Dear Editor,
Before the budget passed Friday, California was in a hole. But now we are in a much darker place, for we have cut our investment in the future generation. Legislators should have made giant industries pay their fair share. Instead, the recession which has already left masses unemployed now results in thousands of students who will be left without education.
As a student at UCLA, my tuition fees have risen almost 10% from last year, and many students will be hard pressed to keep up. Even worse, the new budget will cut freshman UC system admittance by 10% while also cutting spending on community college, taking away hope of advancement for thousands of high school graduates.
Meanwhile, California remains the only state without taxes on oil extraction, an example of how the budget passed Friday cuts so much from the public need without touching the special interests of big business.
Diego Rubalcava-Alvarez
UCLA Student
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To the Editor:
Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution (C.R.A.A.P.) gives a heartfelt “Thank you!” to both U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl. On July 20, 2009, Senator Boxer, Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works and a member of the Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee, sent a letter to Randolph Babbitt, the new FAA Administrator under President Obama, in which she asks that Babbitt review requests of citizens in the Santa Monica area to study the effects of exhaust pollution on neighborhoods closest to Santa Monica Airport (SMO) operation areas and to take appropriate action under FAA jurisdiction. Councilman Rosendahl and his Senior Counsel, Norman Kulla, assisted me in my efforts to brief Senator Boxer about the critical concerns SMO neighbors have. Their efforts acted as a microphone for our concerns.
As founders of C.R.A.A.P. my wife Joan and I are very encouraged that Senator Boxer has taken the acknowledgement of our concerns regarding invasive toxic aircraft emissions to a new level. We feel that it is a violation of our basic Constitutional right, to have the atmosphere we breathe in our own residential living quarters invaded by toxic aircraft exhaust. By 1989 the FAA and the City of Santa Monica were already aware that exhaust from idling jets has a harmful effect on human health as well as instrumentation situated within 300 feet of the jet blast. It is well documented that there are homes within 300 feet of jet blast at SMO.
After twenty years of exposure to increasing levels of jet air pollution from Santa Monica Airport, our neighborhoods deserve immediate relief. Jets can not use Santa Monica Airport without exposing residents to toxic emissions. The odors are obvious for more than a mile from the runway ends. The owners and operators of airports and aircraft must understand that they have a responsibility not to put people in harms way.
Joan and I on behalf of Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution ask that other government officials join with Senator Boxer and Councilman Rosendahl in their efforts to correct this unconscionable environmental injustice.
To view Senator Boxer’s letter visit www.jetairpollution.com
Martin Rubin, Director
Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution
