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Unvaccinated workers
shouldn’t get hero pay
In the Oct. 19 edition of The Mercury News County Executive Jeff Smith offers his opinion as to why Santa Clara County workers deserve hero pay for their incredible work throughout the ongoing COVID pandemic. (“Why Santa Clara County workers deserve hero pay,” Page A6)
I wholeheartedly agree with Smith with one caveat. Only vaccinated Santa Clara County employees should receive this hero pay.
Unvaccinated public workers can not be rewarded as heroes if they remain a hazard.
Nancy Turek
San Jose
Bullet train would
bring traffic relief
I see in theopinion page section Oct. 15 the headline “State must stop wasting billions on bullet train.” (Page A6)
I don’t see anything wrong with having a line from Bakersfield to Los Angeles and Anaheim with diesel fuel and still think about a future bullet train down the line.
Traffic in Los Angeles and on Interstate 5 is so heavy that I would welcome any train that took the stress out of having to drive even partway to Los Angeles.
Celeste McGettigan
San Jose
Trump revealed flaws
with Powell comments
Re. “Powell, 84 — ‘patriot of unmatched honor,’” Page A1, Oct. 18:
Donald Trump stooped to a new low in his comments on the passing of Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Trump’s statements were crude, indecent, inhuman and certainly not befitting an American, let alone an ex-president. Trump, once again, exposed his vindictive and crass personality and hit a new low even by his standards.
Gen. Powell was an admirable patriot, a unique American success story, a statesman, and his loss is not just to our nation but to the world. To insult a person of such caliber even before his body turned cold clearly reflects on what a lowly character Trump is. I sincerely hope this deplorable outburst of Trump finally exposes him to his misguided supporters.
Rameysh Ramdas
San Jose
Canceling pipeline could
give Biden a climate win
It was good to read President Biden’s plan for 30 gigawatts of new offshore wind farms (“New wind farms would dot U.S. coastlines under Biden’s plan,” Page B1, Oct. 15th).
Now if Biden really wants to show the world he is serious about addressing climate change, he should cancel the Line 3 pipeline that would carry dirty tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to Superior, Wisc. This pipeline would carry the equivalent of 50 new coal-fired power plants worth of emissions with a social cost estimated at $287 billion. Out with the old, dirty energy and in with the new, clean energy.
To really make this point, Biden needs to do this before the climate talks in Glasgow, and he also needs to put a price on carbon.
David Coale
Palo Alto
Powell’s commitment
to truth set him apart
You can choose how you are remembered.
Yes, Gen. Colin Powell died Oct. 18. (“Powell, 84—‘patriot of unmatched honor’,” Page A1) We have repeatedly seen pictures that included Powell, former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld sitting together. Many people would identify two or three of those individuals as war criminals, but virtually no one would put Colin Powell on that list, even though he was originally a member of the “Iraq has WMDs” club.
But his constant search for excellence and truth and his ability to tell that truth separated him from that crowd. A teaching moment, Mom and Dad.
George Licina
Campbell
Voter rights no excuse
to neglect climate fight
I was excited to see the two opinion columns side by side in the Oct. 19 paper: Charles Blow on voting rights (“Congress has one last chance to save American democracy,” Page A7), Doyle McManus on climate action (“Climate is warming, but world leaders have a chance to fix that,” Page A7). However, protecting voting rights can’t be “the only thing that matters right now”.
With the U.N. Summit on Climate Change two weeks away, we also need immediate action in Congress to pass funding bills and set standards that will drive down carbon emissions. The United States won’t be taken seriously as a climate change leader if Americans continue to over-consume and Congress remains bottle-necked.
What good is Sen. Joe Manchin’s work on voting rights if he can’t pull in Republican support? On climate action, his clear priority is to protect the fossil fuel industry.
Democracy in the United States and the health of the human race depend on passing both bills now. Come on Congress, show us you can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Tom Calderwood
Los Gatos
Source: www.mercurynews.com