Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
Bend has mishandled
increase in traffic
Re: “To see the future of California, look to Oregon” (Page A13, Sept. 10).
Before packing their bags to move to Bend, Ore., Californians need to know that Joe Mathews told us only half the story.
In the course of making a twice-yearly auto trip to my place in Eastern Washington over the past 40 years, I’ve seen how Bend has failed miserably in addressing the increase in traffic. A beltway designed to eliminate traffic on Highway 97 through downtown is clogged with traffic during commute hours because it was constructed with stoplights at cross streets. The section of 97 between Bend and Redmond is a dangerous four-lane highway with no center median, which is jammed with heavy traffic most of the day.
It is great that Bend has constructed a beautiful new high school. However, if I were betting on a liveable future, I’d place my money on Mathew’s hometown of South Pasadena.
Stan Bogosian
Saratoga
Religion is personal,
not public policy
Re: “Bible, and Christians, recognize two genders” (Page A6, Sept. 6).
Why is it that people who call themselves Christian think they have the answers to everything? And why do they focus so much on sex? What they want to live by with their Bible is their business, but another person’s gender (and the ability to change that) is not.
If these people would spend more time on bringing about world peace, helping improve the climate, controlling crime and rendering aid to those in need, the world would be a much better place. And they should keep their religious beliefs to themselves where they belong.
Katie Dent
Sunnyvale
Hormones, not DNA,
influence gender
Re: “Bible, and Christians, recognize two genders” (Page A6, Sept. 6).
Thomas Watson puzzles about gender identity: “Who gets to make up all these new rules? Does DNA not mean anything anymore?”
Scientific knowledge keeps growing and increasing our understanding of our bodies. Do a Google search on “prenatal endocrine influences on sexual orientation” and you will find hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles supporting the fetal hormonal theory of sexuality and gender identity — the hormonal “flooding” that occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy.
It’s not the DNA — it’s the hormones.
Bill Charleston
Campbell
Local legislators should
oppose EATS act
The Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act (EATS) was introduced in Congress in June. EATS is a direct response to California’s Proposition 12, which bans cruel factory farming practices, including cage confinement of egg-laying chickens and mother pigs. The EATS Act would repeal state and local laws that protect farm animals, farmworkers, consumers and the environment.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says “California’s Proposition 12 is going to hurt the economy of Iowa, which is number one in pork production. Because we farm differently than the eggheads of California think we ought to run our animal agriculture, we can’t sell our product there.”
Sen. Grassley and others don’t want California to tell them how to farm. Let’s not let them tell us what to eat or how to treat our livestock.
Contact Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla Urge them to make sure the EATS Act is not included in the 2023 Farm Bill.
Judith Hurley
San Jose
Article distracts from
deeper issues with China
Re: “Developer allegedly proposes China as partner in building huge $2.8B dam” (Page A1, Aug. 26)
Shocked and pleased to see some coverage of something having a link to international relations under the rubric of the oddball proposal for a farcical Chinese-funded dam project for Santa Clara Valley Water District that would never happen given the current state of U.S.-China relations.
Alas, as an expert on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), I regret to highlight that the commentary on the BRI in the piece is hyperbolic, inaccurate and selectively biased. There are a lot of problems with the BRI as well as China in infrastructure, but the superficial treatment of these themes in the article distracts from the key issue of how the SCVWD project (whatever its merits) will be funded as well as larger issues of the supposed economic and political benefits and risks of having foreign entities (friendly or not) involved in California infrastructure as funders, investors and contractors.
Jean-Marc Blanchard
Los Gatos
Pharmaceutical firms
research spending lags
Re: “Cutting pharmaceutical profits will cut research” (Page A12, Sept. 10).
All those who worry that lowering drug prices will hinder research should know this: In the past decade, Big Pharma has spent more money on stock buy-backs than on research and development.
There is something wrong about a $100 drug in Canada costing $500 in the United States, where it was made.
Carmi Brandis
San Jose
Source: www.mercurynews.com