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U.S. Senate must
pass gun legislation
Re. “18 kids killed in school shooting,” Page A1, May 25:
I urge the U.S. Senate to protect my children. I have a 7-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son. We talked about what happened in Texas and both of my children can’t understand why they would give someone who is a teenage boy a gun. I can’t understand it either.
I’m tired of having to explain to my children things that I can’t even understand myself. Last week I had to talk to my children about the fact that the government has decided they know what should happen to women’s bodies better than women themselves do. Today I have to tell them that there are children who can get guns and kill other children.
The U.S. Senate must get something done. Shame on those senators who care more about money and power than the lives of the children in this country.
Amanda Campbell
El Sobrante
High time we expand
background checks
Re. “18 kids killed in school shooting,” Page A1, May 25:
There are too many U.S. senators that need to accompany the Scarecrow to Oz to visit the Wizard in the hopes he can provide them with something they lack. Maybe the Lion and the Tinman could show them what it takes.
If mental illness is an explanation for horrific behavior, then a background check would be a start to preclude someone from obtaining a deadly firearm. And, Greg Abbott, the firearms used in the states with strict firearms laws come from states like yours.
Walter Hemje
Lafayette
Vote for Diana Becton
for Contra Costa DA
Contra Costa County is my home. I am urging everyone to vote in the June 7 election for Diana Becton for district attorney.
First, she’s experienced. She has effectively managed the office over the last four years, leading a team of 200-plus people, and managing a budget of $49 million. We need an experienced leader and can’t afford to go back to the dysfunction of the past.
Second, she deploys our resources smartly. She is focused on guns, gangs and violent crime to keep our county safe. Just read this year’s report from the Public Policy Institute of California on how crime has declined in our county. She understands that we need to be smart on crime in order to be safe.
Finally, she’s not afraid to hold corrupt politicians, police or corporations accountable.
When it comes to the safety of my family and my community, Diana Becton is the one I trust.
Aram Hodess
Orinda
Canceling gas tax will
make matters worse
Re. “Leaders must cancel gas tax — now,” Letters to the Editor, Page A10, May 25:
Ray Fortney could not be more wrong. Driving a motor vehicle is the most dangerous, destructive activity we legally engage in. The social costs (traffic jams, parking problems, infrastructure maintenance, pollution, injuries, fatalities, etc) are enormous. The paltry taxes paid by motorists do not even begin to cover the actual damage they inflict. This is why gas costs more in Europe — as it rightly should.
Want genuine improvement? Tax motorists according to the harm they inflict on others and subsidize those who are actually helping, such as public transit users and especially active transportation users. Those causing the most harm are screaming for assistance while those providing the most benefit (the person biking eight miles each way to work) get nothing — other than the finger from motorists who believe they don’t even belong on the roads.
Stacy Spink
Castro Valley
In cone of silence,
GOP feigns innocence
Letter writer Cathy Ledbetter was disturbed about the reaction to the recent Roe v. Wade leak from the Supreme Court (“Supreme Court leak is unprecedented betrayal,” Page A6, May 19). She claimed she never heard of Republicans stooping so low.
It seems she has been wearing the cone of silence. I guess the Republican president attempting to overturn a lawful election or the refusal to even consider Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court don’t constitute stooping low. Let’s face it, there are many more examples from which to choose.
Mark Blackburn
Martinez
There is no low to which
the GOP won’t stoop
I must respond to Cathy Ledbetter’s incredible claim, in discussing the leaked draft of the Supreme Court abortion decision, that she’s never heard of “Republicans stooping this low” (“Supreme Court leak is unprecedented betrayal,” Page A6, May 19).
Has she never heard of the Republican president who blamed “both sides” for the Charlottesville riot of 2017, in which White supremacists chanted “Jews will not replace us” and murdered a counter-protester? Has she never heard of the endless protests at legal abortion clinics, where Republicans harassed people going about their legal business and murdered abortion doctors? Has she never heard of the violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, where treasonous Republicans tried to overthrow our government and murdered Capitol police officers?
The Republican Party is no longer a political party: It has become a violent, treasonous cult, which will lie, cheat, steal and kill to maintain its power. There is no low to which Republicans will not stoop.
Jeanie Egbert
Alameda
Source: www.mercurynews.com