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Giants, MLB angling
to force A’s to move
In response to Wednesday’s front page MLB article (“MLB chief turns up heat on Oakland,” Page A1, July 14), some history lends perspective.
In 2009, the Oakland A’s had serious traction in moving to San Jose. The San Francisco Giants were clearly against it, and they had baseball commissioner Bud Selig’s ear. Unwilling to publically admit favoring the Giants’ wishes, Selig instead formed a “blue-ribbon committee” to study the move. Five years later, the committee was disbanded, evidently nothing more than a stall tactic. At that point, Selig announced he was retiring, and that the A’s would not be allowed to move to San Jose.
Current MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred (handpicked by Selig) is now following through on the Giant’s original intention: Force the A’s to move out of the Bay Area, so the Giants can enjoy a regional monopoly.
How perfect for the Giants. For the Bay Area, not so much.
Dave Salle
San Jose
Vaccinations and masks
not a big ask for schools
Schools have always required students to be vaccinated for many health issues in order to enroll.
It makes more sense to have all students and staff fully vaccinated in order to attend any school. Suggesting that all students must wear a mask does not make everyone safe because it’s physically impossible to sufficiently social distance in a school setting.
Classrooms are not large enough to keep all students socially distanced. Virtually every school would need twice the number of classrooms; that’s not going to happen.
I was the principal of a high school with an enrollment of 4,200 students, and every classroom was utilized at full capacity. It would be impossible for 4,200 students to move from one class to another and social distance from each other.
Not vaccinated, Zoom learning; vaccinated, you get to attend school in person.
John Sellarole
San Jose
Masks at school protect
more than students
I cannot believe there are still arguments against masks in schools (“On back-to-school agenda: The great mask debate,” Page A1, July 14 ). The “kids aren’t affected by the virus like adults” thinking is just wrong.
Young children don’t live on their own, and they can bring the virus home to their parents or grandparents. Yes, a lot of us are vaccinated, but there are many out there with compromised immune systems who still need protection.
We’re asking the kids to wear masks, not hop around all day on one foot. Masks are doable and an easy way to keep the virus from spreading from schools to homes.
Laura Davis
Campbell
SB 10 threatens more
than American Dream
Senate Bill 10 threatens not only the American Dream, (see Gratia Rankin’s letter, “Bills threaten state’s take on the American Dream,” of July 11, Page A12) but something even more fundamental: the ability of voters to enact Initiative measures.
Section 1 of SB 10 would allow local elected officials to override local initiatives adopted by the same voters who elected those officials. That would not only violate our state Constitution, but it would also undermine the public trust in elected officials. The California Supreme Court has affirmed several times that the initiative is a power reserved to the people in their Constitution.
If our own votes for a local initiative can be negated, people will certainly not trust their politicians. I urge voters to email or call their senators and Assembly members very soon to stop this top-down legislation.
Connie Rogers
Gilroy
Mothball bullet train and
spend on desalination
In a rational world, the bullet train would be mothballed under “bridges to nowhere.”
In a rational world, our legislators would instead fund desalination plants all along the 1,000-mile California coast to access an infinite supply of water to offset constant droughts.
But of course, it never will happen, since it isn’t flashy or exciting and would cost lots of bullet lobbyists and contractors their jobs. And lots of legislators lots of contributions from those sources.
Steve Johnson
Saratoga
One-way tickets for
billionaires’ space race
What an exciting time we live in – a race among billionaires to be the first in space.
The unfortunate part of this is that they will keep coming back.
Matt Rode
San Jose
Don’t blame Islam alone
for war-torn Afganistan
It is time to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan as Joseph Rizzuto expressed in his July 14 letter (“Biden deserves thanks for Afghan withdrawal,” Page A6). But ongoing support is needed to help Afghanistan recover from U.S. and Russian instigated destruction. Mr. Rizzuto, in blaming the Islamic religion as the source of violence, conveniently forgets the Golden Age of Islam, a 600-year period that saw a cultural flourishing of science and mathematics (think algebra) while Europe was in intellectual and cultural decline (Dark Ages).
Modern colonialism of the west with their intentional efforts to create conflict in other countries to facilitate control has long impacted Muslim countries. Western intervention further facilitated the emergence of violent extremists (e.g. the Reagan doctrine of funding the Afghan Mujahideen to fight the Russians resulted in the creation of the Taliban).
Let’s not forget history or demonize an entire religion to absolve ourselves of the responsibility to help Afghanistan rebuild.
Anne Kjemtrup
Los Gatos
