Dear editor,

In an Oct. 27 letter to the editor ("Nemko wrong on Prop. 73"), Francis Crotty reviews a meeting he attended of the Napa Valley Democrats in September, in which four of the propositions on the Nov. 8 ballot were discussed by speakers who had expertise in the areas the measures would affect. I attended that same meeting.

Mr. Crotty has a remarkably different memory of events of the meeting than I, and has used personal recall to castigate Napa County Office of Education Superintendent Barbara Nemko's views regarding "the open door policy for Planned Parenthood's aberrant activities."

"I believe the voters in Napa should be aware of Ms. Nemko's views regarding the open door policy for Planned Parenthood's aberrant activities. Barbara Nemko's liberal credentials and regrettable activities are not the kind I or most other voters would agree with," Crotty states.

Let me set the record straight. Barbara Nemko made a presentation at the meet on Propositions 74 (public school teachers waiting period) and Proposition 76 (state spending and school funding limits). At no time did she ever once discuss or offer an opinion on Proposition 73.

I do not know what "regrettable activities" Crotty believes the superintendent of schools has engaged in. I do remember that Heather Howell, the speaker for 73 sitting next to Dr. Nemko, did say something to the effect in her presentation that before abortion became legal, there was a time in our history when young women went through some terrible, life-threatening and indeed deadly procedures to obtain an abortion. Both Dr. Nemko and myself, being old enough to have lived through that period in our history, nodded our heads.

Crotty has every right to uphold his views on Proposition 73 and vigorously present his point of view. But what he has no right whatsoever to do is misrepresent someone else's view or attitude based on the mere nod of one's head. It is very misleading that he has written a letter leading anyone who was not in attendance to assume that Dr. Nemko discussed any issues regarding Proposition 73. This has an all too familiar smack of a kind of smear tactics used in the discredited 1950s McCarthy era.

Sybil Hinkle

Napa