Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
Stop signing petitions
peddling bad policy
Tired of thick voter pamphlets and initiatives that are nearly incomprehensible? Stop signing them. Many initiative petitions are gathered by clueless paid signature gatherers.
As a volunteer, I gathered signatures for initiatives I understood and could explain to potential signors. If paid signature gatherers are the only way to qualify a ballot initiative, chances are corporate money, not voters, funds that initiative.
Nearly daily, signature gatherers are outside my Safeway. Signs say the initiative provides homes for California’s homeless and low-income residents. One wonders if this is the initiative native people oppose, allowing online betting in California to compete with their casinos and, if passed, only 10% of proceeds benefit our state’s residents. I don’t know if these two initiatives are the same, but until I find out, I won’t sign.
Save us hard-to-understand pages of ballots. Know what you’re signing. Don’t sign unless you agree with the objective and the means to achieve it.
Susan Swope
Redwood City
Column avoids stat that
vindicates tight gun laws
Dan Walters claims that gun laws in California are ineffective because there was a mass shooting in Sacramento. (“Sacramento shooting spotlights failure of state’s gun restrictions,” Page A6, April 7)
Gun advocates frequently define a “successful” gun law as one that reduces shootings to zero. Walters conveniently ignores the rate of firearm deaths per capita in the state which was 8.5 per 100,000 people, the seventh-lowest in the nation, according to the most recent CDC data which was for 2020. The highest was Mississippi at 28.6. The top of the table of death is dominated by states with the loosest gun laws, the bottom is where we find states with the tightest restrictions.
A comparison of developed countries shows a similar pattern with the United States being an outlier in the developed world.
No matter how hard the gun lobby keeps pushing the lie that gun control does not work, the data prove conclusively that it does.
Eamonn Gormley
San Jose
Federal action needed
to slow gun carnage
Dan Walters’ April 7 column, “Sacramento shooting spotlights failure of state’s gun restrictions,” (Page A6) completely misses the issue.
A better column and title would be: Sacramento shooting spotlights passing federal laws are the only path to effective gun control. The assault rifle ban passed after the assassination attempt on President Reagan worked pretty well. Too bad it was not renewed.
Lawrence Kader
San Jose
Market drought solution
smacks of arrogance
Dinesh Desai, unsurprisingly, turns to the tired old chestnut of market forces, to solve California’s water crisis. (“Let market forces solve water supply issue,” Letters to the Editor, Page A6, April 1) We should probably be paying more for almost everything (and we will eventually, willingly or not) to cover the true costs to the environment engendered by our lifestyle choices.
However, his argument to price water according to ability and a willingness to pay ignores one basic fact. We have a finite supply of fresh water that is not distributed evenly or delivered where it is needed in a predictable way. Affording the wealthy and the irresponsible the opportunity to use as much water as they see fit for whatever purpose they deem appropriate, as Desai’s proposal would do, is arrogance of the highest order.
On the other hand, his letter was published on April Fool’s Day; perhaps, hopefully, it’s all an elaborate ruse.
Eugene Ely
San Jose
DeJoy’s plan to stabilize
Postal Service a mystery
An April 7 article by Will Weisser and Zeke Miller, Page A3, headlined, “Six-day-a-week mail delivery saved,” said President Joe Biden signed into law a bill to save the post office that will help to implement Louis DeJoy’s 10-year plan to stabilize agency finances.
I am angry and confused. I didn’t know that DeJoy had a plan “to stabilize agency finances.” I hope and pray it includes a way to recover the millions of dollars of damage that DeJoy caused by destroying mail sorting machines and tearing out mailboxes.
I will never understand why Louis DeJoy is still the U.S. Post Master General.
Carol Pollard
San Jose
GOP’s display childish
at Jackson confirmation
I watched a clip on Channel 7 (I am sure it showed on all major channels) showing the Democratic senators and Republican Mitt Romney clapping enthusiastically for our new Supreme Court
justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, upon her confirmation to the Court. The rest of the Republicans childishly walked out of the room.
I abhor this kind of attitude, most especially in regard to the high court of our country. This is certainly a very undemocratic way to welcome a new person to the bench.
However, I greatly admire her for keeping her cool at all times and wish her the best for the future on the High Court. I do wish that the other two Republican senators who voted for her had stayed to cheer her on.
Sue Evans
San Jose
Source: www.mercurynews.com