Enough campaign mail
EDITOR: With all the campaign posters, TV ads, newspaper ads and now letters to the editor in favor of candidates, I am overwhelmed. Can we just take time off from these well-meaning kudos to our favorite politician? I really enjoy reading my fellow readers’ comments, but I rail against the promotion of politicians in the editorial section of the paper.
Just as the rain will come every fall (hopefully), we are inundated with letters with one person’s opinion of a potential candidate for office. In just one recent edition, two of the five letters were political. Please omit this type of campaign material from the editorial page. Leave this space for worthwhile comments concerning topics that benefit us all.
JOHN KRUG
Petaluma
Preserving democracy
EDITOR: You can’t have your freedom and lose your democracy, too. There are two kinds of election deniers: those who believers the 2020 election was “stolen” and those who deny that elections matter. If the numbers of MAGA voters and non-voters are larger than the votes of democracy preservers, many taken-for-granted freedoms will be lost. The rule of law will fall into fascist authoritarian hands. Your non-vote will help them destroy our right of self-governance.
The proof is everywhere, from the Supreme Court’s rollback of Roe v. Wade, with the prospect of ending rights of same-sex marriage and contraception, to the banning of books and any education coming from a non-right-wing perspective to the candidacy of election-deniers as well as countless anti-free thought legislators and school board usurpers.
However, if you register in time and vote with those of us who wish to save democracy, then these cruel extremists will not overcome the will of the people. Let us keep enjoying our rational and nourishing freedoms of thought and practice. Vote this time. It is crucial. And it only takes a small effort.
BILL TRZECIAK
Santa Rosa
Mismanaged care
EDITOR: After reading about Bill Harmon and other patients who went to Providence Memorial Hospital for care, I could not believe what they had been through, such as being asked for funds up front (“Providence’s collection practices draw criticism,” Sept. 30). I worked at a hospital for 17 years, and this horror never happened. Providence needs how to learn to care for the patients first, then deal with insurance companies after care is rendered. That company is going to destroy what hospitals are here for.
ROZ MORRIS
Windsor
No on Prop. 1
EDITOR: The Press Democrat asserts that women’s “reproductive rights” include a right to abortion (“Prop. 1 safeguards the right to choose,” editorial, Sept. 16). But basic morality, enshrined in our Declaration, affirms that all human beings have a God-given right to life. Women have a right to engage in intercourse, use contraception or surrender an unwanted baby for adoption. But no one has a right to kill another innocent human being.
The paper asserts that 77% of California adults favor “abortion rights.” Perhaps. But the question is, under what circumstances? To save a mother’s life? In cases of rape or incest? Before a baby’s heart begins to beat (four weeks after conception)? Before all its organs are in place (eight weeks)? Before it can feel pain (14-17 weeks)?
Polls affirm that the vast majority of Americans want some restrictions on abortion, even as we see in Europe and various red states. But Proposition 1 creates an absolute right to abortion up to, and perhaps even after, the moment of birth. Only barbarians favor that.
The Press Democrat says it wants abortions to be rare. Really? If so, why endorse an essentially unrepealable amendment that activist judges could easily use to ban reasonable protections for child and mother? Think, pray and vote no.
DEAN DAVIS
Santa Rosa
Reckless cycling
EDITOR: A cyclist’s recent death after hitting a bollard raises risk questions. Cyclists have ample bike lanes on streets in Sonoma County yet recklessly ride on multiuse hiking trails where bollards are installed to prevent motorists from accessing the trails. Letters to the paper are many about the bollard hazards.
Allowing reckless cycling on trails with blind curves in retirement communities where pedestrians become human bollards is crazier than installing the bollards. I live in such a community. Cyclists ride two abreast at unsafe speeds that could kill a pedestrian or leashed dog, yet this is tolerated. Elderly pedestrians become human bollards for cyclists to shout insults and laugh at as they frighten and nearly strike them.
A sad day it will be when an elderly pedestrian in an over-55 community is struck and injured or killed. But it appears that is what may happen unless cyclists use bells and yell warnings to elderly pedestrians using the same paths. Simply posting yield signs is not working.
DAVE HEVENTHAL
Windsor
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