Sleep Spent

Senator Feinstein,

I was appalled to discover that you are one of just five Democrats that supports the passing of the flag burning amendment.

This amendment would be an obvious misuse of the Constitution. In addition, it’s completely unnecessary since the incidents of flag burning are so few. And of course, this is a clear free-speech right. That’s why the supporters of this bill are having to go to these lengths, because the Supreme Court held that people have the right to do this. This amendment would be taking away rights, not granting them.

You don’t have to want to burn the flag yourself to understand that it is absurd to pass a Constitutional amendment allowing states to force their citizens not to.

Please reconsider your stance on this issue.
-Nick

As you will probably be aware, the Governor made a speech at the World Environment Day festivities in San Francisco. He announced that he would be signing an executive order to limit California’s output of greenhouse gasses over the next 45 years.

This is big news, and it deserved a supportive letter.

I’m a California resident, and I wanted to let the Governor know that I am very, very pleased with the bold action he has taken to limit California’s contribution to global warming. I have recently become re-energized on the topic of global warming after reading a three-part series in The New Yorker. I had begun to despair that anything was being done, with the most recent activity on many global warming action websites being discussion of the McCain-Liberman Climate Stewardship Act of 2003.

And then came the World Environment Day and Gov. Schwarzenegger’s speech. And not just talk, but also an Executive Order mandating lowered greenhouse gas emissions!

I’m grateful to the Governor for having tackled this problem. It’s especially gratifying to hear one of the foremost Republican politicians in the country publicly contradict the Bush Administration’s wrongheaded “do nothing” policy on global warming. Bravo!

Signed,
Nick Kocharhook