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Media should not
embolden protesters
Re: “Hundreds stop traffic on Bay Area freeways” (Page A1, April 16).
The press has the power to end protests that block major roads, add to pollution and create hardships for so many.
Just cover the facts that a group of individuals blocked a road or intersection but do not identify the group or their cause in either the text or images.
Dennis Mockel
Oakland
‘Just desserts’ for
those blocking traffic
Re: “‘Disentanglement team’ removes protesters” (Page A1, April 17).
May I propose a “just desserts” response to people who use their bodies, concrete, rebar and cylinder pipes to block freeways? Why try to free them? Waste of time and resources.
Pick them and the contraption up and move them to an area away from the freeway, cite them and leave. If it is in a bad area, so much the better.
Larry Bieber
Castro Valley
Story highlights insanity
of Bay Area housing
Re: “With a baby due in July, a South Bay couple searches for their first home” (Page A1, April 15).
While I welcome the story about the nice young couple who are expecting a baby and are, somehow, able to buy a $1.6 million home near “good” schools, I do think that the story points out the basic absurdity of the current home sales market in the Bay Area. Where did the down payment of $320,000 for the home come from? Who will be paying the total mortgage payments plus property taxes of more than $10,000 per month? Is anyone else to be on the title for the property?
None of the above questions were answered in the story, nor was the absurdity of how few households in the Bay Area, surely less than 10 percent, would be able to buy that house. Another absurdity is that a large percentage of Bay Area homeowners are now living in homes that they could not afford to buy again.
George Fulmore
Emeryville
Column takes fanciful
view of Mideast milieu
Re: “Israel shouldn’t follow Iran’s big mistake” (Page A7, April 16).
Thomas L. Friedman’s article is spectacular in its absurdity.
He writes that we need countries like China finally stepping up. Unlike every Middle Eastern scholar in the world, he doesn’t seem to know that China is an ally of Iran and would never do what he is suggesting. He writes that “Without a U.S. led global initiative to impose sanctions on Iran and further isolate it on the world stage, Iran’s behavior would be tacitly normalized.” But because of the Biden administration’s unwillingness to enforce existing sanctions, Iran’s behavior has already been normalized.
I agree that regime change in Iran is necessary to bring about peace in the Middle East, but that will only come about if there is regime change here in the United States.
Bill McGregor
Berkeley
Source: www.mercurynews.com