FOOD WARRIOR

Mark Anderson’s profile of Michael Jones was accurate. I would encourage anybody who needs a lift in their life to seek out his famous Monday Night dinners in Cachagua. The food is always the best and the floor show is always Michael. Listening to him perform his thoughts is like Coltrane’s staccato notes scaling into chords, challenging the listener to understand the music and respond in counterpunctal harmony. Until you’ve been, “adventures in dining” has not yet been defined.

ANIMAL FARMS

The escalating costs of corn and soybeans and the current credit crunch are forcing cutbacks in the number of animals raised for food.

For the animals and caring consumers, such cuts are long overdue.

The 10 billion animals killed for food in the U.S. each year are caged and crowded, deprived and drugged, manhandled and mutilated. At the slaughterhouse, they may be scalded, bled, skinned and dismembered– while still conscious. Although 93 percent of consumers condemn such abuses, no law prevents them.

On Oct. 2 (Gandhi’s birthday), 400 communities in all 50 states and two dozen other countries observe World Farm Animals Day with public education events (see www.WFAD.org). The purpose is to expose and memorialize the cruel treatment of animals raised for food and to promote an animal-free diet.

It’s a great opportunity for each of us to embrace a cruelty-free, healthful, cost-saving plant-based diet.

IN DEFENSE OF WILMOT

Having read the article by Zachary Stahl, I find myself in the position of responding to your diatribe regarding Mayor Wilmot and Jackie Gonzales. It’s obvious that while you might know the position, you have no grasp on the people.

I have had the good fortune of getting to know Mayor Wilmot and Jackie Gonzales over many years of public service for the City of Marina. Your paper and your reporter have taken a very small part of who they are and tried to weave it into who you would have your readers believe they are.

Were we, as readers of your paper, to reach into your life, choose a given point in time, and pontificate the merit of that moment negatively, you would undoubtedly be up in arms. I fail to understand how you can see one thing, infer something else and expect us to believe any of your diatribe.

Mayor Wilmot and Gonzales worked literally thousands of thankless hours in various capacities as volunteers for many of the civic organizations in the city of Marina and for the city of Marina itself, years before Wilmot even considered entering the political arena. They did so despite holding down full-time jobs and raising a family. Their only motivation was to contribute to making the city of Marina a better place to live, not just for them, but for everyone who calls Marina home.

Wilmot’s significant other, Jackie Gonzales, shares the same vision, and continues to show her genuine concern for the health and well-being of children and young people throughout the community.

You and your writer would have the general public believe Mayor Wilmot is using his position with the Marina Gazette to further his own political agenda, and you also have Mr. Delgado hypothesizing about Mayor Wilmot’s intent. I see two honest people with opposing views, whose intent is to serve the City of Marina faithfully and honestly, but from different perspectives.