Sunday’s Letters to the Editor

Armed demonstrators

EDITOR: Someone needs to help me understand why folks need to arm themselves with “rifles, pistols, knives and clubs” while demonstrating in support of the president — or while demonstrating about anything, for that matter (“Pro-Trump rally caravans in Oregon,” Sept. 8).

The great divide in our country will not be bridged by bullying, intimidation, destruction of property or parades of pickup trucks driving through crowds of people. Rather it will take conversation, an acceptance of common concerns, a willingness to compromise and a renewed commitment to “liberty and justice for all.”

Bridging the gap requires wisdom, not weaponry.

DAVE DELGARDO

Cloverdale

Yes on Prop 14

EDITOR: Referencing your Sept. 9 editorial, I disagree with the conclusion that the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine should stand on its own (“No on 14: It’s time for stem cell agency to stand on its own”). Looking at California’s $202.1 billion spending plan for 2020-21 may put into better perspective that California can afford to invest $5.5 billion to continue its investment in finding cures for disease, especially when the cost is deferred until 2026 by the initiative and then spread out.

An estimated 39% of people in California suffer from at least one chronic condition or disease, causing an estimated $98 billion to be spent treating those diseases. According to the National Library of Medicine, chronic disease could cost California $228 billion in medical costs and an extra $88.6 billion annually in lost employee productivity.

Meanwhile, Proposition 71 created more than 55,000 jobs, $10.7 billion of additional state economic stimulus activity and $641 million of state and local tax revenue that ultimately pays for the initiative. The ballot-box budgeting balance is weighed heavily in favor of economic reasons why voters should say yes on Proposition 14.

JAMES STEWART

Santa Rosa

A long count

EDITOR: In this year of totally terrible happenings, and recalling how media prognosticators’ reliance on 2016 preelection polling left us in the lurch, don’t be too surprised if there is no clear winner on election night. What’s new is the national predominance of mail-in voting. A great many states will be using this kind of voting due, at least in part, to COVID-19 fears of many residents about voting in person.

Particularly if the election is close, a clear winner may not be known for weeks after Nov. 3, since, obviously, it takes longer to count mail-in votes. By law, states have up to five weeks after Election Day to certify the winner. It happened in1800. It could happen again in 2020.

FRANK BAUMGARDNER

Santa Rosa

Feinstein’s misguided bill

EDITOR: Sen. Dianne Feinstein is calling for S-4431, the Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act of 2020, while opposing organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Parks Conservation Association, representing millions of Americans, say the bill would increase wildfire risks to communities and ignore environmental laws (“Living with the growing threat of wildfire,” Sept. 6). Rather than focusing on making our homes and communities safer, the bill would result in increased unregulated logging in areas far from communities.

Congress needs to directly support communities in creating defensible space and hardening homes, rather than spending millions for increased logging efforts, which have exacerbated recent fires in the West in areas where clear-

cutting and thinning operations have removed the largest, most fire-resistant trees.

The bill is calling for more biomass energy production, which spews carbon dioxide and other toxic byproducts into the air by the ton. Burning forest products in biomass plants is ineffective in protecting communities and forests during wildfires, is expensive, while masquerading as clean energy, and relies on government subsidies, millions in taxpayer dollars, so fewer dollars are then available for making us safer.

This bill needs to be completely modified, focusing on protecting homes and communities.

MAYA KHOSLA

Rohnert Park

A voice for kindness

EDITOR: As a parent I am constantly reminding my children to “be kind” — to the Earth, to each other, to folks they meet on the street. The focus on kindness is what attracts me to Lizzie Wallack’s candidacy for Petaluma City Council.

Wallack is passionate about inclusion, and making all folks welcome is one of the most basic kindnesses we can bestow on one another. I feel confident that given the opportunity, she will help create an inclusive community by listening to the voices and needs of all Petalumans and advocating for all of us, including those marginalized by society.

I hope to have her voice speak up in the halls of our city government soon.

LILY KREIMER

Petaluma

You can send a letter to the editor at letters@pressdemocrat.com.