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Help carry on Tom’s dream
Dear Editor,
Tom Stefani, the gentle giant of a boy who was born and raised in this community, died October 4 in Afghanistan. An Eagle Scout, honor student and professional Range Manager with the US Forest Service, Tom volunteered to go to Afghanistan where he was killed by a roadside bomb. Only last fall, he left his beloved job in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains, the new home he’d just purchased, and the family he loved, and headed out to volunteer for the non-violent US’s Foreign Agriculture Service “campaign” to salvage the environment of Afghanistan amidst all the war.
In Afghanistan, he was teaching farmers how to heal and renew their
wasted soil and to replant denuded hillsides with trees. He built
relationships with Afghan tribal people in them same open and quiet way
that he worked with ornery Ruby Mountain ranchers. This senseless loss
of a young life is a blow to every parent’s heart and to every world
citizen who grieves at the human cost and the waste of conflict.
Tom was the kid who knew how to work hard and proudly showed his prize
sheep at the Gold Country Fair. The kid with the big cowboy boots and
hat and that sweet sideways, shy smile. Always polite, always kind and
always doing the right thing.
Barbara and Steve Stefani, his parents, are well known in the
community. Always working as a team, they are the muscle and brains
behind nearly every local community event. Tom was regularly at his mom
and dad’s side during these events as a child.
Tom cared about
the earth and he cared about people. He was so young and so full of
promise and hope. His short life’s work was devoted to public service.
Only Tuesday, his Dad was on my porch sharing a glass of wine and
discussing work for me at Placer Nature Center, future projects for
his family and Tom. Steve told me Tom had a project in mind for
Afghanistan. Not unlike his parents, Tom saw a need outside of his
regular work assignments and he wanted to fill it.
Through the
years of war in that sad country, all the playground equipment in all
the schools had been stolen, destroyed or looted. Tom wanted to bring
play equipment back to the children and set his dad to work collecting
equipment here in the US. He wanted slides, kick balls, soccer balls
and sport shoes.
In Tom’s memory, if anyone out there has new
or lightly used sports equipment that they would like to donate to the
children of Afghanistan, please call me and I will collect it. Each
donation of equipment must also come with a donation for shipping
costs. One container ship box costs $8,000, so all donations for this
expense will be appreciated. Working together, perhaps we can fill a
container full of quality play equipment for the struggling children as
Tom intended.
I will come by to pick up sports gear and donations. Please call 530-878-0738 to schedule.
Leslie Warren, Director, Placer Nature Center
Legal immigrants are welcome in U.S.
Dear Editor,
No one is
against immigrants regardless of their race, providing they have not
broken our country’s laws arriving here. The question is not race, but
lawfulness. Once laws are broken and go unpunished, the trespasser
feels emboldened and has no qualms about breaking other laws – present
or future.
As a recent letter writer in the Auburn Journal
stated, the President is responsible for enforcement, or neglect of
enforcement, of our laws controlling the borders of our country. The
taxpayer and public citizen is paying the price for this neglect.
This does not leave the large corporations off the hook either, who
thrive on cheaper labor and larger profits and provide the employment
availability. One could possibly suspect a close relationship between
Presidential leadership and corporate non-responsibility.
Perhaps
the President’s lack of concern for border control has something to do
with his secret agreements with Mexico and Canada for the borderless
North American Union. His plan also includes a trans-continental
highway from Mexican ports, through the Mid-West (USA) and on into
Canada. We have already seen the first part of his plan in action by
allowing un-inspected Mexican trucks on our highways (Sacramento Bee,
Sept. 13, 2007).
Little publicity has been given to these tri-national agreements. Why the lack of information for public consumers?
Do the perpetrators feel it might create some opposition from the American public?
Do not expect much help from a change of political parties for the hard
left (Pelosi, Kennedy, Boxer, Reid, Feinstein and Clinton) are also for
open borders with Mexico.
Dean K. Hoffman, Auburn
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