Letters: Population problem | Preserve reform | Vaccines best defense | Blow to community | Extremism in Texas | Wrong target
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Population, not housing,
is what ails Bay Area
Is Matt Regan shilling for drywall and paving contractors? (“Reject Bay Area cities’ appeals to shirk housing obligations,” Page A6, Sept. 8) We have no “obligation” to provide evermore housing. There’s a glut of housing in the Bay Area if we allow the population to decline to saner levels. There are about 39.5 million people in California, a third of a billion in the United States, nearly 8 billion globally.
Regan wants more traffic and more noise.
Light pollution interrupts human circadian rhythm, and is a risk factor for breast cancer in women.
Why should we taxpayers underwrite those wanting to have more than one child or none, who should adopt if more are wanted? What is this “obligation” Regan mentions?
GNP per capita has risen in nations with declining birth rates.
Mike Scott
Walnut Creek
COVID-19 likely here
to stay; vaccines, too
Since the CDC has recently confirmed that the first case of COVID-19 in the United States was identified in January of 2020, we’ve been living — and dying — with this virus for more than 18 months. We say the Spanish Flu of 1918 lasted approximately 22 months, but, in fact, it continued to impact the health of Americans for another 100 years — and is still with us. It did become less lethal as the pandemic carried on, but over the years as it continuously mutated, it has now become one contributor to our seasonal flu.
So, your yearly flu shot is formulated to combat the descendants of that 1918 virus. Will this be the fate of COVID-19? Will it always be with us? Maybe, probably, but we do have the capability to defend ourselves from these attacks — if we can accept the help of outside resources. And we have those resources. Please, let’s use them.
Phil Gottlieb
Walnut Creek
Theft of rail line’s sign
hurts community
A recent act of vandalism occurred on the all-volunteer, nonprofit Niles Canyon Railway last Thursday or Friday just east of Sunol where a recently installed railway station sign saying “BONITA” was cut down and hauled away.
The sign was 100% furnished and installed by volunteers. Apparently, someone wanted the sign in their garage or backyard as the word bonita in Spanish means beautiful.
It is amazing that someone would take the time in plain sight of the I-680 freeway and Pleasanton-Sunol Road to cut down the sign which was made of redwood. The sign also represented the site of a flag stop on the original railroad line through Niles Canyon.
The sign was for the benefit of the public and the local community. It sure would be nice to have it back.
Michael Strider
Sunol
Texas extremism reminds
one of Taliban rule
In a country founded on the separation of church and state, we now have Christian extremists in Texas enforcing a draconian anti-abortion law that invades a woman’s right to privacy, denies her the right to reproductive health and self-determination, and puts her in danger of being a victim of hate crimes against women. Other Republican states are planning similar laws against women as those passed in Texas.
The Texas Taliban, aka the Texas Legislature, is ruling against women in ways similar to extremist Muslims. And with the apparent blessing of the Supreme Court.
Jeanne Kinkella
San Leandro
Column’s Biden critique
targets wrong president
Re. “Biden should not set foot at Ground Zero,” Page A7 Sept. 9:
Is Marc Thiessen really that ignorant? No, he is purposely pushing falsehoods on his readers. Thiessen should know that it was Donald Trump who brokered the so-called “surrender to the enemy” deal and withdrew the troops he is blaming President Biden for. Biden didn’t withdraw any troops until the Aug. 31 withdrawal.
Thiessen’s claim that Biden turned down an offer to have American soldiers secure Kabul during the evacuation does not consider that it would have required an escalation of a situation we wanted out of and could be seen as a trick to get America to do so, leaving U.S. troops surrounded by the Taliban and making them a tempting target for ISIS and al Qaeda.
There was, indeed, a military justification for Biden’s final withdrawal – because our soldiers were in harm’s way. The thirteen Marines killed proves he was right.
Frank Grygus
San Ramon