Monday’s Letters to the Editor

Monitor wells

EDITOR: Thanks to Sean Bothwell and Don McEnhill for their summary of Sonoma County’s groundwater plan and the best path forward (“County groundwater plan needs work,” Close to Home, April 1). I agree with their proposals, especially the need to require meters and monitoring of all wells in the county, old and new. You can’t accurately manage a resource without measuring it, and groundwater is too important for guesswork or blind assumptions. As a county resident and owner of a small vineyard, sign me up for well metering and monitoring.

GAIL JUDGE

Santa Rosa

Trump’s allegiants

EDITOR: The twice-impeached, truth-telling-impaired former president threatened the nation with “death and destruction” if he’s indicted. He also spoke of retribution and punishing his political adversaries. How often has he placed himself above governing and protecting the people of America?

I am reminded of the time, after his bout with COVID, when he returned to the White House, stood on the balcony before the cameras and proudly removed his mask. In Trump-speak this was like saying, “Fear not the virus. It’s harmless. Remove your masks.” And that’s what many of his followers did. Some probably died because of this gesture. But for Donald Trump, the people he pledged to serve and protect mean little compared to the adulation his ego craves, the crowds, their numbers always exaggerated, who gather to applaud his grandstanding bluster.

What I find disheartening is that there are some who still, instead of pledging their allegiance to the flag and the republic for which it stands, continue to pledge their allegiance to a third-rate politician.

MICHAEL O’LOONEY

Santa Rosa

COVID, politics and death

EDITOR: The article about factors influencing COVID deaths omitted one crucial piece — politics (“In preventing COVID deaths, ‘how we feel about each other matters,’ ” April 2). While the article noted the importance of vaccination rates, it didn't explore the relationship between vaccination rates and political affiliation.

Research shows that there’s a powerful negative correlation between the percentage of people who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and vaccination rates and an equally strong negative correlation between vaccination rates and COVID deaths.

The result is that the 10% of the U.S. population in the most pro-Trump counties, where more than 70% voted for him, saw nearly three times the rate of COVID deaths as the 10% living in the bluest counties. As of February, those deep red counties have suffered 262 COVID deaths per 100,000 while the bluest counties have lost just 96 per 100,000.

If more Trump voters had trusted and taken the vaccine, more than 100,000 lives could have been saved. It’s essential to address the role that politics has played and continues to play in the pandemic, especially since, as five recent COVID deaths in Santa Rosa show, COVID has not gone away.

ROBERT ADLER

Santa Rosa

Disrupting supply chain

EDITOR: An electric big rig can cover about 150 miles before stopping for a one-hour charge for its battery. That’s about four hours travel and recharge time. It will take at least two or maybe three stops to leave California’s borders over the Sierra and southern desert areas. I predict there will be transit hubs just across the California borders where big rig trailers will be attached to diesel rigs going East. A diesel big rig can travel about 1,500 miles on its two fuel tanks.

Phasing out diesel trucks will require a huge investment in big rig charging stations all over California (“Time’s up for dirty cabs,” April 1). When will that happen? California ports deliver a huge amount of cargo entering the U.S. Moving it to other parts of the country and within California will become a huge problem.

The nation already suffered from a supply chain problem and electric big rigs will not help at all. They may exacerbate such problems. In the rush to create less pollution, what is being done to make the new system better than the old?

JOHN TRAVINSKY

Windsor

Harming kids

EDITOR: While families in our area are struggling with rising costs for food and trying to provide healthy meals for their children, extremist Republicans in Washington are proposing massive cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — the key program helping millions put food on the table.

Republicans have introduced legislation that, for the first time, would subject parents or grandparents with children 7 years or older to a harsh time limit of three months of SNAP benefits if they cannot meet burdensome work requirements. Right now, adults with any minor child are exempt. To put it clearly — these proposals would take food away from hungry children. If this legislation passes, 4 million children would see a massive reduction in their food assistance.

SNAP is one of the strongest tools our nation has to combat hunger. Our elected leaders should be strengthening SNAP benefits and protecting them against attacks, not doing the opposite. Our families are counting on our members of Congress to stand up against these attacks and protect SNAP.

ALLAN JONES

Santa Rosa

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