Letters: Recall hypocrisy | Power play | Dangerous rhetoric | Relationships with animals | A boost for girls | Eating disorders
East Bay Times Letters to the Editor for April 30, 2021
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Recall campaign is
more GOP hypocrisy
Trump Republicans are running a recall campaign on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s record of mishandling the pandemic. Their problem is they don’t have a leg to stand on.
California currently has the lowest infection rate in the country. Newsom has done a better job than most governors in following the science, making the tough but necessary decisions, and drastically bringing down the infection and death rates.
California is in a good place relative to most states as it restarts schools and opens businesses in a safe way that takes into account the welfare of all residents.
Newsom’s record in leading the state through the pandemic stands in sharp contrast to President Trump’s failure, which was responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Trump Republicans trying to recall Newsom on his pandemic performance is sheer hypocrisy and shows their desperation. Their recall election is a sham.
Tom Tyner
Clovis
Sham recall nothing
more than power play
Coming to a polling place near you, “The Recall.” From the deniers of “The Surge” and “The Surge Two.” Starring the Deniers, singing the same tune for oh so many years. And featuring Caitlin Jenner, the face of the Trump Party and all it represents.
Suspend your belief in your five senses and your common sense. Watch as the 1% continues to rake in your wealth, and homelessness, poverty, and lack of health care, education and food security grow.
Don’t be fooled. This is blatant political power grab that we pay for. Have you ever seen or heard one suggestion by them of how to handle all the problems caused by the pandemic? Waving the flag and screaming personal freedom are not solutions.
Political opinions aside, vote in support of common sense. California is returning to full activity as well as monitoring another potential surge. Remember, COVID doesn’t care. Gov. Gavin Newsom does.
Nancy Thornton
Concord
Waters’ rhetoric little
different than Trump’s
In “I am not new to challenge and confrontation” (Page A13, April 25), Rep. Maxine Waters denies that she was encouraging violence when she stood on a street in front of an angry mob, wearing protective face gear, and telling them “we’ve got to get more confrontational.”
Waters accused Trump of inciting violence on Jan. 6, for doing much the same thing. It appears that Waters’ definition of encouraging violence depends on if she agrees with the cause.
Daniel Mauthe
Livermore
Relationships with
animals need work
This year’s Oscar for best documentary went to Netflix’s trailblazing documentary “My Octopus Teacher.” The documentary chronicles a complex relationship between a man and world’s most bizarre animal — an octopus. It testifies to our conflicted relationship with animals.
Our allegiance to our “pets” transcends that to members of our own species. If our dog and a Congolese child were competing for life-saving surgery, the dog would live.
Yet, we torment, kill and consume other animals who are similar in appearance, intelligence and ability to suffer. Then, we condemn Asians who do the same to animals we consider pets.
We pride ourselves on being intelligent, rational beings. Yet we still have not figured out our relationship with non-human animals.
Some of us have. Vegans profess compassion and respect for all sentient beings. Every one of us can become one on our next trip to our supermarket.
Harold Kunitz
Walnut Creek
Urge support
for Girls LEAD Act
Women remain grossly underrepresented in politics and the pandemic has upended progress made towards girls’ equal access to education. About 743 million girls worldwide have been pushed out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fostering educational opportunities for women and girls will lead to more democratic societies and prevent domestic violence and child marriages.
If passed, the bipartisan Girls LEAD Act would work to identify barriers to women and girls’ political participation within U.S. foreign initiatives and fund and assist civil society organizations led by and focused on girls. This act would uplift the status of women and girls by ensuring their inclusion in politics and education.
I encourage all readers to urge their representatives to support the Girls LEAD Act.
Kaylee DeLand
Livermore
Eating disorders
could be fatal
Eating disorders are some of the deadliest of mental health conditions, killing nearly 10,200 people a year. Also, 95% of the first diagnoses of eating disorders occur between the ages of 12 and 25. Hence, most sufferers tend to be young.
We look upon the children in our society as innocent and in need of protection yet, at the same time, we allow them to die of these treatable conditions. This illustrates society’s failure to address a serious social problem, and placement of a stigma against something we’d rather forget. I have talked to countless individuals who have shared their experiences of disordered eating. This is not a rare issue. It maims and it kills. Yet eating disorders are too taboo to even discuss in certain circumstances.
If your loved one has problems with disordered eating, give their problem the attention it deserves. There could be deadly consequences otherwise.
Charles Chadwick
Los Gatos