Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
In times of need,
make a difference
It’s been no secret that all prices have been skyrocketing: gas, electricity bills and groceries. Many are struggling to make ends meet during this arduous time, and the high prices on basic necessities — such as eggs and vegetables — aren’t helping.
This is why our student-run, non-profit organization decided to host a local food drive. We contacted a local pantry, found a location and spread the word in our community through flyers and social media. On the day of the food drive collection, we received a variety of donations, each one making a change.
Beyond helping those in need, another primary purpose of this food drive was to inspire: We hope that more young teenagers can use their voices to make a change in our community. Some of us are more fortunate than others, and even with small changes, some donations, and a few food drives, we can help more than we think.
Chloe Lou
San Jose
County picks up baton
of ecology education
No education is complete without learning about ecology — all students should have access and exposure to it. That’s why the Santa Clara County Board of Education has been at the forefront of holistic immersion in nature, climate science and other environmental issues.
Building on its green legacy, the Board unanimously approved a resolution I requested supporting environmental literacy, sustainability education and climate action. We collaborated to launch the Climate Action Week Educator Guide to illuminate issues of greening school campuses.
To build on the work of the county office’s environmental education Walden West school, our Growing Gardens project to support nature-based learning and our newly-formed Environmental Literacy Leadership Collaborative, the Office of Education partnered with the County Office of Sustainability and Our City Forest to plant trees across schools.
We hosted our first Annual Environmental Literacy Summit to provide students, teachers, and administrators with a space to strengthen environmental literacy.
Tara Sreekrishnan
Trustee, Santa Clara County Board of Education
Cupertino
Big Tech must
clean up its messes
Re. “Big Tech lost its way. How can it recover?” Page A7, Jan. 6:
Roger McNamee is correct in his op-ed “Big tech has lost its way” in asserting that “failing to regulate tech leads to catastrophic harm.” But as his time frame starts only in 2000, he misses the harm done by the “clean” high-tech industry starting in the 1970s a) to the health of its workforce – predominantly women of child-bearing age – and their offspring and b) by the toxics discharged into our groundwater and air. These impacts spread rapidly as the industry expanded globally.
With the return of semiconductors to the United States under the CHIPS Act, significant, pro-active regulation of toxics use, protection of worker health and rigorous environmental stewardship are essential, yet the CHIPs Act has no such provisions.
It is now up to policymakers and voters to push needed changes forward.
Amanda Hawes
San Jose
Hamlin incident gives
life to new conspiracy
I am very grateful that Damar Hamlin survived what appeared to be a situation that looked horrible, and appeared to recover with full cognition.
Too bad for Qanon supporters that their insane assertion that Hamlin’s injury was associated with some bizarre and undocumented and unknown effect of the life-saving COVID-19 vaccine got blown up by facts. Sad.
Isn’t it terrible to rejoice in life? The spaceship to your planet leaves in 45 minutes.
George Licina
Santa Rosa
Source: www.mercurynews.com