Saturday’s Letters to the Editor

Breakdown of order

EDITOR: You’re not supposed to feel afraid to go shopping. But that’s what’s happened since progressives advocated “defunding the police” and having the police “stand down.” The root word of progressive is “progress.” Take a look around. This isn’t progress. The evening news is filled with smash-and-grabs, looting and robberies. It looks like we are on the precipice of hell with thieves smashing everything to smithereens in the stores.

Where are the police? Where are the community governing boards? Where are the prosecutors? Where are the judges? What is going on that they have decided to abandon and ignore our laws? Who decided that thefts below $1,000 are OK with no consequences? Geez, that’s an incentive, for gosh sakes. Without consequences, there is no deterrent. Case in point, now there are smash mobs who travel in caravans to do their stealing.

Progressives are not keen on religion. They didn’t even like the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Well, believe you me, we could use some religion right now, starting with, “Thou shall not steal.”

BOBBI REESER

Santa Rosa

Reduce the need

EDITOR: As I watch my 21-year-old daughter begin to awaken to and grapple with the tight knot of the abortion conundrum, trying to untie the knot using her feelings, her reason, her beliefs, etc., the seeming unresolvability of this issue is further illuminated for me. There is no good choice between a government forcing a woman to use her body to gestate a person against her will and the taking of a potential human life as a matter of choice.

No matter how many times we unpack this issue, the answer, if it is one or the other, is unsatisfactory in the extreme. However, there is an approach we can implement as a society that may relieve some of the relentless pressure this issue inflicts upon us:

Relentless education and ubiquitous availability of contraceptives. Both.

This option as a third choice in this matter is rarely discussed, and those who reject abortion out of hand too often also reject education and contraception. There is no better way to calm the waters of this debate than to dramatically reduce the need to make the choice at all. It’s the only way out.

NATHANIEL ROBERTS

Petaluma

Rethinking water

EDITOR: I agree with William Spita about removing the Scott Dam (“Save Scott Dam,” Letters, Dec. 4). As our droughts continue to get more extreme, we need to save all the water we can for the people of Sonoma County. Does anyone clamor to remove San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy dam anymore?

We should also investigate sending the 13 million gallons of fully treated wastewater into the Russian River where the pipeline crosses the river. This would further purify the water and maintain a minimum 20 cubic feet per second flow in the river in the dry summer months. The Geysers may have a contract for this water, but as our water supply evaporates, a state of emergency can likely fix that issue.

MIKE TUHTAN

Sebastopol

Feinstein’s challenge

EDITOR: Sen. Dianne Feinstein needs to lead the fight to swiftly pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act by calling for abolishing or providing a voting rights exception to the Senate filibuster or resign so Gov. Gavin Newsom can appoint someone who is willing to lead the fight to save our democracy.

Republicans have passed anti-voter bills in states across this country this year that allow for intimidation of voters, gerrymandering districts to cherry-pick their voters and rejecting election results.

It is past time to create federal voting standards throughout America to protect voters, prevent partisan gerrymandering, protect elections from undue partisan interference or control, prevent secret money in elections and allow for a nonpartisan oversight of federal election laws.

As historian Heather Cox Richardson recently wrote: “If we do not pass a voting rights law that stops voter suppression, partisan gerrymandering, dark money, and election subversion, our democracy will die. Not in centuries: now. The 2022 election will just pronounce the corpse.”

DIANE BAINES

Santa Rosa

Masks save lives

EDITOR: I attended a full-house event at the Mystic Theater in Petaluma, where masks were mandatory. Yet a sizable minority of people had their masks off or over their chins, etc. Here are some undisputed facts:

COVID germs don’t come out of your chin.

About 100 people a day contract COVID in Sonoma County.

Asymptomatic people are able to infect others.

COVID is potentially lethal — over 777,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.

Even if you have been vaccinated, your protection from contracting the disease can be reduced substantially if you haven’t gotten a booster.

Therefore, to not be masked in a crowded setting means you are potentially spreading COVID to other people, who could die as a result.

People claim they can make the decision to wear a face covering or not for themselves, but common sense (and the law) tell us that your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. To make the analogy crystal-clear, your right to breathe potentially lethal germs out into the air stops when other people are breathing that same air.

So mask up, and keep it covering your mouth and nose in public, please.

CHUCK SHER

Petaluma

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