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Rescind In-N-Out
COVID penalties
I was outraged after reading that In-N-Out Burger was fined $750 by Contra Costa County’s health department for failing to check if customers were completely vaccinated against COVID-19 (“Contra Costa County fines In-N-Out for not checking COVID vaccination status,” Oct. 20).
This rule, in my opinion, is plainly an attempt to discriminate against individuals who do not follow a particular agenda. It is not the responsibility of In-N-Out Burger to inform the public about the need of vaccinations; rather, it is the responsibility of Contra Costa County’s health department.
I urge Anna Roth, director of Contra Costa Health Services, to rescind the penalty and repeal this draconian rule mandating restaurants to ask for proof of vaccination. People have the right to make their own personal decisions about whether or not to get vaccinated, and they are entitled to make their own decisions about which businesses to patronize.
Michael Pan
San Jose
County execs’ ‘hero pay’
should go to more hires
During this time of unprecedented uncertainty, it was heartbreaking to read about the unreasonable COVID-related delays for those Santa Clara County residents seeking marriage licenses to memorialize their love and commitment (“Couples want to get hitched — but there’s a hitch involved,” Page A1, Oct. 27).
Wouldn’t it have been a wonderful demonstration of leadership and intelligence if the County had the foresight to use its millions of dollars from the federal government to hire more workers to mitigate its shortcomings instead of giving themselves hero pay bonuses regardless of each employee’s hero status? Yes, I’m talking to you Dr. Jeff Smith of the Santa Clara County Executive Office.
Julie Bonnel
Sunnyvale
State must do more
to support aging vets
Re. “State’s vets challenge aid-in-dying evictions,” Page A1, Oct. 25:
I am angered after reading about how California veterans are being forced to leave their homes to seek aid in dying.
Veterans have risked their lives to protect and serve our country. We should be giving them affordable housing and government programs to aid in their living and health care costs. California’s End of Life Option Act conflicts with federal law, which leads to Veterans Affairs banning it. This causes fear in California for the loss of millions of dollars in federal funding. Terminally ill veterans have the option to leave, or stay and risk misery.
Is this how to treat those who served our country? How is this humane? California needs to set forth a law that ensures that veterans are provided proper health care and life benefits. Providing veterans with care ensures that California is doing its part to help those who served their country.
Jennifer Salim
San Jose
End housing inequality
to end racism in state
I was surprised after reading the article on how segregated California still is for Black, Hispanic and Asian communities, especially in the Bay Area.
California is one of the most diverse states in the country and also progressive, yet we still struggle with racism and housing inequality for non-White communities. In the study published in the article (“Study lists segregated areas in Bay Area,” Page A1, Oct. 11), Marin County was shown to be the most segregated county in California.
We talk about ending racism and violence toward other communities and showing unity in the face of uncertain times as the world has gone through changes ever since COVID-19 happened. Slowly change has happened, but more needs to be done. Ending housing inequality is perhaps the first step to ending racism and segregation in California and truly making it a diverse state to be proud of.
Paolo Montoya
San Jose
Increase support for
struggling residents
It is truly absurd to learn how bad economic inequality has become in San Mateo County (“San Mateo County has huge food stamp jump,” Page B1, Sept. 6). How do we have the headquarters of Facebook and YouTube while having a third of the residents dedicating more than 30% of their income to rent? And that was a statistic before the pandemic; now we have a grand influx of residents asking for food stamps for the first time.
Rent costs and job loss definitely need to be controlled for the sake of the citizens. If not, food stamps will not be the only problem in the future. Our governor and president must support our community with urgency. A happy citizen should be a well-fed and supported citizen who will not be turned away from receiving food stamps or be burdened with absurd rent costs.
Kirby Phung
Millbrae
Source: www.mercurynews.com