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Bring back polling
places in neighborhoods
I got six official communications about the primary. One included a ballot, another included a replica of the ballot you had to know somehow was not the actual ballot, and three — including one arriving weeks later — told me I’d be sent a ballot.
Each described every option for voting: You could vote by mail, or deposit it at any of a seemingly infinite number of places you could find online. You could vote in person, virtually anywhere, anytime by June 7, at any of many places you could find online.
The one missing option turned out to be voting at one normal, nearby polling place, its address on the ballot summary.
Election Day, I tried voting in person. I used Alameda County’s online guide to locations, finding two nearby, and went to both; there was nothing at either.
Cut back the barrage of wasted words. Bring back reliable, neighborhood polling places.
Steve Koppman
Oakland
Original Top Gun crew
needs museum funding
Per the May 30 Times, “Top Gun: Maverick” earnings will exceed $150 million on opening weekend and prove to be a hugely successful filmmaking effort (“‘Top Gun: Maverick’ gets top opening of first week,” Page A2, May 30). Then there is the story of the original Top Guns of the U.S. Army in WWII.
This group, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, participated in wartime aeronautical competitions between battalions and received a trophy for their successful efforts. The team, comprising Black aviators, persevered despite horrific racial discrimination to become the Army’s Top Guns. This historical fact, not widely known by many Americans, was subsequently acknowledged by the U.S. Army, which awarded the Airmen with a replica of the original trophy for display in a National Museum.
Fundraising efforts are ongoing and donations are still needed for the completion of this historical museum that will honor both original and surviving members of this elite group.
Vera Henry
Danville
Keep STEM funding
in Innovation Act
Re. “Pushing back against China, US lawmakers plan pro-Taiwan bill” (June 16):
Congress is about to dissect the Bipartisan Innovation Act, with the Senate and House cutting fat (more akin to cutting vital organs) left and right.
One provision included in the bill will bolster semiconductor manufacturers domestically with $52 billion in subsidies. This will create factory jobs, and solve a shortage that has been plaguing car, cell phone and computer companies for the past few years. This part is almost guaranteed to pass.
We must speak up in support of the provisions increasing funding for STEM education — pre-kindergarten all the way to postgraduate level.
We must support the provisions which keep great, educated minds in the United States and away from competitors; with permanent residency for Ph.D.s.
China is set to have three times the number of U.S. Ph.D. graduates by 2025. With a majority of semiconductor manufacturing based in Taiwan, we have no time to lose.
Jordan Gregory
Concord
Politicians should
follow greater good
The philosophical concept of the “greater good” says that an individual, or group, faced with conflicting choices should always decide in favor of the choice that provides the greatest good to the most people.
For example, a U.S. lawmaker who belongs to the U.S. Congress, Republican Party and NRA, and has conflicting priorities occasioned by his membership in these organizations, should always choose the priority that favors the greatest number of people. In other words, he should decide in favor of the people of the United States.
Acting contrary to this principle is to philosophically choose a “lesser evil,” an interesting phrase recognizing the disparity between serving the wider interests of a population, versus the narrower interests of an individual or group.
Peter DeLisi
Fremont
Social media spreads
disinformation too easily
It seems to me that the ease of dissemination of misinformation on all forms of social media is one of the biggest problems we have in this country and abroad.
Rampant gun violence, conspiracy theories, outright falsehoods, hate speech and any other brand of extremist ideology have always existed for as long as humans have. However, now we each have the power to broadcast it to the world with the click of a button on any electronic device, with absolutely no accountability or responsibility for the outcome of such poisonous rhetoric. It’s a shame.
Sharon Dixon
San Leandro
Source: www.mercurynews.com