Letters: Football option | Wages over tips | Verify Trump
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High school football
can fill college void
What happened to the student-athlete of my generation? Today college football is almost unrecognizable.
Commercials get more playing time than the players do. Is it holding, or pass interference? The guy in the striped shirt can make that call on every play but can make the wrong call. How much is offered to a kid to switch teams? An undefeated team this year lost by 60 points because two dozen players opted out due to the transfer portal, NIL or the NFL draft.
The real student-athlete got free tuition, was a hero on campus, played the game he loved, and may have had the four years of his life — no big cars or jewelry in the locker room. The game meant more than money.
Next year check out your local high school teams. Hard work, solid GPAs, good seats, affordable prices, no travel and something to feel good about.
Bill Chestnut
San Ramon
Instead of tips, workers
should receive fair wage
Re: “Americans are torn about the new culture of tipping” (Page A6, Dec. 14).
It’s ridiculous that everywhere you are asked for a tip. Even the tamale lady has a tip jar. I stopped tipping completely unless I’ve known my server, barista or bartender for a long time and somehow they know a little about me and vice versa.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I went to a Starbucks and, of course, I was asked to tip on the debit card machine. I marked zero and the lady’s face was not happy about it. They delayed my order to the point that I asked to talk to the manager.
I worked as a delivery driver when I was young and never expected to get a tip. All business employees asking for tips should ask their employers to pay fair wages and not depend on those of us who work hard for our money to spend it on tips.
Juan Lores
Richmond
With Trump, verify
everything he says
Re: “Trump claims ignorance about Hitler comparisons” Page A3, Dec. 28).
It should be obvious to every responsible journalist that anything the loser of the 2020 election says ought to be fact-checked. The number of Donald Trump’s documented lies while president exceeds 30,000. By printing the AP story (“Trump claims ignorance about Hitler comparisons”) without doubting Trump’s word, the editors lend credence to his claim of ignorance.
While Trump is undoubtedly ignorant about many things a president ought to know, Hitler’s speeches would not be on that list. Vanity Fair magazine reported in September 1990 that ex-wife Ivana Trump told her lawyer that Donald “reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, ‘My New Order,’ which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.”
Trump certainly knows he lifted Hitler’s vile language into his recent campaign speeches. He was following the example of a master propagandist and genocidal ogre.
Editors who republish AP stories need to fact-check that source as well.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont