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Don’t toss Little League;
get rid of politicians
Closing the Eastridge Little League field is a lead balloon. On July 17, Eastridge Little League will be no more. For 50 years, underserved kids in the community have played ball here. Now Santa Clara County supervisors want to evict these kids for a lead problem at the airport that a county report shows does not exist. And mayoral candidate Cindy Chavez remains steadfast that closing the fields is still the right decision; she is convinced that lead – a heavy metal – has fallen everywhere but the airport.
It isn’t the kids that should be thrown out of the ballpark. It is Cindy Chavez and the other politicians that need to be thrown out of this game. They aren’t looking out for the community; they are looking out for developers.
Michael McDonald
Sunnyvale
As nation regresses,
state should think exit
I cannot agree more with Joe Mathews (“California needs to prepare to secede from the nation,” Page A6, July 1). The United States no longer works for Californians. It was a great idea for a rural nation in the 18th century but is irrelevant to the challenges facing us in the 21st century. As a progressive, I’m so tired of appeals to fund this or that (excellent and well-meaning) person to save red or purple states from themselves when we could be spending the money on a “no-fault-divorce” secession amendment.
Republicans must be salivating over the prospect of a House of Representatives without the overwhelmingly blue California delegation. The degree to which we are under-represented in the Senate is disgraceful: we have 1/85th of a senator for each “Wyoman.”
Seth Neumann
Mountain View
Court gun ruling
sends us backward
Re. “U.S. Supreme Court expands gun rights,” Page A1, June 24:
In the 1993 western film “Tombstone,” Sam Elliot, portraying Virgil Earp, is seen tacking a new city gun ordinance to a post. As an angry crowd gathers, he proclaims, “No one’s saying you can’t own a gun. No one’s saying you can’t carry a gun. You just can’t carry a gun in town.”
It always amazes me how often the lessons of history are forgotten or ignored. If the cowboys in Tombstone had complied, the most famous western shootout at the OK Corral would never have happened.
I don’t think we really want to return to the Wild West of the 1880s.
Barry Hennings
Los Altos
Much evidence exists
to back up Christianity
I was deeply saddened by Mathew Clark’s recent letter attacking religion as “unscientific, irrational, unproven”; “Churches are breeding ground for extreme ideologies”; and “there is no proof of God or afterlife.”(“Religion has too much sway over life in U.S.,” Page A6, June 30)
I try to live a Christian life, and I try to be as thoughtful and caring as I can. I know no book has been as critically examined as the Bible. It lists names, dates, events, rulers and kingdoms, all easily verifiable. There are more written eyewitness accounts of Jesus than of George Washington. Unlike superstition, faith has evidence.
Churches have been unquestionably the leaders in providing for the poor and needy throughout our history. As for evidence of God, I’d start with the fact of existence itself.
Proof, ultimately, is that which convinces you. The overwhelming evidence I find more than convinces me of the truth of Christianity — despite the many failures of people like me.
Norm Smith
Daly City
We need more tools
than gas tax holiday
Re. “Biden calls for federal gas tax holiday,” Page A1, June 23:
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, about $1 of the rise in fuel prices is a result of higher refinery profit margins.
This is because refinery decommissioning in 2020 lowered capacity by about 5%.
As people returned to work this year, refinery utilization climbed back above 90%, creating a situation where fuel use is constrained to match supply due to the high price.
This has two important consequences:
• Cutting the gas tax will increase refiners’ profits rather than lowering gas prices, since consumption has to be limited to match supply.
• If Americans can cut fuel consumption by about 5% for reasons other than sheer unaffordability, we can bring refinery margins back down, and cut $1 off the cost of gas.
The combination of a tire inflation campaign, EVs and efficient new vehicles, bikes and ebikes, carpooling, remote office work normalization, and improved transit utilization can do that.
David Sacerdote
Palo Alto
Source: www.mercurynews.com