Saturday’s Letters to the Editor

Palacios and Rodgers

EDITOR: How is Healdsburg Councilwoman Skylaer Palacios like football player Aaron Rodgers? Both are charismatic, talented leaders with many admirers. Both have influence with people in their communities. And both are giving support and cover to the lunatic fringe that wants to be free to endanger their neighbors with exposure to a deadly disease.

Palacios says that enforcing a vaccine requirement to attend City Council meetings in person is Jim Crow, echoing Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson. The difference is that vaccine requirements are based on choices and behavior, while Jim Crow was based on skin color, something people do not choose.

Sheba Person-Whitley, the county’s Economic Development Board director, isn’t leaving Sonoma County because her behavior was criticized, but because she faced discrimination due to her skin color. It cheapens the whole discussion of race discrimination to equate behavior that endangers others with the real problems of racism.

I was proud to see a fellow biracial person elected to represent Healdsburg. Now, not so much. Both Rodgers and Palacios cite an allergy to an unnamed ingredient that keeps them from being vaccinated. Really? What is that mystery ingredient? I’m inclined to be skeptical it exists. Unless that ingredient is responsibility.

ELDEN McFARLAND

Healdsburg

Sideshow enforcement

EDITOR: The auto sideshows that people are coming from miles around to perform in our intersections in Santa Rosa are, in my opinion, not only noisy and irritating but also dangerous. They should not be allowed to continue until someone is seriously injured or killed, but sending the police in with force would probably be worse than the sideshows.

I think a few nonuniformed officers with smartphones could record the miscreants in action, then return to the office and write the applicable citations (reckless driving, etc.) and mail them to the registered owners. The recordings would have to include the license plate numbers.

Fines should be enough to cover the expense of the operation. The authorities could check with the Golden Gate Bridge administration to see if this idea is feasible, as they have been doing it for a number of years for toll violations, and I believe it has proven very cost effective.

WAYNE PERRYMAN

Santa Rosa

Paying our share

EDITOR: I’m tired of people thinking all owners of solar power systems do not pay their share of supporting the operation and maintenance of the power grid. For over 10 years, our family has had a solar power system that generates about 35% of our total annual power usage. We need to supplement our system’s power with purchased power that we receive from Sonoma Clean Power. We also are billed by PG&E for transmission, distribution and other charges. Since 2016, we have paid PG&E over $13,000 for non-energy charges. This is not a charge for electricity. That sure is a lot of money for non-energy charges. It seems to me that we are doing more than our share in financially supporting the power grid. No additional surcharges are necessary.

KEN BROWN

Forestville

Guilt wasn’t proven

EDITOR: I found myself agreeing with local civil rights attorney Izaak Schwaiger regarding the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. Considering the evidence presented, the jury made the right decision (“County officials, residents worry about rise in vigilantism,” Nov. 20).

Prosecutors didn’t prove their case and couldn’t show that Rittenhouse was out to hurt people. What he did was stupid, and stupidity isn’t a crime.

I would think that the judge and attorneys explained the pertinent laws to the jury and how they applied to this case. Given this information and evaluating the evidence, jurors made their decision.

There will be a hue and cry about open carry, court procedures and vigilante justice. These are things that state governments will have to work out. The feds should stay out of the fray. What worked in Wisconsin may not work in Oregon, Iowa, New York or other states. A blanket reform slate of laws and procedures from the federal government won’t work. And remember, Rittenhouse may be free of the state charges, but he has a long road ahead with the possibility of civil suits and civil rights violations.

I wish that district attorneys were as eager to prosecute rioters, looters, arsonists and those who commit felonious assaults against law enforcement officers during protests.

ANTHONY MORGAN

Cotati

The court has spoken

EDITOR: Bobbi Reeser asks: “Is the Constitution of the United States still an active document that we live by? If the answer is yes, then how can a vaccine mandate be authorized” (“Ruthless mandate,” Letters, Nov. 17)? Here is what the Supreme Court had to say in the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts:

“The liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States does not import an absolute right in each person to be at all times, and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint, nor is it an element in such liberty that one person, or a minority of persons residing in any community and enjoying the benefits of its local government, should have power to dominate the majority when supported in their action by the authority of the State. It is within the police power of a State to enact a compulsory vaccination law.”

The court said nothing about citizens behaving responsibly or showing concern for their fellow citizens. Perhaps they thought expressing such sentiments should be unnecessary.

CRAIG CATELANI

Santa Rosa

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