Reservations about an editorial

I have strong reservations about your March 19 editorial, “City Council: None of the above.”

There are two certainties: on April 5, there will be an election here in Glendale, and on April 6, there will be five City Council members. They may be the same five, or two new members, or one of each.

Whatever spin you wish to put on your editorial, the overriding message that you convey is, “Don’t vote.” You cannot escape the “who cares” and other such remarks.

We are lucky to get 20% to turn out, and this article throws doubt on that. You have given credibility to the effete (no one meets my standards), the cynical (they are all crooks), and the indolent (I have to watch Charlie Sheen), and encouraged two groups that pose a real threat to a cohesive, productive government in Glendale.

The first is the bloc voting group, a special-interest gang that herds voters into the polls and allegedly oversees their votes for the “correct” candidate(s). The second group is a combination of the perverse and the extreme who take delight in voting for the most outrageous person on the ballot, or for some zealot on some extreme issue.

The end result is that you end up with some flunky who votes only as directed, or some loon who disrupts the business of government for the next four years.

No disrespect, but in 40 years as a resident, I have never heard anyone say, “I only vote for who the News-Press says I should.” As a matter of integrity, you owe it to Glendale voters to refrain from endorsements, just report, without editorial comment, what is going on, and, most importantly, stress how important it is to vote.

Jim Weling

Glendale

It’s time to ditch the teachers union

I knew the school board election was too quiet.

Compared to the mudslinging of the council race, theirs was a boring tale — until today. I got a mailer from the Glendale Teachers Assn. Hot meals for teachers? Are you kidding me? Because microwave ovens in the classroom have been disallowed?

That’s the teachers association’s big beef with Mary Boger? Wow. How will they teach? First the soda is too warm and now the lunch is too cold. Goldilocks, I mean teachers, have it rough.

If that’s what teachers are really worried about, heaven help the young. Let’s keep Boger and ditch the Glendale Teachers Assn. Maybe then the classroom will be for learning and not for eating.

Eileen Young

Glendale