FOSTER AWARENESS

Thanks for Jessica Lyons’ cover story, “Bodies and Souls’’ about the LGBTQQI community here. Especially important are the sections about Nick and Sara, outstanding citizens of the world and our community. Also, kudos about mentioning the coming-to-fruition local diversity center(s).

A fact about our community that was not included in the article is that the Monterey County Foster Care system welcomes LGBT persons as foster parents. In fact, my partner, children and I were recently honored as the 2009 Caregiver Family of the Year by Monterey County Social and Employment Services and Family to Family. There are other LGBT families who foster children in need. This is significant news in light of other states recently passing laws to prevent us from adopting and/or fostering children. California is still ahead of its time, led by the citizens of Monterey County who voted 52 percent to 48 percent AGAINST Proposition 8. --Sue Spence-Sharpe | Carmel Valley

DON’T TREAD ON SEASIDE

State leaders are considering taking $2 billion in local property taxes, including approximately $450,000 from Seaside, to close the state deficit. This reckless proposal is tantamount to the state forcing cities to bail it out of its financial mismanagement. Tell assemblymember(s) and senator(s) that it is unthinkable that the state would consider crippling local services and public safety.

Seaside faces many of the same budget challenges as the state, and this year has been even more difficult than the last. Property taxes and sales taxes are down considerably and Seaside has already been forced to impose pay cuts, slash programs and reduce services to balance the budget, and if the state raids our property taxes we’ll have to cut even further. The Local Government Credit Card has expired; it’s time for the state to look at its own resources to close its budget, just as cities do.--Ralph Rubio, Mayor | City of Seaside

A KUDOS FROM A GRAMMARIAN

A kudos [see below] to Plaza Linda for reviving the abbreviation mike in “Open Mike” (June 11-17). From its invention, the microphone was always referred to in print as a mike until cheap cassette recorders began to arrive from Asia with a tiny hole in the side labeled MIC. It looked like it should be pronounced mick, but within a very few years mic replaced mike in print and venues changed from offering open mike nights to open mic. Presumably the owners went from going to work on bikes to riding bics.

Note to Pat Tanumihardja (“Keep the Change,” same issue): please note above that kudos is singular. So is gyros, not gyro as you write. A gyros. Gyro is a back-formation from gyros, just as pea was a back-formation from pease in the Middle Ages. Aside from that, a kudos for an excellent review of a promising new restaurant. --William Scott Hommon | Corral de Tierra