Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
San Jose’s pick for
tiny homes is all wrong
The city of San Jose is intent on building a “tiny homes” project in my Berryessa neighborhood. (“San Jose approves new tiny homes sites,” Page B1, June 23)
Homelessness is a vexing problem needing much attention, but this particular site is a disaster for multiple reasons: It sits adjacent to an elementary and a middle school, a day care and a well-used library; it’s in the middle of a popular recreational area that also serves to percolate Penitencia Creek water into the valley’s groundwater aquifer; and, the site is far from transit and the many services needed by the homeless.
Considering these flagrant flaws, the city voted down the site in 2018, but recently reversed course. Nothing has changed between 2018 and 2022. While city and state leaders get to pad their résumés, it’s at the expense of large, long-term, negative social and financial impacts to taxpayers and the neighborhood where the project is being force-fit.
Tom Wilson
San Jose
When Giants honor
flag, fan will return
Re. “Kapler’s actions are a betrayal of nation,” Page A6, June 30:
First, I want to thank Richard Klokow for his service to our country and his explicit comments regarding Gabe Kapler’s disrespectful actions against the U.S. flag.
Second, not honoring our flag is disrespectful to our military and country. My uncles and my husband’s uncles served in the military. I appreciate the men and women who have sacrificed their lives so that all can enjoy freedom. I was a San Francisco Giants fan for more than 40 years. My closet is full of Giants sweatshirts, jackets, jewelry, etc. I will not wear them and will not watch their games until the Giants can honor and appreciate the U.S. flag.
There is nothing patriotic about not standing during the national anthem. God bless the red, white and blue.
Karen Ferrante
San Jose
Manchin owned
by oil, gas industry
Now that Sen. Joe Manchin has once again crushed any chance to fight climate destruction, perhaps the media can assure his legacy by giving credit where credit is due. Start naming every extraordinary hurricane, tornado, flood and drought event as “Hurricane Manchin I,II,III …”
Of course, every Republican senator is equally responsible, but Manchin has taken more money from the oil and gas industry than any other member of Congress, so he deserves special attribution.
Irv Brenner
Palo Alto
Hydrogen could lead
way to green energy
The only way to reduce fossil fuel use is to make green energy less expensive. Hydrogen looks to be a real possibility for this. It can be made with solar and wind and stored inexpensively to eliminate expensive batteries.
The Saudis have already formed a private hydrogen venture with the Germans, Southern California Edison is converting a fossil fuel plant to hydrogen, Siemens is developing a turbine to use hydrogen and here in Silicon Valley Bloom Energy is advancing the use of zero-emission hydrogen energy.
Just as the private sector developed the COVID vaccine, it’s now in a race to find a cheaper form of green energy to replace fossil fuels. Government can help finance all of the above but should not pick any winners.
Ed Kahl
Woodside
Other measures fail
with so many guns
I’m sorry, it is the guns.
It’s military-style weapons legally available to the general public. It is weapons whose sole purpose is to tear up a human body. That is what needs addressing.
Have all the programs you want to address the mental health issues for some young adult males and “hardening” of schools, churches, grocery stores and parade routes. But until you take away the right of men to purchase scores of guns and ammunition, mass casualty shootings won’t end.
It’s easy to take constitutional rights away.The Supreme Court just did it to women.
Beth Howard-Pitney
Cupertino
Trump is all the things
that Reagan was not
Re. “Donald Trump aides left speechless by Cassidy Hutchinson testimony,” June 29:
Cassidy Hutchinson’s Jan. 6 testimony revealed Donald Trump has no integrity, decency or selflessness. Trump was ruthless and wildly impulsive. Another human’s life, former Vice President Mike Pence and others, could be sacrificed for his insatiable greed.
President Ronald Reagan, whose politics were not mine, demonstrated enormous constraint and thoughtfulness at critical moments. During his presidency an unfortunate pair of navigation and communication errors caused a civilian airliner to wander into Soviet air space. It was shot down and several hundred innocent lives were lost. There was a cry for military action, but Reagan remained calm and waited until the situation was well understood by our intelligence community. This was not an act of war, but one of drastically ill-fated errors.
Reagan demonstrated thoughtfulness when he discarded his initial beliefs that the Soviets were “an evil empire” as he negotiated arms reduction with Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev.
Gary Latshaw
Cupertino
Source: www.mercurynews.com