Friday’s Letters to the Editor

Smarter spending

EDITOR: Everyone knows there are millions of people with cruel and selfish agendas who would harm America if they could. The 9/11 attacks succeeded not because al-Qaida was brilliant but because American air carriers hired security staff on the cheap. For many of them, jobs at McDonald’s would have been a promotion.

After the disaster, the federal government was tasked with footing the security bill via the Transportation Security Administration. National standards are good, but TSA training for new hires is eight days. Really?

Our preparations aren’t responsive to threat levels or Israel’s gold-standard examples. We spend billions on “intelligence” and missed guys training to fly airliners without learning to land. We are drowning in intelligence but dying because we’re too cheap to train and hire sufficiently.

It would be expensive to interview each passenger like the Israelis do, but while considering cost, remember the true cost of 9/11 was the $2.26 trillion we spent in Afghanistan. It would be smarter to stop distant wars and spend the money at home creating jobs, training and technology to ensure our safety.

Just a thought.

PETER COYOTE

Sebastopol

Hypocrisy on the right

EDITOR: As COVID has raged across our country, we have witnessed passionate pleas from conservatives that mask wearing and vaccinations should be left to individuals to choose. No one, especially not the government, has the right to tell us what to do, so they say.

Now, we have witnessed the most draconian law to take effect in Texas. A law written by those who have been outraged by our government intervening on their rights to choose mask wearing and administering a vaccine. This abortion law is proposing to pit people against one another, as if our country isn’t divided enough.

Women who have to make the most difficult decision of their lives are told they aren’t allowed to. The far right continues to go too far. They are determined to control the lives and bodies of countless women as we continue to fight for a constitutional right given us 48 years ago.

Our nation needs to move forward with wisdom and grace, not condemnation, clinging to a past that didn’t serve all Americans with the liberty we hold so dear.

BILLI VOGAN

Santa Rosa

The golden rule

EDITOR: I went grocery shopping recently and a man not wearing a mask blocked an aisle that I wanted to go down. I stopped and hesitated to go around him. When he saw me, he asked if he was blocking my way. I said yes, he wasn’t wearing a mask, and I wanted to social distance. He called me a “cowardly Democrat.” I didn’t respond and continued to shop, but his comment bothered me.

I’m not a coward for wearing a mask in public. I wear a mask not just to protect myself, but because I care about others and want to make shopping a safe experience. I was raised to practice the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I believe wearing a mask in public is practicing the golden rule by protecting others from COVID. I’m saddened that this is no longer valued in our community.

If we are to overcome the pandemic, we need to start practicing the golden rule and thinking about the safety of others, especially children. We need to find the courage to do the right thing — wear a mask in public and get vaccinated.

BOB JOHNSON

Lower Lake

Biden’s recovery

EDITOR: Like Kirk Moeller (“Biden’s debacle,” Letters, Aug. 28), I was embarrassed and angered by the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in its first days. However, President Joe Biden was hamstrung by an agreement Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo made with the Taliban. Our “stable genius” even secretly invited the head of the Taliban to Camp David for a meet-and-greet.

Biden acknowledged “full responsibility” for the mess and for the bloodshed that ensued. His sincerity is without question. Imagine Trump doing likewise. Sincerity like honesty is not in his DNA.

But look at the turnaround after Aug. 14 — 122,000 refugees were rescued, an astonishing feat, making it the most successful airlift in history from a country where America lost the war.

Even Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham on Fox News said it was imperative that we saved those Afghan refugees, but they did not want them “invading” the United States.

As Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman, conservative talk show host and harsh critic of Trump, tweeted, “I come from the right-wing media world. Ingraham & Carlson support what Biden did, but they can’t say that because they need to keep their audience tuning in. So, they pivot to something they KNOW their audience will eat up: Keep brown people out.”

BOB CANNING

Petaluma

Make room for bikes

EDITOR: I’ve noticed more people riding bikes and walking. I applaud their efforts to keep one more car off the road while improving their health. I’ve also noticed more ghost bikes around, which I believe mark a fatal biking accident (usually a car collides with a bicycle, and the car wins).

Why drivers are so hostile and impatient with people walking and riding bikes is a mystery to me. I’ve witnessed near misses, angry one-fingered hand gestures, objects hurled from passing car windows, insults, etc. If anything, we should be encouraging more people to walk and ride bikes. It’s simply not safe to do so as red-light running, speeding and distracted driving have become a national pastime.

Those who use nonpolluting muscle power for transportation deserve our support and patience. Slow down and give them a brake (pun intended).

ANISA THOMSEN

Petaluma

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.