Letters: Public safety | Argument fails | True patriots | Honor constituents | Personal freedom | Truth threatened

East Bay Times Letters to the Editor for Oct. 8, 2021

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Vaccine mandate may
harm public safety

Vaccine mandates may actually impair public safety if mandates drive out police officers or firefighters who decline vaccines and are fired, retire or quit.

Millions of Californians including tens of thousands of police and firefighters are now reasonably concerned about the long-term safety of vaccines produced at “warp speed” and rushed to our bodies. Many are also concerned about the invasion of personal privacy that mandates would impose.

There are reasonable alternatives to a vaccine mandate. We now have reliable “instant result” tests that can ensure workers do not carry the virus. Since even those already vaccinated can infect others, all first responders probably should routinely be tested anyway. We need not drive out the experienced cops and firefighters we need to protect us in the crisis.

Dick Elder
Concord

Activist parents are
today’s true patriots

In “Attacks on school boards are a threat to our democracy,” (Page A12, Oct. 3) writer Louis Freedberg whines about parents showing up at school board meetings to protest Critical Race Theory, mask mandates and vaccine mandates. To me, these parents are heroes. They are the true patriots of our time.

CRT is a Marxist cancer whose goal is to break up the family unit, indoctrinate our young and divide and eventually destroy America. Marxists just cant stand freedom and liberty.

This cancer is everywhere, especially in our school systems. The pandemic, however, has allowed parents to enter the virtual classroom and see for themselves the travesty that is taking place. Parents want education, not Marxist indoctrination, and they are rising up to fight it.

These parents should be heralded and encouraged, not attacked. School boards that promulgate Marxism and people like Louis Freedberg are the real threats to our democracy.

Jay Todesco
Concord

Representative should be
responsive to constituents

I like Rep. Eric Swalwell. I’ve always voted for him and donated to his campaigns.

But I don’t like being ignored. At a town hall in August, I asked him if he would make a public statement urging President Biden to come out against the filibuster; Swalwell said yes. I’ve had numerous calls and left messages with his staff, but still no statement.

Then there was a disturbing vote he recently made on an amendment to a bill that would restrict the transfer of military equipment, like grenade launchers, to police. Eric joined almost every Republican in voting down this amendment. I asked his communications director for an explanation about this vote and the statement on the filibuster. She said I’d hear back before the end of last week. Crickets so far – hence, this letter. I still like Swalwell,  but I expect accountability from my elected officials.

Ward Kanowsky
Pleasanton

‘Personal freedom’ argument
is dishonest and dangerous

Donald Trump was declaring the California election rigged, even before the polls closed, and still pushed the big lie. This is getting old. If he has no faith in democratic elections, maybe he should try to take over the government by a militaristic coup. Oh, wait, he has.

If the Trumpers had policies that benefited a majority of people, maybe they could actually get some votes. They demand a free choice on wearing masks but want to deny a rape victim an abortion. We don’t want a right-wing dictator telling us what he wants.

The “personal freedom” they demand applies to all of us. However, the right to public health must have priority over the inconvenience of a mask. By refusing the vaccine and masks, people prolong the pandemic, which gives it even more time to develop variants and further delays business as usual. How selfish.

Jim Cauble
Hayward

‘Stop the Steal’ movement
threatens truth, democracy

Re. “‘Stop the Steal’ movement races forward,” Page A1, Sept. 26:

The so-called “audit” of votes in Arizona’s largest county was fraught with fraudulent failings from the beginning. A partisan band of Republican legislators commissioned it after three legitimate audits, by duly-appointed professionals, had confirmed President Biden’s victory. It was run by a self-proclaimed Trump-supporter with no experience conducting vote audits, and it operated under shoddy, inconsistent and somewhat secretive rules. Nevertheless, even the cyber-ninjas were unable to justify Trump’s lies about losing the election.

Trump’s reaction was to double-down on his lies, as he always does when the lie is exposed, with his Republican puppets now clamoring for even more fraudulent audits. This reminds me of Trump’s “birther” campaign against President Obama when he falsely accused Obama of not being born in the United States, despite the release of Obama’s birth certificate. That was a training session for fascist attacks on truth itself, which have now metastasized into a democracy-threatening epidemic.

Bruce Joffe
Piedmont