Friday’s Letters to the Editor

Paying down the debt

EDITOR: Here is a pragmatic, workable way to pay down the national debt over time: a slight reduction in the tax breaks for the 1%. The revenue would be earmarked for a gradual paydown of the debt. As the debt is paid down, interest payments would go down, and there would be more taxpayer dollars available for national defense, schools, senior health care, etc. This would be a win-win for all.

MICHAEL MENIUS

Forestville

Yes, Roseland Boulevard

EDITOR: I am excited that someone is considering changing the name of Sebastopol Road to Roseland Boulevard (“A new name for Roseland’s main street?” editorial, Tuesday). Our city will only benefit as the Roseland community continues to bring beautiful color, stunning art, lively music, incredible food and tourism to Santa Rosa.

ROBIN BURGERT

Santa Rosa

The end of slavery

EDITOR: Your June 16, editorial mistakenly stated that, “Juneteenth marked the end of officially sanctioned human bondage in the United States” (“America’s second Independence Day”). The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, only abolished slavery in those parts of the United States that were in rebellion.

Delaware and Kentucky, two border states that remained in the Union, rejected all efforts by the Union to end slavery and opposed the 13th Amendment. As a result, slavery remained legal in both states for six months after Juneteenth, until the secretary of state, William Seward, certified that the 13th Amendment had been ratified by enough states to become law throughout the United States.

June 19, 1865, should be celebrated as the day that set free the last remaining slaves in the Confederacy, and as your editorial correctly pointed out, it is also a day that reminds us that racist laws and practices continued long after slavery was abolished despite efforts by some states to bar schools from teaching these very uncomfortable truths.

RICHARD NEFFSON

Rohnert Park

A bad time for women

EDITOR: Wow. This is a very bad time for women. I base this observation on reading about Southern Baptists voting to expel two churches because they have female pastors; losing the constitutional right to reproductive care; and decisions banning books by female authors, targeting trans and nonbinary people from health care, etc.

Looking at the picture of Southern Baptist Convention delegates voting to expel churches with female leaders (“Cast out from the block,” June 15), I saw a lot of old white men wanting to take all of us back to the “bad old days” of blatant discrimination regarding gender, color, culture, sexuality, etc.

What a shock when these men die, go to heaven and discover that God is a woman. And finding out that they now will be expelled to the “other place.”

CONNIE KELLOGG

Sebastopol

Fire season questions

EDITOR: We are entering a new fire season, and it’s time to see what our state is doing to protect us. Have we changed our forestry policy? Do we have the right equipment? Helicopters aren’t very effective at higher altitudes. The most effective aerial equipment is the Lockheed C-130.

California bought old planes; planes the Coast Guard deemed unsafe to fly. These planes are underpowered and require new wings and central boxes to keep the wings from falling off. These C-130s don’t have night flight capability or the ability to fly through smoke. The new Lockheed Martin LM-100 (civilian grade C-130) has night flight, can fly in smoke and has better lift.

Locally, we utilize herds of goats and sheep to clear areas of combustible material. Anyone who has been to Spring Lake Regional Park knows what a fantastic job these herds do. Our legislators are going to put these herds out of business, raising the minimum wage for herders from an annualized $44,760 to $168,000.

Is there a plan in place for an emergency access route down Sonoma Valley? Insurance companies are refusing to write policies, leaving the state. This should be a wake-up call.

P.W. HUGHES

Santa Rosa

Missing Singletary

EDITOR: I’m wondering whatever happened to Michelle Singletary’s column in the Sunday business section. I really enjoyed her column, and as she became more outspoken about issues of finance and race, I feared that she might be removed from the paper. I noticed she is still writing twice weekly for the Washington Post. Is there a reason you stopped carrying her column? I hope it does not have to do with her wonderful columns describing how racial inequities affect people financially. I hope here in Sonoma County we are better than that. Please bring her back.

NINA CARSON

Sebastopol

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