Thursday’s Letters to the Editor

A matter of duty

EDITOR: I am sick of whining and protests from people who don’t want to wear masks or get vaccinated. My message to these folks is to grow up. We are going into the third year of a deadly pandemic, and we have to act like grown-ups to get this under control. Like it or not, we are in this together — all over the world. Our wonderful country doesn’t ask much of us — we are to be informed, we need to vote, sometimes we need to sign up to protect our country, and today we have been asked to get vaccinated and boosted and to wear a mask. Do it.

We have exceeded 818,000 deaths from COVID-19 in this country, and at this point most of the deaths are unnecessary as they are deaths of the unvaccinated. This is too stupid for words. No matter what party you support, what state you live in or what attitude you have toward freedom and liberty, it is your duty, your responsibility and common sense to do your part — get vaccinated and boosted and wear a mask.

DONNA CHERLIN

Forestville

Don’t delay wage law

EDITOR: The Press Democrat reported that the Board of Supervisors may not complete its work revising Sonoma County’s living wage law until next fall (“County workers get pay increase,” Dec. 16). The coalition of labor, faith, environmental and community-based organizations that proposed these revisions urges there be no delay.

This process has taken six years, and after three fires, a flood and a pandemic, we have all seen firsthand how inequality has deepened in the region. All of the proposed revisions are in place in other communities with living wage ordinances, such as the counties of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, with no reported problems.

A fiscal impact report by a University of Massachusetts economist has calculated the costs for implementing our proposed revisions, including providing 12 days of paid sick leave to all affected workers and expanding the ordinance to cover the county fair and airport.

Most of the 1,100 low-wage county and county contract workers now affected by the ordinance are immigrants, workers of color and women. The board should demonstrate its commitment to economic, racial and gender equality by completing the living wage law revisions no later than April 1.

JACK A. BUCKHORN

Executive director, North Bay Labor Council

Chanate Property’s future

EDITOR: I hope the “neighbors” who scuttled the sale of the Chanate Road property to a developer who promised some affordable housing will be satisfied that instead of the riffraff they will be now be neighbors with a Las Vegas developer free to do whatever he wishes with the property. But look on the bright side. As it stands, there’s no place in Sonoma County to get a decent lap dance.

TOM GLYNN

Santa Rosa

The long arc of reason

EDITOR: The launch of the James Webb telescope is truly a stupendous advance in the march of science (“Liftoff for biggest space observatory,” Sunday).

We have a divide now in our nation. A large group is skeptical of science. Anti-vaxxers, doubters of evolution, doubters of human-caused climate change are a large but shrinking group. I believe it does not help the cause of science when it is stated: “the Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago.” It is better said,” We believe,” or “The majority of astronomers believe …” It is still conjecture. It’s best to admit that there were no witnesses.

Martin Luther King Jr. said the long arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. Likewise, the long arc of reason bends toward science. Deniers of the value of vaccination, deniers of human-caused climate change, deniers of evolution do not stand a chance. The truth will out.

ART KOPECKY

Sebastopol

City isn’t listening

EDITOR: On Dec. 15, the public was invited to virtually attend a special Santa Rosa zoning administrator meeting on the proposed Aviara apartments on West College Avenue, next to Safeway. This would be a three-story, 137-unit complex shoehorned into an old walnut orchard. Of course, the orchard will be removed. It’s amazing how unresponsive the city was to neighbors’ concerns and complaints regarding this project. When the public got to comment, the city planners and zoning administrator seemed to stop listening.

When inadequate parking spaces causing overflow onto Manhattan Way and nearby streets, and increased traffic on College and Manhattan, were raised, the answer from the administrator was, thank you, your time is up.

The increasingly dangerous situation of turning left onto College from Manhattan was not addressed. The city traffic analyst did not even bother to look at Manhattan Way.

If you haven’t been to a city planning or zoning meeting, you should go. Sorry to the neighbors on Manhattan Way and nearby streets — it seems you got a big lump of coal in your stocking.

STEVE HEBENSTREIT

Santa Rosa

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