Sunday’s Letters to the Editor
A price for refusal
EDITOR: Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to allow mandates for private sector employers of more than 100 people to require COVID-19 vaccinations, it is imperative that the unvaccinated take full responsibility for their decisions. Those demanding the freedom to choose not to take the vaccine have managed to evade responsibility for the social ramifications of their choices. These include emergency rooms and intensive care units filled beyond capacity with the unvaccinated.
We risk evolving to the point where individuals who chose to take the vaccine and still get a life-threatening health condition will not be able to obtain adequate care because hospitals are filled to overflowing with the unvaccinated.
What should be done? I propose two measures. First, insurance companies should charge higher premiums to those who do not take the vaccines. Second, children and the vaccinated should receive priority over the unvaccinated when there are insufficient resources to treat both categories of people. Freedom requires acceptance of responsibility for our choices.
STEVEN M. DELUE
Petaluma
Keep the new name
EDITOR: I am an Analy High School alum and strongly support the name West County High. The name represents the lovely west county landscape and the coming together of students from two schools after an especially difficult transition — one that disproportionately impacted El Molino students and their families.
The school board’s vote to merge the schools didn’t include a determination that Analy won and El Molino could pound sand — it wasn’t a football game.
When you invite people to develop a creative solution to a daunting challenge, it is bad form and bad faith to then bow to financial and political pressure and pull the rug out from under them.
I loved my time at Analy. I had some amazing teachers who taught us about representative democracy, fairness and ethics. I played sports, was class valedictorian, and my father was a beloved teacher and coach there for many years. If he were alive, he would side with the student protesters.
My affection for and history with my alma mater doesn’t give me (or anyone else) a right to meddle in a thoughtful student-supported solution to a difficult challenge. Kudos to these courageous student leaders.
KAREN GAFFNEY
Healdsburg
Courting disaster
EDITOR: Regarding your Jan. 15 article headlined, “Neighbors triumph over PG&E.” Triumph? PG&E is trying to mitigate wildfires, and the small community of Potter Valley is trying to save an eagle nest in a dying tree. When the tree finally does fail, what happens to the nest?
In the meantime, the fire hazard to Potter Valley and neighboring Redwood Valley, where my sister lost two of her grandchildren in the 2017 wildfire, becomes another potential disaster. Let’s hope a disaster does not result from this or any other dying tree that residents forbid PG&E to remove.
At least it is on record that PG&E tried, and anyone damaged by a fire in this area can sue the residents who blocked it.
JENIFER JOHNSON
Santa Rosa
Nothing smart here
EDITOR: Seemingly SMART’s directors finally lost any sense of reality. In one fell swoop, they decided to give up their most stable source of a significant part of their revenue stream (“Taking on freight rail,” Jan. 15). The storage of tanker cars has gone on for years without any problem. And SMART has no replacement for this revenue stream.
SMART bought a company without ever having a look at the books. No organization, public or private, buys a company without knowing the financial situation. In this case, I think the financials are so bad that they don’t want to know the whole truth. It’s a head in the sand approach.
Isn’t it about time that the public speaks up and tells the SMART board to finish what they have promised — service to Cloverdale — before they go out on a limb with another money-losing venture.
Every SMART board member is an elected official on another board or city council. Maybe they need to be held accountable by that electorate.
WAYNE DIGGS
Cloverdale
Cops and COVID
EDITOR: It’s interesting to read that COVID-19 is the No. 1 cause of death for law enforcement officers and that a high percentage of officers refuse the vaccine (“Virus kills hundreds in line of duty,” Jan. 13). Am I the only one who wonders why “getting home at night” is a good excuse for killing unarmed people, but getting vaccinated is not?
SUSAN COLLIER LAMONT
Santa Rosa
Beware false experts
EDITOR: There is an outcry from hospitality and event business that they were not consulted when Sonoma County issued its latest health order during a raging pandemic (“Supervisors to talk restrictions,” Wednesday). What arrogance. Do they also expect to be consulted before evacuations are ordered during a raging firestorm?
In another article the same day, the CEO of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber thinks he knows better than the health department experts (“Infections surge across county”). He says the measures need to “be more nuanced” and “may be overkill.” Where are his health care credentials?
Why does The Press Democrat elevate the opinions of these people to the level of the experts in the health department? The stunning lack of respect for Dr. Sundari Mase, the public health officer, and other county employees who are using their hard-earned expertise to save our lives undermines these very efforts.
BRIAHN KELLY-BRENNAN
Sebastopol
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