Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
Article balances Oaklandmayor’s happy talk
I am writing in response to Annie Sciacca’s article published on Oct. 6 titled “Schaaf highlights successes — but ignores problems,” (Page A1). As a student majoring in social work and an East Bay resident of nearly two decades, I am particularly interested in this topic. This article demonstrates obvious problems in the city in regards to the social wellbeing of its residents and the political inaction to address it.
Articles of this sort spark the needed discussion on how to address the problems with infrastructure, homelessness and sanitation, and increase awareness to those who can have a major influence. All in all, this article stood out to me as it addressed the many shortcomings in regards to social welfare in the city of Oakland which is rarely touched upon by locals.
Christopher OglePiedmont
College district doesright thing on vaccines
I am in total agreement after reading that schools like Chabot-Las Positas college district and other campuses will be mandating a COVID-19 vaccine with medical or religious exemptions for everyone who is attending in-person classes or campus (“District adopts vaccine mandate,” Page B1, Oct. 9).
In hard times like these of COVID, we all need to be responsible and think not only of ourselves but also for everyone else. We need to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to prevent more people from getting sick and dying. The COVID vaccine helps us be able to get together with our families and spend in-person, quality time and not through Zoom as we would when COVID-19 had just started. Now we’re able to hug each other more confidently than before being protected against COVID.
More people should do the right thing and get vaccinated against it to ensure a healthier and better community.
Maribel GarciaFremont
Despite charges on right,CRT not taught in school
Critical Race Theory is not being taught in our school systems, no matter how often Fox News says it is.
That is because it is an advanced legal theory that seeks to understand complex events, such as understanding how the GI Bill was written in such a way that it didn’t benefit Black soldiers coming back from World War II, and how that affected wealth in those communities. It is not intellectually appropriate for school-aged children.
Letter writer Jay Todesco (“Activist parents are today’s true patriots,” Page A6, Oct. 8) seems to think it’s a Marxist plot that is destroying America. If Jay wants real evidence of people trying to destroy America, I invite him to watch the videos of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Kevin AllenBrentwood
GOP has turned back ondefending democracy
Republican leaders are now accepting “the Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen. Republicans claim to love the original intent of the U.S. Constitution because it laid the foundation of our social order through personal freedom and democracy. In particular, it was democracy which was the very thing that distinguished America from other nations when it was new.
But it is these same Republicans who claim to love America, yet they now refuse to defend democracy.
It is not a democracy when you only accept elections when you win. Republicans can’t claim to love America when they refuse to defend democracy, and in fact, are doing everything they can to end it.
Russ ButtonAlameda
Texas law didn’t pioneercitizen enforcement
An article Oct. 12 by Michael A. Hiltzik (“Impact of Texas anti-abortion law is worse than you thought,” Page A6) states that the new Texas abortion restrictions have a “pioneering feature” and that “the law … places enforcement in the hands of … any private individual.”
This is not a pioneering feature. It has been a preeminent feature of our ADA laws since their inception. An individual can sue any business for ADA infractions in our courts. The infractions are almost impossible to defend against. This costs each defendant tens of thousands of dollars.
This type of (private party) legal approach should be abolished everywhere. Texas took an underhanded but not so novel approach to this issue.
David ThompsonOrinda
Instagram study showsneed for better studies
Re. “Instagram says it’s working on body image issue after report details ‘toxic’ effect on teen girls,” Sept. 15:
Having taught statistics my entire academic career, I believe that I’m in a position to know the differences between valid and invalid experimental designs. Thus, there is no doubt that the initial studies that Facebook did of the effect of Instagram on young girls were incomplete. For one, the sample sizes were too small to justify the claims that the larger population of young girls were similarly at risk.
Nonetheless, as incomplete as they were, they were suggestive and thereby troublesome enough such that they should have set off serious alarm bells. They should have triggered demands for more conclusive studies.
From the get-go, Facebook’s track record has been deplorable. But so is that of those who miss the bigger picture. They are so focused on satisfying the exacting demands of statistical reasoning that they miss the broader demands of social responsibility.
Ian MitroffBerkeley
