Letters: Homeless response | Technology’s promise | District 16 recount | Class warfare | Sour season | Tighter rules
Mercury News Letters to the Editor for April 17, 2024
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City leaders must step
up homeless response
Re: “San Jose unable to track its homeless spending” (Page A1, April 13).
A woman I know cooks and packs meals for people living on the streets of her area in San Jose. Out of the kindness of our hearts and love for our community, many citizens go out of their way to help support those struggling with basic living necessities.
We need our local government and nonprofit providers to effectively allocate funds for homeless programs to help people out of encampments, move off the streets, and find permanent housing. Across San Jose, we see groups of unhoused residents by the freeways and tucked behind buildings, people moving from one temporary housing facility to another with unrealistic living conditions.
We need our mayor to work more closely with our nonprofit providers and to be on top of properly doing our best to help those in need, so we are effectively funding this economic problem that has been going on for too long.
Claire Lee
San Jose
Technology offers
best hope for future
Re: “EVs, other gimmicks aren’t climate panacea” (Page A8, April 14).
I can agree with Anthony Stegman’s hypothesis that EVs, solar panels, etc., are not a panacea for our Earth. However, humankind has produced technological miracles many, many times to permit mankind to exceed Malthusian predictions on population limits.
Man has moved from hunter-gatherer to farmer to extremely diverse societies; learning to make bronze, then iron tools, to improve transportation from walking to beasts of burden to internal combustion engines to, yes, electric vehicles, and to evolve electrical production from coal and oil to gas and nuclear to water and wind, and now to capture solar energy on every building.
We will run into a hard limit (food, water and oxygen are finite), but we can continue to develop technologies that permit us to maintain and improve our standard of living, ideally, everywhere.
George Licina
Santa Rosa
District 16 recount
doesn’t serve voters
Elections officials are recounting votes in the tie between Supervisor Joe Simitian and Assemblymember Evan Low in the 16th Congressional District race.
Jonathan Padilla, who does not live in the 16th District and cannot vote in the election, requested the recount. His preferred candidate, Sam Liccardo, also does not live in the 16th District and therefore cannot even vote for himself.
Padilla donated $1,000 to Liccardo’s campaign and was Liccardo’s finance director in his mayoral campaign.
Padilla requested the recount “on behalf of Evan Low,” but Low opposes it, calling it “disingenuous” and “cynical.”
The public does not know whether Padilla, or some wealthy benefactor on his behalf, will pay the enormous cost of the recount.
I voted for Simitian, who may be removed from the November ballot.
The truly aggrieved are those of us who will be denied the opportunity to vote for our preferred candidate.
Lucas Ramirez
Mountain View
GOP will usher in
crushing class warfare
The class war is about to get much worse.
If Trump is elected, right-wing think tanks (licking their lips over the chance to turn back a hundred years of progress) will be able to implement their plans and crush the hard-earned rights of workers.
Unions, worker safety laws, and even minimum wage laws will all be on the chopping block (not to mention Social Security and Medicare).
And forget about clean water for workers to drink and clean air to breathe.
Profits at the largest corporations will surge and the oligarchs’ wallets will swell to bursting, but the average worker will be struggling to eat and not die in a Dickensian workplace brought to you by the GOP.
Ed Taub
Mountain View
Trump’s lies have
soured political season
There are lots of unresolved issues in our world today causing negativity and multiple wars. Why? My personal opinion is that many are talking and few are listening.
In this political season, I would normally look forward to the debates, but if they do happen this year, I may skip them. One of the persons who would take part in such an event has demonstrated an inability to debate, either refusing to adhere to debate rules or perhaps being unable to comprehend what a debate is (respectfully presenting one’s views and respectfully listening to the views of the other person).
He is practicing with his tirades against those involved in his current court cases. He is not defending himself but trashing others and showing, vividly, that he isn’t interested in truth or accuracy but wants to sabotage our system and deny the truth.
Lura Halbert
Los Gatos
Tighter rules needed
to preserve environment
Re: “Administration raises the price to drill, mine on public lands” (Page A5, April 13).
Every day, oil and gas companies drill on public lands with little regard for the environmental destruction they leave behind. Despite the recent increase in drilling prices by President Biden, this measure alone is insufficient to significantly reduce drilling in crucial areas.
We need a comprehensive solution that fully protects our vulnerable ecosystems and wildlife. I propose a ban on all drilling in areas critical to wildlife and the environment. By implementing stricter regulations and enforcing them rigorously, we can ensure that these vital lands are preserved. Imagine our forests, plains and wetlands thriving once again, with ecosystems restored and wildlife populations rebounding. This is the future we can create with strong, decisive action.
I urge policymakers to implement and enforce tougher regulations now. We must take action now to safeguard our environment for today’s communities and future generations.
Enya Navarro
Gilroy