Prom

Many activities for juniors and seniors come now. When I was 16 in 1992, a drunken driver hit me. I could not attend prom and many celebrations. Three hospitals and a therapy clinic made up half of my teenage life.

I can walk OK and it is a strain dealing with the injuries I received more than 30 years ago: my hearing is damaged, I cannot drive and speak clearly, etc. I’m aware that Monterey High School is having its prom on May 17. If you are going, have a terrific time.

For more than 19 years, I have been trying to bring drinking intelligence to all. Alcohol makes you impaired and people know this. It puzzles me why they, especially teenagers, drive after drinking? Innocent people have been injured or killed because of behavior like this.

Give any event a noteworthy memory: prevent yourself and others from driving after drinking. You just saved a life.

— Lori Martin, Tracy

Rental registry

I am a resident of Monterey since 1980, living here, raising our family, owning and operating two businesses in those years and overall being a good resident and neighbor. Now in the retirement stage of my life, I have suddenly been faced with many obstacles, specifically, affordable housing, rental requirements in order to be eligible to actually rent. I have emailed and mailed my questions and concerns to Ms. Kimberly Cole, who I was directed to as someone associated with housing in Monterey and to Mayor Tyller Williamson, specifically also.

I have yet to get any acknowledgment from either of our officials. Ms. Cole has gotten a repeat email asking for a name of someone else who may be able to answer my questions or to direct me to the answers.

I have tried researching the housing programs, however, I still have questions and concerns that are not addressed by the sites. I have, I believe pointed this out in my correspondence. Still nothing.

What is the use of developing the Rental Registry Program? It puts fees on the landlords that actually gets passed down to the renters by the landowners. The city is collecting the fees from the same people, not the land owners but the renters, that the program is supposedly created to protect.

Please tell me why?

— Linda Lopez, Monterey

Braceros memorial

Thank you for reminding us of the tragic deaths of so many Braceros farm workers at Chualar (“Remembering the bracero tragedy at Chualar”, Monterey Herald, April 17).

As was recounted so well by Mr. Ornelas Rodriguez, Juan Martinez spent many years reminding us of this historic event and its importance to our local farm worker community. Along with the late activist Gary Karnes, Juan wanted to establish a lasting memorial of this poignant Monterey County history and other related significant events, by locating the artifacts and records gathered in their People’s Oral History Project in the old and refurbished Salinas Jail building.

The collection has been temporarily hosted by the Monterey County Historical Society. It now deserves to have a permanent and appropriate home in the Old Jail, where it can serve as a crucial civil history lesson to all of us.

— Heidi Feldman, Pacific Grove

Public lands

No matter what you think of the current presidential administration or any administration, public lands and the animals living therein belong to the American people and should be managed and protected for future generations.

Let’s see how the Trump administration wants to protect our public lands: First they want to ramp up logging across our national forests including Los Padres National Forest; then they want to gut habitat protection for endangered species; then sell off public lands to the highest bidder and weaken environmental protections; they want to weaken the Endangered Species Act so more wild animals can be hunted: they also want to weaken the Migratory Bird Treaty Act allowing the fossil fuel industry and other polluters a blank check to kill millions of birds.

The American people and future generations are being robbed of what is rightfully theirs!

— Nancy Ponedel Parsons, Pacific Grove