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Without enforcement,
mask quality meaningless
Rather than recommending the compliant to wear better masks, I think the CDC would do better to recommend that public agencies better enforce mask-wearing.
I ride Caltrain daily, and there are always people with their masks not covering their noses. I recently flew for the first time in 18 months. The Southwest employees did much to enforce masking, but no one did in the baggage claim areas, including people who did not have masks on at all.
I’m considering dropping my shorts in these public areas. When the authorities ask me to be more modest, I am considering saying that my exposed areas are not as harmful as the unmasked’s exposed areas.
Tom Farrell
Santa Clara
Carbon dividend better
way of helping poor
In a much-derided editorial, The Mercury News favored raising the cost of rooftop solar because of its unfair burden on low-income households (“Rooftop solar program robs from the poor,” Page A6, Dec. 22).
But a much better proposal would be to institute a tax on carbon where the fees are returned to households, a policy called “carbon fee and dividend.” To the extent that electricity is generated by renewable resources, it would not raise its cost at all. Moreover, the proceeds of the tax, distributed to all households, would result in a net benefit to low-income people.
It is a much better way to help those of low income while at the same time reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
Martin Delson
San Jose
Despite headline,
every life is notable
The headline on Jan. 1, “A final farewell: Notable Bay Area residents who died in the past year” (Page A1) from the staff reports of the Mercury News, gave me pause. Such language hurts.
While some people are more famous than others, every person is “notable” to someone, and at this time of the year, each person who has died is being especially missed by those who knew and cared for that one. The principal opened my high school graduation ceremony welcoming by name the “important people among us.” As an after-thought, he welcomed the rest of us. A friend commented on our first ministry with a tiny, poor, but powerful Hispanic congregation, “You deserve to serve a ‘significant’ congregation.”
The words notable, important, and significant, while meant to be uplifting, are actually down-putting, exclusive and hurtful. As we enter this new year, may we be ever mindful of the power of our language.
Roberta Corson
Saratoga
No inflation worries
with military spending
A 5-year investigation by the New York Times has reported successive U.S. administrations to have grossly understated civilian war deaths. Despite these revelations, the military budget was virtually approved unopposed by Congress ignoring monumental failures on the battlefield.
The obscene budget is higher than what was requested despite the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. While the “Build Back Better” bill which would improve our crumbling infrastructure and vastly improve the lives of ordinary Americans languishes, military spending has been approved by war-obsessed Republicans and timid Democrats. While Republicans and Sens.Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema expressed concern over inflationary pressures with Biden’s BBB bill, no such concern was voiced over military spending that decreases economic growth by 9% for each 1%-point increase. Whistleblowers Daniel Hale, Chelsea Manning and others who revealed the highly flawed drone technology have been silenced with long jail sentences.
Jag Singh
Los Altos
Congress must serve
public to aid democracy
Lynn Schmidt’s oped (“Cheney firm in defending democracy,” Page A13, Jan.2) rightly praises the dedication to democracy of Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, brave resisters against the plague of Trumpism.
However, it will take more than these exemplars of patriotism to improve public opinion of Congress.
It is obvious to the meanest intelligence that Congress is in thrall to the wealthy and corporate elites.
When a large portion of wildly profitable firms in the S&P 500 pay zero taxes while we plebes get socked every April it is clear for whom the tax code was written.
When “defense” contractors scamper off with hundreds of billions of dollars while schools and safety nets are considered “too costly” to maintain or improve then public opinion will rightly realize that they are being played for chumps by a broken system.
Only when the people’s representatives again work for the people will opinions rise and democracy be preserved.
Ed Taub
Mountain View
Senate’s choices clear;
yes or no to democracy
It’s time to end the pretense of normalcy if we want to save our democracy. Americans now have but two choices: pro-democracy or anti-democracy. On Jan. 6, armed anti-democracy insurrectionists stormed our U.S. Capitol attempting to overthrow a free and fair election, supported by the vast majority of GOP senators and representatives too cowardly to stand up to a lying, cheating, psychopathic demagogue whose political heroes are brutal dictators like Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin.
Any U.S. senator or representative who supported that attempted overthrow, the anti-democratic insurrectionists, or the Big Lie that Trump won the election, should be expelled from Congress for violating their oath of office and tried for their treasonous sedition.
The Senate needs to get rid of its ridiculous filibuster rule invented by Jim Crow supporters and pass the stalled voting rights bills. Sens. Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema need to demonstrate by their actions if they are pro-democracy or anti-democracy.
Dave Whitaker
San Jose
Source: www.mercurynews.com