ELECTION ’12//ALCO SUPERVISOR DIST 2 | A reporter’s rule of thumb says, if a subject wants to talk, then let them talk and don’t you dare stop them. Sometimes the subject will take the conversation into a bizarre place.

Last week, it wasn’t a reporter who asked Alameda County Supervisor Richard Valle about his beliefs in religion, but a young girl who posed the question Sept. 21 at a forum in Hayward. The backdrop for the gathering at the former Westminster Hills Church featured a large crucifix behind the three District 2 supervisor candidates in attendance, Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, Mark Turnquist and Valle.

As a practicing Buddhist, Valle’s answer should not surprise you. Here he describes his non-profit recycling company’s philosophy on life:

“At Tri-CED, when we do a tour with our young people, one of the things we talk about is when you walk through Tri-CED, you see stray cats, occasionally a mouse, sometimes a rat, pigeons and hawks. And we have a tendency to strike out—even after a fly,” said Valle in his low, monotone voice.”

The philosophy at Tri- CED is: you can’t take a life unless you can replace it. You don’t have the right to take a life unless you can replace it. So, no matter what it is, an ant, a snail, a bug, you don’t take its life because it is connected to the universe and we are all part of the universe and there is a real connection between all of humanity and all of them.”

A couple questions come to mind, some facetious and some pertinent. First, is it plausible to believe Valle has never killed even a fly? And, second, why are there rodents scurrying around the grounds
of Tri-CED? Sounds like an epidemic. Sounds like an expose!