October 7, 2005

LETTERS2theEDITOR

West Point student motivates Silver Creek One on One club members

Dear Editor,
I am an officer of the One on One Club at our school, which helps high school students seek the one-on-one experience with people from different occupational backgrounds and interests.

We help expose high school students to the different career opportunities in college and beyond, by bringing in guest speakers and asking them to give us an overview of what their job is like, how they came to the profession, what were their motivations, and what obstacles they had to conquer to become the person they are now, etc.

I recently read your article regarding Ms. Jennifer Acojedo, who was a graduate from Overfelt High School and is now attending West Point. Her life experience and her career thus far are very motivational for all high school students to learn about.

Her motivation and dedication to her goal and her dreams made me and our members really want to meet her in person. Our club’s members and our officers would really benefit from contacting her and knowing more about her success and how she was able to conquer her different obstacles.

Every two weeks I always receive the Evergreen Times in front of my door and I really enjoy all the feature articles, opinion articles and news that the Evergreen Times provides.

Also, your feature articles regarding graduated high school students in college really make me want to follow in their footsteps and example. These articles have a closer connection to me and other students in high school and really motivate me to stick to my goals and be the best I can be.

Elise Lee
Junior at Silver Creek High School

Local business owner says supermarket near EVC would be devastating

In ’96, Evergreen Valley College and the City agreed in writing not to put a large supermarket in their property at Yerba Buena and San Felipe to avoid damaging the Evergreen Village Square development.

The two supermarkets that were subsequently approved and built in Evergreen, Lunardi’s and Cosentino’s, are both still struggling to survive. If the college is allowed to break its agreement so that it can cash in by bringing yet another huge supermarket at San Felipe and Yerba Buena, the damage to businesses will be devastating.

This affects real people—Evergreen residents like my wife Tammy and I, who believed these agreements were real, who believed the city’s general plan and took the risk to start businesses here in Evergreen. We ask EVC and the city to honor their clear and joint commitment not to build yet another market in this area.

Charles V. Welsh
Owner, Great Clips

A more charitable Pledge of Allegiance

We are at our best when we do for others—when we don’t get bogged down in inflammatory political positions that may only divert attention from the urgent needs around us.

Francis Bellamy wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance in August 1892. “Under God” was added to our Pledge in 1954, during a very shameful period of our history. It was during the McCarthy hearings, following the aptly named “House Un-American Activities Committee.” It was added to distinguish us from the “godless” communists. The country was divided and careers were destroyed. It was a modern-day witch hunt.

Apparently, some of that division continues today, focused on the principle of “separation of church and state.” Jews, Christians and Muslims are all children of Abraham, but there are other families.

It serves no productive or patriotic purpose to discredit the spiritual and cultural heritage of the indigenous people who were here before us or those who have and will come later.

Especially in public schools, the historic engine of equal opportunity, in this country, we should not do anything to diminish the dignity of any student. We need to develop the talents of all, to ensure a better future for our society.
Changing the pledge need not divide us further. It should reinforce the rights and respect for all to worship and practice, as they choose.

In relations between individuals, with and within organizations, you get better results by providing inspiration than by promoting condemnation.

May I suggest a change in the Pledge of Allegiance that should not be objectionable to anyone. We need to end the divisions. “One nation” should not be separated from “indivisible.” I suggest: “… one nation, indivisible, with liberty, justice and religious freedom for all.”

Bob Applebaum
The Villages

SJEVCC responds to Shapell accusations of violating promise

At the Sept. 21 Evergreen East Hills Visioning Strategy task force meeting, Kelly Erardi from Shapell Industries spoke in opposition to any retail development on the College District site. [Evergreen Times, Vol. 22, No. 19]. He certainly is entitled to his opinion on this matter, but he represented that the College District had violated a promise to Shapell regarding development on our site.

That statement is not accurate and suggests that we have acted in bad faith. The understanding that we came to with the city and Shapell related to the retail development, which is now on the corner of San Felipe and Yerba Buena. We reduced the size of the center to six acres and limited the major anchor to no more than 20,000 square feet. That was the agreement and we honored it. That occurred in 1996, nine years ago. The goal was to allow Shapell time to establish its center. Nine years is certainly ample time for that to occur.

To suggest that this was a perpetual condition is totally unrealistic and a condition that no one would accept. We would never agree to such a limitation and didn’t. Our agreement related only to the development on those six acres. The College District takes seriously its reputation for integrity and meeting its commitments. The statements made were too important for us to simply ignore without a response. It is our position and one supported by the city’s retail study that retail development on our site better serves the community’s interests and needs.

Sincerely,
Michael Hill
San Jose/Evergreen
Community College District
EEHVS Task Force Member

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