Wednesday’s Letters to the Editor

Reducing violence

EDITOR: As a country, we must alter our behaviors to reduce violence. Citizens in a civilized country should not live in fear of going to school, places of worship, our jobs, shopping and other ways we live. Life is precious, yet we still put our children’s safety in jeopardy due to the proliferation of gun violence in schools. Our leaders are essential in making schools safer, but many are afraid to speak the truth because of financial benefits and concerns about reelection.

Now threats happen to judges, lawyers, politicians, churches, synagogues, temples and mosques and businesses.

All politicians should denounce these threats. Social media should curb hate and lies. Parents need to continue to teach skills that help children safely navigate their lives. Public schools need more resources to help kids learn lifelong communication skills that make them a part of a community, rather than an outcast.

This violence has spread its tentacles into every facet of our lives. I worry not so much for me, but for the future generations of our country. On my good days, I truly think we as a country are better than this.

STEVEN WEIS

Santa Rosa

Dealing with drug abuse

EDITOR: Bret Stephens presented a master class in how facts can be twisted to make a point (“The hard-drug decriminalization disaster,” Aug. 6). Overdose and homicide deaths increased in Portland from 2019-21, but wasn’t there something special about that time period? During the pandemic, deaths also skyrocketed elsewhere.

The number of people living on the streets went up in Portland, but is that different than most other cities? Crime and lack of respect for the law seems to have increased in Portland, but what about the rest of the nation? A Portland citizen sometimes must navigate the streets to avoid needles, etc., but how does this differ from San Francisco and other big cities? Indeed, Portugal has had an increase in drug abuse over the past decades, but can we not see the similarity in our country?

Does Stephens have any suggestions? My family and I, and many others, suffer from the awful pain of losing a loved one to drug abuse. Only by trying some new approaches can we find a better solution than trying to arrest our way out of it. It seems that most would agree that our current approach isn’t working. Oregon and Portugal’s new approach certainly is not perfect, but it’s bold and creative and needs evidence-based modifications and serious attention.

DR. WALT MAACK

Healdsburg

Barbara Lee for Senate

EDITOR: For voters beginning to consider who you want to represent you next in the Senate, I recommend Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. She is an experienced negotiator and courageous progressive member of Congress. Lee has my full support.

After 9/11 she was the only member of Congress to vote no against giving the president unlimited war powers. She stood by her convictions then, and she will continue to do so. As a state legislator, Lee wrote California’s first Violence Against Women Act to ensure protections for victims of domestic violence and authored the California Schools Hate Crimes Reduction Act to protect all students — regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation — from hate crimes. She has consistently worked to protect the rights of the vulnerable among us.

Representation does matter. For all our talk of Black Lives Matter, we now have an opportunity to act accordingly and send a qualified Black woman with a high level of integrity to the Senate. If elected she will be the only Black woman in the U.S. Senate. We need her courage, her voice and her perspective in the Senate.

LINDA JUDAH

Petaluma

Terrible cruelty

EDITOR: Thanks to Nicholas Kristof for his column on factory farming of pigs and the terrible cruelty they endure (“The truth about your bacon,” Aug. 7). I have been aware of this issue for many years; I long ago stopped eating pork. It is the easiest and best way to save pigs. They are highly intelligent mammals and don’t deserve the profound suffering they are subjected to. Not eating pork is perhaps the best solution and frees me of the guilt and shame I would otherwise feel.

PAT MITCHELL

Santa Rosa

Rethink death penalty

EDITOR: Since 1973, at least 190 people in the United States have been exonerated after being wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Those who still support capital punishment should consider this. Maybe it is time to follow the lead of so many other modern democracies and ban the death penalty nationwide.

PAUL SCHUMACHER

Santa Rosa

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