A letter to the editor - Napa Valley Register by Lucretia Marcus

Please allow me to preface my "Yes on C" letter with the following: we moved to Calistoga for many reasons.

Prime among them is how clean the elements are: air that you can't "see" or "smell", clean water, "traffic jams" consisting of four cars at an all way stop sign. The friendliness of those who live here is an added plus.

We ran from everything being politically related. Well, here we are again.

I'm asking that you read the article recently in the Register that tries to give both sides of the argument.

Let's look at the sides:

1) One has five times the amount of money to convince us that they are right.

2) One is crying that Yes on C would "allow" hundreds of acres of oaks to be cut down. Oh, the horror. A reminder: those are the exact number of acres left in the General Plan that was passed years ago.

3) Regarding that General Plan: only 41 percent of the land allowed to be planted under that agreement has been used. Why are the "No on C" folks fighting for more?

4) Suspiciously, no mention of ground water pollution or the draining of our watershed. Hmmm, could it be because their PR firm, so successful in defeating the ban GMO campaign, felt that those issues shouldn't be discussed?

The reality? This is big business that is fighting for control. This is big business wanting more: more profits/more control. Big business likes to tell us, the little people, what is "good" for us and we should just let them do it.

Just remember, big business exists to make money. What happens when they're done with this beautiful valley?

I really don't want to think about that. Do you?

Lucretia Marcus

Calistoga