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DA Price is right
to focus on reform
On Oct. 26, I attended a gathering in San Leandro to learn more about Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.
She answered my question and said she believed in rehabilitation. When I ask people it seems few others do. Even if the odds are against success, a society that does not put energy into reform is doomed.
I believe that Price has empathy and her mantra should be to prosecute with rehabilitation in mind.
Steven Morjig
Castro Valley
Don’t forsake smaller
members of ecosystem
Re: “Threats against the world’s amphibians are increasing” (Page A2, Oct. 5).
It is incredibly disheartening to hear about the wide-scale endangerment of amphibian species across the globe. However, it is equally disheartening how often insects’ role in this equation is left out.
Along with the factors mentioned in this article that threaten amphibians, one of the most often overlooked is the rapid decrease in insect populations globally. Insects make up a large majority of amphibians’ diets, and 40% of all insect species are declining worldwide, with a third of them now endangered. Lack of access to key food sources in their food webs is another component contributing to amphibians’ vulnerability.
Addressing the root causes of climate issues and species loss is pivotal in combating them. We should not overlook the smaller, and often forgotten, members of our ecosystems that support our larger and more admired species.
Sara Giretto
San Leandro
Buck, Romney say what
many think of MAGA
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colorado, recently announced his decision to not run for a sixth term in 2024. The reasons he gave include his party’s election denialism and many GOP members’ refusal to condemn the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.
He said, “We (GOP) lost our way. We have an identity crisis in the Republican Party. If we can’t address the election denier issue and continue down that path, we won’t have credibility with the American people that we are going to solve problems.”
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, also not seeking reelection, has said, “The Trump wing of the party (GOP) talks about resentments of various kinds and getting even and settling scores and revisiting the 2020 election.”
Thank you Rep. Buck and Sen. Romney for having spines and saying what so many Democrats, Republicans and independents are thinking.
Barry Brynjulson
San Ramon
Moneyed interests guide
gun control debate
I read a lot about the Second Amendment granting everyone the right to own a “gun” but never read anything about the Declaration of Independence declaring the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for all. In 2021 48,830 people in the United States, men, women and children, were killed by guns. So what happened to their right to live?
Also in the Second Amendment, there is no mention of guns. The term used instead is arms, so if you apply the reasoning of gun advocates, primarily the gun manufacturers and the NRA, all citizens should have the right to own arms which from my military experience could include Stinger surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and so on. It appears that we are letting the money mongers influence our decision-making, and I’m not sure that is what the general public wants.
Jerry Marsh
Rio Vista
Source: www.mercurynews.com