Thursday’s Letters to the Editor

Saving lives

EDITOR: I am extremely pleased that Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin is doing so well after a nearly fatal football collision. The first responders who saved his life are heroes for performing lifesaving procedures. As a former coach, athletic director and teacher, I see a huge need for coaches in all sports, no matter what level, to know CPR and first aid.

To coach in the Marin County athletic league, you had to possess a coaching credential. The credential class taught CPR, the Heimlich maneuver and basic first aid. I personally have saved three victims from possible brain damage or death. I hardly ever bring this up, but it makes me happy when I see the victims leading a normal life.

More than 4,000 choking-related deaths and 356,461 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur each year. If you work in any aspect of the restaurant business, you need to know the Heimlich maneuver. Not every incident happens on a football field staffed with well-trained doctors and paramedics. It is vital to know and perform the necessary maneuvers before help arrives.

For any inquiries regarding the available classes being taught, contact the American Heart Association or your local fire station.

ANDY FRAUENHOFER

Santa Rosa

Risking lives

EDITOR: What is the difference between pedestrian safety in Miami and pedestrian safety in California? As reported by CBS Miami, “Miami police launch program to increase pedestrian safety.” This includes increased police patrols and writing more jaywalking citations. This just after California legalized jaywalking. Anyone taking wagers on which plan will work better?

My bet is that the lawyers in California are already planning a party in Rio because California, being too lazy to enforce existing laws to protect its citizens, simply removed the law. My second wager is that insurance companies will be invited to the party.

You just have to know that after the first couple lawsuits, insurance companies will be raising rates for gas-powered and electric vehicles alike as well as buses, police cars, Uber drivers and delivery trucks.

Where does it end? In your pocket. Higher cost for groceries, delivered goods and insurance. Whereas in Florida, they will be raising revenue while forcing people to be careful to avoid being killed and abide by the law. Whoever thought being careful would be a good idea?

BOB PROCTOR

Rohnert Park

Outlaw guns

EDITOR: OK, over eight days in California, 25 people died from gun violence. What do we do? Get rid of the guns! Very simple. So when right-wing Republicans and Democrats talk about how “they’re coming for your guns,” I say: “you betcha!” Got a better idea?

CONNIE KELLOGG

Sebastopol

Unfair tax advantages

EDITOR: The federal budget should be easy to balance — just tax the people who work the least and earn the most. I’m talking about passive investors.

I didn’t realize what an incredible deal investors had until I retired and switched from earned income to unearned income. Capital gains and qualified dividends are the ticket to high income and low taxes. Both are taxed well below the accumulated taxes for wage income.

Republicans will never support raising taxes. Wealthy people support Republicans in the form of campaign contributions, specifically to preserve every possible tax benefit. They camouflage this by giving workers a few pennies in tax savings while they walk off with huge tax savings.

Kyrsten Sinema, nominally a senator from Arizona but really the senator from Wall Street, single-handedly preserved the sweetest tax deal, the “carried interest” loophole, for Wall Street money managers. She was rewarded with even bigger campaign contributions.

I’m living this dream myself on a small scale, and I’ve trained my kids how to do it, but it really isn’t fair and it’s running our country into the ground financially.

Rich people don’t care.

HANS BEERBAUM

Petaluma

Free Julian Assange

EDITOR: Julian Assange has now spent more than a decade imprisoned, much of it in solidarity confinement (a torture under U.N. and international law) for simply disclosing information about what our government was doing illegally in Iraq and didn’t want us or the rest of the world to know. Assange has never been tried for any crime, yet has spent years in prison for crimes he’s only allegedly involved in. It’s time to free the man. It’s time to free journalism, and it’s definitely time to allow our democracy to operate in the bright light of the open.

GARTH SAALFIELD

Fort Bragg

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