Wednesday’s Letters to the Editor

Enforcing speed limits

EDITOR: Speed limits are set to attach an air of civility and safety to our road systems. Just imagine the chaos and carnage if everyone were to drive whatever speed they liked. Currently, speed limits are routinely ignored — if only “slightly” at 10-15 mph above the limit — by most drivers with the result of excess maiming and death when accidents occur.

Senate Bill 961 (“Tap the brakes on state speed controls,” editorial, Jan. 31) makes no sense as it would allow people to continue to disobey the speed limit (if only “slightly”). This is a perfect opportunity to easily reduce injury and death. To most fully increase the safety of our populace, the bill should require active governors set at the mandated speed limit.

KEN BRANDT

Sebastopol

Unbearable suffering

EDITOR: News from Palestine/Israel is getting more catastrophic every day. The suffering and pain of 2.3 million Gazans is beyond humanly bearable. As of Feb. 1, over 27,000 innocents are dead, 12,000 of whom are children. The West Bank too is boiling over with Israeli army and settler deadly violence against Palestinians. Israeli families hope against hope their loved ones will be released alive from the quagmire. This conflict is causing global discord, to say nothing of divisions in our community. Why is it that most political and religious leaders, even in this county, seem unwilling or paralyzed by fear and will not speak out for a cease-fire in Gaza?

How to navigate all this chaos and pain? Our humanity requires that we not lose ourselves in anger and grief but hold to what we know. What I know is that every human being deserves life and freedom. And every one of us lucky enough to live in privilege has a responsibility for the others who are being victimized because they are different, with a different flag, religion, ideology or skin color. No one is more deserving of life and privilege than another because of who they are. Not here, and not in Israel/Palestine.

THERESE MUGHANNAM-WALRATH

Santa Rosa

Contradictory remarks

EDITOR: After months of watching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas assure America that the southern border is closed and secure, it was puzzling to read Joe Biden’s quote about proposed border legislation: “It’ll also give me as president the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control. If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly” (“Unpacking Biden’s statements on border closure,” Jan. 30).

LEO LANE

Petaluma

A broken promise

EDITOR: Back in the early days of the GranFondo, then-Supervisor Efren Carrillo came to the Cazadero firehouse to conduct a meeting with upset and concerned citizens. Some of the issues presented were bicyclists riding at unsafe speeds, bicyclists not allowing traffic to pass, bicyclists urinating and defecating on private property, going over and around locked gates, discarding trash along the route and general rudeness. At that time, Carrillo promised us that the GranFondo would never be a race. Carlos Perez, owner of Bike Monkey and founder of the GranFondo, was present at that meeting and agreed the GranFondo would not be a race.

A participant died a few years ago going around a curve, and at the time the cause was attributed to excessive speed.

I read in the paper that the GranFondo will now be a race (“Levi’s GranFondo just got a lot harder,” Saturday). I would like the supervisors to honor the promise that Carrillo and Perez made and restore the GranFondo to nonrace status.

MARYANN MICHALOWSKI

Cazadero

Too early to end the race

EDITOR: It is too early for the Republican Party to anoint Donald Trump its nominee for president. Even though the path to victory for Nikki Haley seems next to impossible, it would be undemocratic to cede the nomination to Trump after only two states have participated. The Republican Party should not tell voters of the other 48 states that their votes don’t matter.

As a voter in California, I know exactly how that feels. California used to hold its presidential primary on the first Tuesday in June. That is very late in the primary season, and the major parties usually picked presumptive nominees by then. California now holds its presidential primary on Super Tuesday, the first Tuesday in March, giving voters in the country’s most populous state a voice in the nominating process.

Should Haley drop out of Republican presidential race? Only she should decide if and when it is time to drop out.

KURT DUNPHY

Santa Rosa

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