On Aug. 31, my husband and I made a trip to our local Costco. It
was a standard trip to the store to buy supplies, although upon
loading our car and preparing to leave the parking lot, something
out of the ordinary occurred and grabbed our attention.
Dear Editor,
On Aug. 31, my husband and I made a trip to our local Costco. It was a standard trip to the store to buy supplies, although upon loading our car and preparing to leave the parking lot, something out of the ordinary occurred and grabbed our attention.
As my husband turned to start-up the ignition, he noticed an older gentleman “snatching” an antenna from a Lexus hatchback. As we continued to observe, the gentleman (who was somewhere between late 60s or early 70s) was casing the remainder of the parking lot looking somewhat suspicious. We approached a Costco attendant to notify the store of what we had witnessed.
The attendant approached this shifty character to inquire about what we had seen. As we drove passed the two in discussion, we happened to park not far from the gentleman’s wife who had just come from the service department. My husband finally confronted this elderly thief and made it clear that STEALING is not cool. Upon further prodding, the Costco attendant was able to retrieve the antenna in question, and was able to return it to its original vehicle owner.
If we had not witnessed this act in progress, the original Lexus owner would have been missing an antenna. Thanks to my husband’s astute “What Would You Do” moment, this senior thief was caught in a very embarrassing situation in broad daylight!
J. Quinones, Gilroy
No evidence for God’s existence, so why are the religious people upset?
Dear Editor,
Many people in the religious world are upset that Professor Stephen Hawking, in his new book “The Grand Design”, dismisses the idea that God created the universe. Some in the religious world have said that he’s going to Hell for choosing not to believe in God.
What the religious world doesn’t realize is that in the world of science one does not simply choose to believe or not to believe in something. The world of science is about determining what reality really is based on evidence. If Stephen Hawking had found evidence that the world was created by God, then that is what he would have concluded. But the facts are that the evidence for God’s existence is just not there.
If God exists and interacts with the real world then the evidence would be everywhere. Scientists would be able to find it and there would be information as to the nature of God, what he is made of, how he came to be, and how he created the universe. In the world of science you simply do not believe in things without having a reason other than you simply wish to believe it’s true.
Marc Perkel, Gilroy
Don’t let NIMBY opposition ruin a future-looking high-speed rail plan
Dear Editor,
In response to Ms. Sheets-Saucedo’s letter , these statements are pretty much cherry picked from the opposition and are not the main issues of the high speed rail system. The San Francisco Peninsula NIMBYs want a quad track tunnel, on the state and federal taxpayer’s dime. This is not a good reason to oppose the project; this is a reason to not give into NIMBYs.
An 8-lane freeway takes up 140 feet plus of right of way. The noise impact is significantly less than that of a freeway since the railway will not have constant horns blasting, diesels roaring, etc. Union Pacific has been sweating the load as high-speed trains have not derailed outside of their ROW on dedicated high-speed tracks which is what they would run on in Gilroy. Mountain View is another city that wants a tunnel; some of these cities even had planes a few years ago such as Redwood City for an above ground solution with the station being the focal point. I do not see a concept change except for the fact that there is bias against the Authority and we’re still in the planning stages.
If this project doesn’t happen, enjoy more noise from the U.S. 101, an expressway upgrade to Highway 152, and much more traffic.We wonder why we cannot make progress in this country. Opposition to new ideas has made us fall behind the rest of the world. If we do not build this system, the California economy will suffer severely in an oil shock and any prolonged high pricing of oil due to the lack of alternatives and poor planning of developments. High-speed rail provides an incentive to locate closer to a station and create a rapid transit line connecting the station and other major destinations near it.
Daniel Hodun, Bremerton, WA
