Monday’s Letters to the Editor

End of an era

EDITOR: We are losing a valuable community resource. Empire College Business School is closing; the law school is not closing. For more than 50 years the college has provided training in business as well as basic medical skills (medical assisting and phlebotomy training). It has provided technical training that supported students in launching their careers, and many local jobs are filled by Empire graduates. Throughout its existence the college has been involved in supporting the community by providing help in activities such as health screenings, vaccinations, etc. Empire is winding operations and will be closed by the end of July. It will be greatly missed.

JON DREW

Santa Rosa

The death of democracy

EDITOR: Our status as a democratic nation is coming to an end. The foundation that holds our country together is the Constitution. But Republicans have sworn allegiance to one man, not our Constitution.

Republicans refuse to have an independent commission to investigate the insurrection. Remember the mob that wanted to hang Vice President Mike Pence?

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. They tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like. After what he has done, the consequences of which we were all witness to, Trump should not be eligible to run for office ever again. Healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability, not sweeping such a severe charge, such awful action, under the rug.”

Fourteen states enacted voting restrictions. Imagine being arrested for giving water to voters waiting in line to vote.

Republicans who are willing to kill our democracy by embracing all the lies will go down in history as traitors. But it will be too late; our democracy will be taken away by a pack of lies.

STEVEN WEIS

Sebastopol

What is distasteful?

EDITOR: I’m amazed by the Santa Rosa Police Department’s outsized investigation and reporting on the vandalism at the former residence of Barry Brodd, who testified that Derek Chauvin acted reasonably in kneeling on George Floyd’s neck until he died. Could it be because it was directed at one of their own?

While smearing blood, apparently on the garage doors (not the house), was somewhat distasteful, it is not nearly as distasteful as the fact that Brodd is a former Santa Rosa police officer; the fact that Brodd is a former instructor in the Santa Rosa Junior College officer training program; or putting the so-called suspects arrested in connection with the vandalism in harm’s way by publishing their names, political affiliations, pictures and, effectively, their addresses (and seizing their phones, computers and other personal items while trashing their homes), all with no indication of any actual evidence against them.

All of us who care about police accountability, who care about establishing trust between law enforcement and all of our communities, must demand that all the cities in Sonoma County enact ordinances in line with the principles set forth in Measure P. We know the police won’t police themselves.

COLLEEN O’NEAL

Santa Rosa

State’s housing failures

EDITOR: The governor seems to want to blame local governments for the housing problem. He is only partially correct. State government also has a hand in the housing shortage due mostly to the numerous fees and charges that we must pay, renters and landlords alike.

Proposition 19 was a good example of this, as it raises property taxes on inherited property. This will only work in the short term, as corporations will eventually own many properties, and corporations seldom die, i.e. no reassessment can occur.

Add to this the dramatic increase in sales and other taxes. There is a lumber tax, a paint tax and now a sales tax on the lumber tax, paint tax and on recycling fees, etc. This and many other hidden taxes add to the cost of housing for both renters and landlords.

I tried to find out what the total gas tax was. This was a good study in how the government passes the buck in terms of information. No could tell the total tax on gas that most of us need to get to work. So why isn’t the tax shown on your gas receipt? Maybe the government is hiding something here?

The state government is partly to blame for the cost of housing and homelessness.

ROBERT GRUNDMAN

Rohnert Park

Another threat

EDITOR: Moira Jacobs (“Staying united,” Letters, June 3) excoriates the “divisiveness and acrimony” of America today and lays the blame exclusively at the feet of “divisive and nefarious Marxist dogma” and critical race theory, while proclaiming Americans are too practical and intelligent to believe such “discredited nonsense.” However, she ignores the fact that a large proportion of “practical and intelligent” Americans on the right believe completely in the debunked QAnon conspiracy and the continued Trumpist “Big Lie” of a stolen 2020 election. I would ask which is more of a threat to efforts to unite and move forward together?

TIMOTHY COOPER

Hilo, Hawaii

Water conservation

EDITOR: I’m trying to make sense of our “exceptional” drought situation. On one hand, Santa Rosa City Water wants me to put a bucket under the tap when I brush my teeth. On the other hand, I often see Oakmont Golf Course raining down sprinkler water on its acres and acres of manicured lawns in broad daylight. Is the drought an emergency requiring laborious sacrifice, or just business as usual?

BEN GOLDBERG

Santa Rosa

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