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Put budget surplus
toward saving sequoias
The recent wildfires killed as many as 14,000 giant sequoias (“Up to 14,000 sequoias killed by wildfires,” Page B1, Nov. 20). The largest living organism on this earth, some as old as 3,000 years, gone in one summer.
That is simply outrageous. It is said that 20% of them in the state have been lost. Homes and barns can be rebuilt. How do you rebuild a tree?
These wonders of nature must have better protection, better plans, new laws, restrictions and a leadership that understands our responsibility as stewards of this great treasure.
I call upon this governor and the people of California to fully fund new safeguards. Take a portion of the upcoming $30 billion surplus to do just that.
Mark Grzan
Morgan Hill
Don’t let redistricting
undercut friends of labor
I am writing this letter to express strong disagreement with your editorial, “County should reject effort at gerrymandering.” (Page A8, Nov. 12)
It seems the purpose of this editorial is to show your displeasure with two candidates you describe as “labor friendly.” Your newspaper has a long history of opposing the candidacy of those who attempt to bring about better conditions for working people. This article is no exception.
The majority of residents of Santa Clara County are working people. They are nurses, teachers, laborers, construction workers, janitors, hotel workers, bus drivers, first responders and a thousand other jobs that help us to live better lives. They toil in a county that has one of the highest rates of income inequality in California. This dichotomy is reason enough that anyone who is “labor friendly” deserves to be supported, not demeaned and subtly accused of manipulation, as your editorial implies.
Gayle Kovalski-Adams
San Jose
Democracy buckles
under weight of MAGA
I hope all those Making America Great Again are satisfied. We now occupy a moral universe where members of Congress threaten to kill their colleagues and the president, and 17-year-old kids, who we currently judge to be unfit to serve in the armed services, may openly carry assault rifles in public and shoot people without fear of any consequences.
If this is your definition of greatness, it is truly a sad state of affairs. The foundations of American democracy are crumbling all around us, and all we can manage to be motivated about is whether wearing masks or getting a shot to protect the public’s health are dangerous political statements.
But take heart, JFK Jr. is coming back from the dead to help re-elect Donald Trump and all will be well again. Heaven help us because we seem to have zero interest in helping ourselves.
Eugene Ely
San Jose
China’s transgressions
require Olympic boycott
We must boycott the 2022 winter Olympics being held in China. The Chinese Community Party’s human rights violations are atrocious. How can we support a government that puts its own people in concentration (education) camps? Or led to the deaths of millions of its own people? The recent crackdown on Hong Kong is an example of how the CCP has not changed its ways.
In addition to the treatment of their own people, they are a global threat. China is threatening to invade the country of Taiwan. They are threatening and intimidating the countries in the South China Sea. Their theft of intellectual property is damaging to our economy.
We cannot repeat the mistake we made in 1936 by attending the German Summer Olympics. Our athletes may suffer, but it will be nothing compared to the suffering our troops may endure. We should never support an enemy government.
George Baptista
South San Francisco
Resignation follows
Rittenhouse verdict
As the news broke that Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of all charges in the killing of two men and wounding of another, I confess to a numbing sense of resignation and nausea.
I have long struggled with our country’s firearm fetish, and convenient interpretation of the Second Amendment, and will forever wonder into to what “well-regulated militia” young Mr. Rittenhouse was conscripted.
On Nov. 21, as this story continued to resonate in many communities, I happened to be in line at my surprisingly very crowded Milpitas Safeway, ahead of a young gentleman. While we waited I commented that “I didn’t know so many people went grocery shopping on Sunday,” to which he replied, “I guess they’re celebrating.” I naively asked, “Celebrating what?” The young man smiled and said, “The Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. Not guilty.”
All I could get out was, “Not me.” My resignation and nausea returned.
Barry Goldman-Hall
San Jose
GOP would likely
welcome DINO ticket
Marc Thiessen’s tongue-in-cheek op-ed in the Nov. 21 Mercury News (“A Democratic ticket that would frighten Republicans in 2024,” Page A19) concludes that a Manchin-Sinema presidential ticket would “terrify the GOP.”
The far right rails against “RINOs.” The moderate right should welcome these DINOs.
Richard Tavan
Saratoga
Source: www.mercurynews.com