Wednesday’s Letters to the Editor

Attacks on America

EDITOR: Osama bin Laden spent years on the outside patiently planning his assault on America. Quietly embedding operatives in our country, he managed to take down the iconic twin towers and attempted the same with the Pentagon and the White House. America pulled together to fight this terrorism

The irony is that we now have a former president, Donald Trump, who worked from the inside attempting a similar attack on our democracy. As more and more evidence turns up, we see his insidious influence on our judicial, legislative and military branches — the aim being to overturn the election.

Trump’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021, failed, but America was brought to its knees.

JOHN GUSMAN

Santa Rosa

An astounding burden

EDITOR: I could not help but notice the size of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget: $286 billion. It made me go look up the annual budgets for the city of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County and the U.S. government. All are easily found online within a few minutes. When one divides these massive budgets by their respective populations, it is astounding the burden placed on the taxpayers. One has to wonder if all of this “help” from the government isn’t the real reason for record homelessness, housing unaffordability and sky-high health care costs. Why not unleash taxpayers and let them decide how to spend their own hard-earned money?

BRAD DUNCAN

Santa Rosa

Saluting nurses

EDITOR: Stephanie Adams, a nurse with many years of experience, described what many nurses working the acute care floors, emergency rooms and intensive care units of our hospitals are probably feeling — even if most realize there might be a danger of being fired for being too forthright in public and honest in expressing the depth of the pain they are feeling (“At a breaking point,” Letters, Jan. 11).

Adams has given over 40 years of her life already to society. She wrote of needing to be with her family more.

This might not help her much, but I would like to express my deepest support. Ditto to her colleagues, co-workers and family members. I worked as a nurse for at least 25 years, long before the COVID-19 pandemic. I wish I wasn’t too old now to return.

Nursing will never be a profession for getting rich. It is, however, a vitally essential profession, especially now. I salute Stephanie Adams as she deserves everyone’s heartfelt praise and support.

FRANK H. BAUMGARDNER III

Santa Rosa

Missing King’s message

EDITOR: Every year Martin Luther King Day as comes and goes, we see the same points and material regurgitated. Every year this day is used to absolve white guilt, and his message is absconded by moderates attracted to his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

But in interviews years later he said that dream had become a nightmare, and that his optimism had to be tempered with realism. Yet we get the same milquetoast message about race relations and the same simplified view of his legacy every year.

He mirrored many of the messages of Malcom X in those later interviews, warning of those who would offer you lukewarm acceptance with strings attached.

He also began protesting socioeconomic ills, saying in a letter to Coretta Scott King that “capitalism has outlived its usefulness.” He also began speaking out in opposition to the Vietnam War, furthering the public’s disdain for him. Two-thirds of Americans held an unfavorable view at the time.

We must be more aware of what King actually fought for in his time, and we need to redouble our commitments to fulfilling his dream and goals he added in the years following that speech.

ROSE CROMWELL

Santa Rosa

Follow the numbers

EDITOR: Those who follow the new case data for COVID-19 know that the state and county independently issue daily updates on weekdays. The state started showing an uptick in Sonoma County cases on Jan. 3. That value likely included an increased case rate starting over the prior weekend.

Sonoma County did not have the capacity to process the large numbers of new cases, so it “backlogged” cases. Only on Jan. 8 did the county catch up, reporting first 2,129 cases and then revising that number to the astounding value of 4,841 new cases for the day.

Did the one day numbers overly shock our county health team, causing Dr. Sundari Mase, the public health officer, to issue new orders, which might not have appeared necessary if the data had been fully processed each weekday?

MICHAEL VON DER PORTEN

Santa Rosa

Reserve care

EDITOR: Don’t like masks? Don’t like being separated from those you love? There is one group that is predominantly responsible for this — the irresponsible folks who choose to remain unvaccinated. They should be treated like the lepers in the Bible, shunned by society. These folks will breed the next variant. Not only should they bear all costs of their care, the number of hospital spots for them should be limited so that folks who care about their community can receive the care they deserve.

STEVE HAEFFELE

Santa Rosa

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