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Giants should give up S.J.
to keep A’s in Bay Area
When the Giants were looking for a new ballpark, the A’s helped them out by relinquishing rights to Santa Clara County. However, the Giants have used these rights to block the A’s from moving to San Jose. San Jose tried to get these rights overturned in a 2015 lawsuit against MLB that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Now, with the A’s possibly leaving for Las Vegas, it is time for the Giants to return the favor and allow the A’s to pursue a San Jose ballpark. MLB Commissioner Manfred said he is “not sure we see a path to success” for a new A’s ballpark in Oakland. If the A’s are not allowed to pursue a San Jose ballpark, the Giants will have essentially driven the A’s out of the Bay Area since San Jose was clearly willing to build the A’s a ballpark based on the lawsuit.
Bruce Maigatter
Santa Clara
County ‘hero pay’ should
target front-line workers
Santa Clara County CEO Jeff Smith’s op-ed (“Why Santa Clara County workers deserve hero pay,” Page A6, Oct. 19) followed a common script: If you disagree with the message, denigrate the messenger. Smith obviously relished calling San Jose Councilman Matt Mahan, who questioned giving all county employees bonuses, a junior council member.
I received two Pfizer vaccine doses through the county’s health services and was impressed with the organization and efficiency of the process. You could argue the medical workers who dealt with the daily flood of residents seeking vaccinations deserve a bonus; those behind-the-scene administrators, not so much.
The county’s administrative staff should have done a better job targeting deserving employees. They took the easy way out.
Tom Darby
San Jose
Everyone, especially police,
should get vaccinated
After reading the news about San Jose’s police union allowing officers not to take COVID vaccines if they agreed to test twice weekly, I felt it was unfair.
Officers are the ones who need to take the vaccine the most because they interact with a large number of people every single day. The people who I used to think are the safest have become the most dangerous because of not vaccinating.
I think the officials should have punished them harshly for not following the guideline. It is so dreadful to see them patrolling around without being vaccinated because they might get infected with the virus even with their masks on.
To achieve the goal of bringing normal life back as it used to be, everyone should be required to be vaccinated with no exception.
Trong Nghia Huynh
San Jose
70K deaths in state
argue for vaccinations
Re. “California coronavirus death count tops 70,000 as cases fall,” Oct. 12:
Seventy-thousand deaths in California alone: This is a tragedy.
There are many faces behind these numbers. It is not just a statistic. The coronavirus has cut so many lives short, victims all over the state, victims who were frail and old: who did not have the opportunity to take a vaccine. Still to this day people are actively choosing to skip the vaccine. It is a slap in the face to those who died to now ignore calls for vaccination. Do you want to live in a world where pandemics never end? It is better to start now because we are always under the threat of pandemics.
If you have been fooled not to take the vaccine, think again. Go out and get vaccinated today. The world cannot wait any longer.
Rodrigo Rocha-Montanez
San Jose
Filibuster change may
bite Democrats — again
Week after week frustrated Democrats write letters and articles screaming for the end of the filibuster in the Senate so that they can have the current fiscally irresponsible “human infrastructure” bill passed with 51 votes.
In 2013 Sen. Harry Reid thought he was being clever by ending the filibuster rule for non-Supreme Court justice confirmations. This boneheaded motion created the slippery slope that allowed the Republicans to use his precedent as an excuse to expand it to Supreme Court nominations. President Trump appointed three conservative judges as a result.
Politicians don’t get mad, they get even.
Joel Greenia
Santa Clara
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
An editorial Tuesday in the Opinion section about the need for strong candidates to run for Santa Clara County sheriff misstated the year Kevin Jensen ran for the office. He ran in 2014, not 2018.
Source: www.mercurynews.com