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How long before we
demand gun control?
Re. “Local controls help slow epidemic levels of gun violence,” Page A6, Jan. 25:
Sally Lieber’s oped of Jan. 25 should cut deep at those elected leaders who failed repeatedly to pass sensible gun sanity legislation. Their failure of will mirrors the failure of most of their constituents to demand better.
The mass shootings remain a mere symptom of the toxic expectations each of our cultures invokes while failing to prioritize the wisdom of our greatest moral advisors, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Mohammed, Hillel and the rest. It’s no surprise the inequity we allow fosters a desperation that leads to violence.
One wonders how intolerable must the unjust structure (that predatory capitalism uses to enslave us) reach before we find the will, like the Mom’s 4 Housing moms found yesterday at the Alameda County Supervisors meeting, to resist the inaction of our governmental bodies at so many levels.
Dennis Fagaly
Oakland
System keeps workers
yoked to bad jobs
Re. “Diversity coach sees dip in demand,” Page B15, Jan. 22:
The person trying to get a hold of being less “needed” for services, paid services, has not learned what all students should have the opportunity to learn; capitalism is a criminal act perpetrated on the masses in favor of our owners making a profit off our existence, our servitude, actually enslavement. We are contained by our owners’ lawmakers.
Marx commented that an aspect of capitalism is that it regularly pulls the rug — of security if we gain any — out from under us. We are not to feel secure. That’s a strength we’re not allowed.
Our work — our jobs — are not related to our lives or our personal well-being. Instead, they make — keep — our owners wealthy, taking the profit one way and another. One way, especially, is debt. We don’t get paid enough so we are put into debt.
Norma J. F. Harrison
Berkeley
‘Debt scolds’ are
right to criticize
Regarding “Let’s not do it again — don’t feed the debt scolds” (Page A7, Jan. 25), Paul Krugman points out that Republicans were warning of the U.S. spending too much money in 2011 and are doing so now.
However, the debt in 2011 was less than half of the debt today. I suspect that Krugman would require an offer of a significantly higher interest rate in order to lend his own money to an entity that was in twice the debt.
While the United States may be able to print virtually unlimited amounts of money, its lenders risk the possibility that repayments may only be in currency fit for playing Monopoly.
Daniel Mauthe
Livermore
Amazon should get rid
of plastic packaging
Amazon makes an average of $14,900 every second. Yet in 2021, they produced 709 pounds of plastic waste. Their net worth is nearing $1 trillion yet they continue to pollute our oceans with their excessive use of plastics.
Having been a consumer of Amazon, I enjoy the convenience of quick shipping, until I see the unnecessary layers of packaging for the single item I purchased. According to Oceana, “Amazon’s estimated plastic packaging waste, in the form of air pillows alone, would circle the Earth more than 600 times,” which raises the question: Why doesn’t Amazon find more sustainable alternatives to plastic?
With their daily revenue, the small cost of purchasing these more sustainable alternatives would hardly make a difference in their overall revenue. As a society, it is important that we pressure Amazon to be mindful of its impact on our environment.
Nataly Villasenor
Sacramento
Voters missed memo
on Georgia suppression
In March 2021, the Georgia State Legislature passed the Election Integrity Act, which restricted where ballot boxes were placed and required voters wanting an absentee ballot to present their identification while extending voting periods to weekends and expanding the hours polls were open. Immediately, gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams called the Act a “form of voter suppression.” President Biden called the new law “Jim Crow in the 21st Century.”
Apparently, Georgia voters didn’t get that message. Before the election, voters broke the state early voting record, with an all-time high number of ballots cast.
Now, the University of Georgia has completed a post-election poll, and zero percent of Black Georgians reported any trouble voting. The poll, by the University’s School of Public and International Affairs, also asked Black voters about their voting experience. More than 94% were confident their vote counted as intended, and zero reported having a poor voting experience.
Mike Heller
Walnut Creek
Source: www.mercurynews.com