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Wrong to judge Muir
by today’s standards
Leave John Muir’s name where it is (“Park Service has no plans to rename Muir Woods,” July 24).
Racial injustice has been committed throughout our history, and Muir is not even the worst example. The racism we need to address now is present-day racism, all the events that led to the Black Lives Matter protests. We should recognize that all historical figures have flaws, but condemning them based on today’s standards is pointless.
We may well be condemned by future generations for ignoring our own problems, including racism, global warming, poverty and homelessness.
Dale Leuthold
Saratoga
Proposed fine for going
maskless is ‘excessive’
We are in the middle of a pandemic. I agree people should wear masks. But a $500 fine! (“Fine for refusing to wear a mask?” July 24) That seems very excessive.
I’ve heard other places are charging $1,000. Wouldn’t a $10 or $25 fine do the job? Is this about wearing masks or more about our greedy political class just wanting more of our money?
People are already hurting and our elected leaders have no problem adding to the pain. Naturally, the poor and minorities will be the ones hurt the most by this.
Mitchell Frazer
Sunnyvale
Open textbooks could
help lower college costs
Digital course materials like access codes, where students buy an expiring pass to a publisher website to submit homework, create a quick transition to remote learning but come at a high price (“Reassessing college amid a pandemic,” July 20).
Last year, my textbook cost $59 to rent, whereas the one I needed with an access code was $125. Student PIRGs found 17% of students skipped buying access codes, 63% skipped buying or renting a textbook, and 11% skipped meals due to course materials cost.
The solution is open textbooks – free to read, cheap to print, and high quality. Written under an open license, they’re free to share and professors can adapt them for their classes. Classes that use open textbooks have seen increased student performance and completion, probably because students read books they can afford.
Students need Santa Clara University to continue exploring options, like adapting free open textbooks to put onto class websites, to ensure students succeed.
Morayo Kamson
Santa Clara
If you won’t believe
CDC, then who?
Recently, a co-worker expressed his opinion that the Centers for Disease Control is lying to us about COVID death rates. The misguidedness of this thinking left me speechless.
So I ask you who are we to believe? An organization of people dedicated to saving lives and eradicating disease, many of whose employees take an oath to do no harm, or perhaps an organization led by the occupant of the White House whose sole interest in life is self and the promotion and glorification of that self who has proven repeatedly that he would lie about anything, large or small, if it would make him look better.
You got it, the CDC hands down.
Eugene Ely
San Jose
Plan for diversifying
boards is preposterous
Only in the one-party state of California would such a preposterous proposal pass the laugh-out-loud test (“Bill: Put people of color on company boards or pay a fine,” July 25).
The government would mandate positions on boards of directors of public companies based on race. Sundar Pichai at Google, Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Satya Pichai at Microsoft are examples of “go to school and study hard and don’t blame society for how ‘hard’ it is.” I believe in “equal opportunity for all” but not, as Democrats advance, “equal outcomes for all.”
We all chart our own paths in life.
Craig Carpenter
Los Altos
Conservatives’ options
aren’t limited to Trump
I have read many interviews with Trump supporters over the past three years. They admit that he is deeply flawed, but continue to back him because of issues such as nominating conservative judges or support for Israel.
Those reasons for staying loyal to him have lost all legitimacy. President Trump has made it clear he would like nothing more than for America to become a dictatorship (“Signs of authoritarianism can be seen all over U.S.,” July 24) with him as “president” for the rest of his life. There are hundreds of pro-life conservatives without dictatorial aspirations. Trump supporters should take a look at them.
Tim Avila
Santa Clara
