Tuesday’s Letters to the Editor

Cloverdale’s holiday risk

EDITOR: Your article concerning the planned Fourth of July fireworks display in Cloverdale said “no crowds will be allowed to gather at the baseball field. Residents must watch remotely” (“Most fireworks shows canceled,” Friday). What could that mean? The display is right in town. There is no place for the crowd this year.

Past history informs us that the celebrants, many from out of town, will gather in the streets, on the sidewalks and in the yards of homes in the vicinity. They won’t consistently observe necessary social distancing measures. It will put our community at risk.

I’m a retired registered nurse, and I encourage my neighbors to plead with city and county leaders to act prudently to prevent our beautiful Cloverdale from becoming a point of a COVID community viral outbreak beginning around July 18. Stop the spread. The germ theory of disease has been scientifically proven.

RICHARD GREENE

Cloverdale

GOP obstruction

EDITOR: Ross Douthat blames Congress for the fact that “Congress barely legislates” (“Another conservative justice bends toward juristocracy,” June 22). Essentially, Douthat finds that Congress isn’t doing its job, and he seems content to blame Congress in the abstract for the juristocracy.

Democrats, having a belief in the power of government to make constructive change, continue to advance legislative proposals on a host of pressing issues. But there is a consistent and stubborn “no” from the right wing to any Democratic proposal — except, of course, when there is an existential threat to the economic foundations of the country. Then many Republicans legislate.

Apart from immediate political survival considerations, the Republican response to any Democratic proposal is no compromise, no discussion and no serious grappling with issues. Republican lawmakers seem content to spew slogans. That is the source of the fact that Congress “barely legislates.”

Douthat ought to have been honest enough to admit that it is Republicans in Congress who don’t deal with the difficult work of legislating. Ironically, that leaves the conservative majority Supreme Court to assume the responsibility that those Republicans shirk.

SEAN CASEY

Graton

Block new gas station

EDITOR: Every drop of gasoline we pump into our cars leaves a trail of contamination and devastation in low-income communities and communities of color around the world. Systemic racism is now gaining some due attention, and fossil fuel use is one dimension of it.

Just to our south, the black community in Richmond has been plagued for decades by a Chevron refinery. The trail stretches all the way to the point of extraction in places like the Niger Delta, where communities and the environment have been utterly destroyed.

In 2019, Sonoma County adopted a climate emergency resolution that commits the county to take action to prevent the distressing impacts of the climate crisis. Some of those impacts include harm to communities due to fossil fuel, which is largely responsible for the crisis.

On July 2, the county Planning Commission will decide whether to grant a special permit for a new gas station at Highway 12 and Llano Road in the Laguna de Santa Rosa. It isn’t needed, and there is no reason why it should receive special consideration.

In the interest of our county taking one small step away from the regrettable legacy of the fossil fuel era, I urge the planning commissioners to deny the permit.

WOODY HASTINGS

Sebastopol

Fixing our culture

EDITOR: This is in response to Spencer Humphrey’s letter (“All lives matter,” June 20). Duh, of course all lives matter. Black Lives Matter is a response to the actions in our country for hundreds of years, starting from the moment Africans were kidnapped and brought here to the present attitude of not just police but all of us who consciously or unconsciously act as if Black lives do not matter. In a culture where all lives truly matter, we wouldn’t need a Black Lives Matter movement.

DEANA ABRAMOWITZ

Santa Rosa

Masks and safety

EDITOR: It is sad and tragic that many people have conflated politics with public health. If everyone would follow a safe protocol of wearing a mask in public, washing hands and keeping a safe distance until a large portion of the population is vaccinated, a great many lives could be saved and businesses could remain open. If people ignore these protocols, cases will surge, thousands more will die, and another shutdown might be in order.

How in the world did wearing a mask become a symbol of political leanings? Please, people, wear a mask and stop the spread. The sooner everyone joins in, the sooner this pandemic will be over.

GAIL MORGAN

Santa Rosa

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