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MTC spending must
be accountable
Re: “MTC commingles voter-approved bridge toll funds” (Page A8, Dec. 8).
Thank you for shining a light on MTC, which muddles money to peddle self-serving influence with local jurisdictions on the backs of toll bridge users. It is outrageous that since the completion of the seismic retrofit and the new Bay Bridge, MTC has increased tolls but has not used more of the tolls to pay for the maintenance and preservation of the bridges.
How much does MTC collect and spend yearly on bridge maintenance versus on its administration, transit and other projects away from the bridges? Now MTC wants to hike tolls again to $10.50. It must first answer how it has been spending the existing money and commit to a responsible expenditure plan.
We and the media must hold MTC accountable for how it spends toll money from bridge users who have few alternatives to avoid the bridges.
Anh Do
Fremont
Diesel-train sale makes
environmental sense
Re: “South Bay state senator proposes to bar resale of diesel-powered trains” (Dec. 9).
I cannot believe that state Sen. Dave Cortese of San Jose actually introduced Senate Bill 30 to prohibit Caltrain from selling any of its used, out-of-service diesel locomotives to Lima, Peru. Hurray for Caltrain for potentially recovering some of its long-spent capital funds. The senator is right in that these diesels would probably produce the same amount of air pollution there as they did here. What did these diesel locomotives produce while in service along the Peninsula?
They encouraged people to ride Caltrain, saving thousands of tons of pollution generated by single- and double-occupancy automobiles traveling to the same destinations on a daily or one-time basis. Thus, this sale will continue to reduce air pollution in their new home, stretching the value of our spent taxpayer dollars, which will, in part, return home for further pollution-saving investments.
Douglas P. Sibley
Martinez
Lessons on atomic
bombs are out there
Re: “We must educate Americans about atomic bombs” (Page A7, Nov. 14).
Karin Tanabe and Victoria Kelly state there is a lack of images of victims of the atomic bombings in Japan. This is not correct.
In the 1956 book “Medical Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan,” edited by Ashley W. Owghterson, there are photos of burn victims and patients with baldness and skin lesions from the fatal burst of ionizing radiation at the instant of the explosions. The 1956 book “The Atomic Bomb: A Photographic Record,” edited by Shinshicho-Sha, has many photos of similarly injured people and animals, as well as a closer photo of the Urakami Catholic Church in Nagasaki than the one in the newspaper opinion article. This latter book is in storage at the UC Berkeley Library. The same book mentions the “HUMAN AGONY” (one doctor’s emphasis) of the victims.
Steven (Paul) Raymond
San Leandro
McConnell had chance
to stop Trump assault
Re: “Gabbard is Trump pick most likely to fail” (Page A9, Dec. 8).
Tulsi Gabbard, like almost all of Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, is totally unqualified to serve the position he has selected her for, the National Intelligence Director.
However, what really gets me is Mitch McConnell criticizing Trump’s and Gabbard’s views on national and global security. McConnell could have prevented all this in 2021 by voting to convict Trump in the Senate for his impeachment by the House due to Trump’s major role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Isn’t Jan. 6 an attack on our national and global security?
Rocky Fort
San Lorenzo
Honoring Pearl Harbor
attack seems to fade
Re: “2 survivors return to honor those killed in 1941 attack” (Page A3, Dec. 8).
I was pleased to see the lengthy article on Pearl Harbor survivors and the annual observance in the Sunday paper. My Oakland Cub Scout Cubmaster of 1953-55 was a Pearl Harbor survivor and we spoke about that in the 1980s. Having been born shortly before the end of World War II, and growing up with “Victory at Sea,” mothballed warships and adults with fresh memories of the war years, I am likely more aware of that era than many other persons.
On Saturday, Dec. 7, I put out my flag and saw only one other flag prominently displayed on my street of nearly three dozen homes. Dec. 7 isn’t a national holiday, but it is a day that should still “Live in Infamy” but seems to be increasingly ignored.
Is this lack of respectful display due to a general lack of patriotism or a lack of having learned much history, or both?
Russ Greenlaw
Livermore
Source: www.mercurynews.com