Anticipation for Harvey Milk Plaza
Concerning “3 finalists for Harvey Milk makeover” (Bay Area, Sept. 13): Whatever design team does a makeover of the Castro district plaza named for gay and civil rights icon Harvey Milk, I hope it includes his quote “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.” These words would remind visitors that nearly 40 years after Milk’s death, gun violence is still a searing issue in our country, and that many LGBTQ people still struggle to live openly because of ongoing societal discrimination.
Harvey Milk Plaza should be a place to reflect upon the life and words of the heroic man for whom it is named.
Oscar Futterman, San Francisco
Donation dilemma
Regarding “Cash bounty lets schools innovate” (Page One, Sept. 12): Thank you for the front page article on the money being donated to San Francisco and Oakland schools by Salesforce.org. It is both wonderful and terrible.
Wonderful that students will benefit from the infusion of resources. And terrible that as a community we cannot adequately fund our public education and must rely on the personal concerns of one particular billionaire. That’s no way to run a society.
Robert Leeds, Oakland
Demand cleanliness
San Francisco needs a real commitment to cleanliness. I mean, Disneyland clean. The condition of our downtown streets and transit stations is a disgrace. There is trash everywhere; existing trash cans are overflowing. Daily steam cleaning should be required. Tolerating the trash leads to less respect for other civilized behaviors that should be part of our lives. I sympathize with those who live on the street, and I think they need to contribute to the cleanup. I’ve written to the mayor and supervisors on this issue. Maybe others will join in demanding that we have a clean city that we can be proud of. Carol Walker, Richmond
Weapon of war
Regarding “War victims some would rather forget” (Sept. 12): Your recent article by Heather Knight about the “Comfort Women” made me proud of San Francisco. Having participated in the “The Vagina Monologues” with Marily Mondejar, I have been exposed to some information about the atrocities against Korean, Chinese and Filipino women during the war. I’m so glad that we are honoring and remembering them. I lived in Prague from 1992 through 1994, during the Bosnian War. Bosnians, Herzogovinians, Serbs and Croats were flooding into the Czech Republic.
Rape against women, especially against Muslims, was the No. 1 weapon used against the civilian population. It was horrendous. We cannot do too much to raise awareness of rape as a weapon of war. I am also heartened to see this statue go up because we need to honor more women through public art. Indeed, as Knight noted in an earlier article, there are only two statues in all of San Francisco of real women.
Thea Selby, San Francisco
Encrypt sensitive data
Has anyone asked whether the Equifax data are encrypted? I would be a little less worried about the breach if it were so. Also, are there not regulations requiring encryption of sensitive consumer information?
Rick Zwicker, Menlo Park
Remember the history
There is a lot of pushback from the Japanese government toward the “Comfort Women” statues around the world. The Japanese government is using a 2015 agreement between Japan and South Korea as a reason why the statues shouldn’t be erected in San Francisco, which I feel is missing the point. As Heather Knight says in her article, the statue to be erected in San Francisco is meant to remember the brutality that happened. Knight brings up the Holocaust Memorial in San Francisco and the landmarked Japanese internment camps in California as a reason why the statue should be erected.
The Holocaust was a decision made by the German Nazi party and the Japanese internment camps by the United States government. Remembering history is a way to prevent it from happening again in the future, even if the offending party doesn’t like it.
Trung Dinh, San Jose
Create conversations
I believe Heather Knight did a great job of exploring the situation from both sides while drawing on past examples to support her conclusion. The quote that was used in the article that captured the premise of this article is “History is history, whether it’s ugly or beautiful.” I agree with Knight that history — good and bad — should be explored and revealed to the world. It creates conversations that allow people to talk about important topics that typically go unnoticed. For example, this article talks about the sculpture not only referring to the sex trafficking and rape in Japan during World War II but also how these issues still linger throughout the world today.
Gabriel Cisneros, Norwalk, Los Angeles
County