Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
Conservation isn’t
enough; let’s desalinate
We can’t conserve our way out of the lack of rain and snow. Let’s make water.
A desalination plant built south of Half Moon Bay can be a reliable source of water. Power it with solar and wind turbines. Pipe the freshwater over the hill to Crystal Springs Reservoir which is already connected to essentially all of the Bay Area communities.
The Carlsbad Desalination Plant is an excellent model. The entire project cost $537 million to build. It makes 50 million gallons of freshwater per day. This is enough water for the needs of 400,000 people. Note that such a facility does not have to supply all our water needs, just to augment our already existing supplies.
And to pay for this, California currently has a budget surplus of more than $45 billion. Let’s spend some of this money on a common need: fresh water.
Marshall Wilder
San Jose
Article oversimplifies
the ‘censorship’ issue
The article about censoring books in schools was silly, oversimplified, uninformative and divisive (“Newsom ignites Twitter feud with choice of novels,” Page A1, April 1). It was more about praising California and criticizing other states than it was a true examination of censorship.
Of course, there are some situations in which censorship causes greater harm than good. However, censorship is justified when its intent and result is that it ensures that books directly support the curriculum and are read only by students who are mature enough to discuss, analyze, understand and appreciate the content.
As long the media and others discuss social, political and legal issues from an oversimplified progressive (“good”) vs. conservative (“bad”) perspective, the more lasting the divisions will be in our nation. If we are to become a truly unified and more peaceful nation, Americans must accept and try to understand each other’s perspectives, not criticize others and self-righteously believe that they are better.
Nick Dellaporta
Santa Clara
Government must
live within its means
Dan WaLters nailed it regarding our burgeoning fiscal disaster. (“Is our expansionist government biting off more than it can chew?,” Page A13, April 3) This is more than an economic threat at the national level. We are buried in political acrimony and polarization. For decades we have seen pitiful approval ratings for the sitting president and even more pitiful ratings for Congress, regardless of which party holds the majority. I think that improving the efficiency and performance of government is critical to turning this around.
First, the government must live within its means. Trillion-dollar annual deficits as far as the eye can see are not sustainable. Second, we need to focus on results. The reality is that we spend enormous amounts of money at all levels of government to address the many problems we face. We should be focused on what is working and why and fund programs that produce measurable results.
Wasting money and failing to achieve results are only perpetuating dissatisfaction and resentment.
Dave Riggs
Aptos
Russia’s unjust war
mirrors our own
We are staring at an atrocity that should never have happened – this unprovoked war by Russian against Ukraine.
Mother Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, has instilled fear in its citizens of Ukraine (most of Russia’s citizens support the war).
We should know better, of course, since we, the United States, instilled a fear of communism in our citizens and went in and slaughtered more than a million Vietnamese fighters, lost nearly 60,000 U.S. soldiers and destroyed towns, villages and countryside. Neither country is or was justified in these actions.
Joe Margevicius
Palo Alto
Hanson delivers rare
thoughtful column
Wait … what happened to Victor Hanson?
The column in the April 1 edition of The Mercury News (“History should be our guide in war in Ukraine,” Page A7) must have been an “April Fools” joke or else someone hacked his email account and wrote something that was thoughtful and relevant.
I kept reading it and agreed with everything that was written. But I kept my guard up while looking for the dig at progressives … and it wasn’t there.
This can’t be the Hanson that spouts lies and innuendo and spins everything in an anti-progressive direction.
We shall see how long it takes before the real Hanson discovers he’s been hacked and the old Victor surfaces again. If it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke or he’s been hacked, then I would have to say, “Well done, Mr. Hanson.”
David Burwell
Morgan Hill
Source: www.mercurynews.com