was not to try to convince anyone of anything, but I would hope everyone would see what is happening in our world. So in not trying to do anything other than that, I will not be continuing in any further dialogue.
You say you are an atheist. I am amazed at your faith.

Erwin Boggs, Gilroy

Democrats trying to muster votes for tax increases by
creating a false class envy

Dear Editor,
Gov. Moonbeam and his henchmen want to raise taxes, and the election-year propaganda machine has been fired up. He needs this revenue to fund recent legislation (that he signed) to provide free college for illegal aliens and for public schools to teach perversion.  
This is the same failure, known as “tax-and-spend,” that he practiced in the 1970’s – grow government, increase costs, then hike taxes to pay for it. Moonbeam says it’s for “five years.” If it passes, it will never go away; when the five years are up, the Democrats will call such an expiration a “tax cut for the rich” and will label their opponents “greedy.” 
Their apologists will say that it’s just continuing at the current rate. We heard the same, dull rhetoric when the two-year “temporary” tax hike expired on July 1. They claim that the “rich,” who already pay tax at a higher rate in this state, should pay “their fair share,” but refuse to define what that is. 
They are trying to muster votes and passion by creating class envy. California’s revenue is heavily dependent on personal income taxes, so Moonbeam wants to raise them even more – his solution is, more of the same! 
This “tax the rich” con-game mimics the tobacco-tax strategy – find a minority scapegoat, set up a dependency, and then cry “broke” when the source dries up.  Doubt it? Then why does the establishment in Sacramento refuse to justify how the state is still spending 12 percent more in the 2011-12 fiscal year than in the previous fiscal year?  Are household incomes up anywhere near 12 percent?  Did anyone get a 12 percent pay raise in 2011?  
The same socialist ploy was done with capital gains:  Until the Bush tax-cuts fixed this, small (read, middle-class) investors were discouraged from investing, because when you lost mutual-fund money, you got no tax break, but later if the value increased even just to the previous level, you were taxed on the “income.” The Clinton taxes on capital gains only favored big investors, but Warren Buffett (a Democrat apologist) and his kind were curiously silent until the middle class got a break.  
The teachers union, which funded Moonbeam’s campaign, has also begun its propaganda, running an ad saying that Kim Kardashian should pay more tax to fund “essential services.” 
These “services” are “essential” to their job security, which they have built through incentives for illegal immigration (which costs California a net $10.5 billion annually).  
This is nearly a repeat of a decade ago, when former governor Gray Davis rewarded the prison guards for their union’s support.  It is clear that the state government, which includes its “education” and prison system, serves only itself.  
“Just say no” to ANY tax hike; it’s no more than legalized extortion.  

Alan Viarengo, Gilroy