State must fix the aging infrastructure
Concerning “Extreme level of lead in school gym tap” (Oct. 31): It’s alarming and yet unsurprising to learn of more public schools with excessive lead content in their water due to old, corroding pipes.
In fact, many school districts across California are dealing with aging infrastructure. Some 40 years after the passage of Proposition 13, our cities’ schools are still feeling the effects of less state revenue to address this problem.
Although there is no groundswell of support to reverse Prop. 13, Californians ought to be reminded of its lasting impact on our schools’ ability to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for children.
Julian Grant, Pacifica
Conspiracy irony
So here’s where we are so far ... two people with direct ties to the Trump campaign have been indicted for federal crimes. Another person who also served in the campaign has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a foreign government.
But, hey, President Trump is hoping no one is paying attention. Our president has the gall to call NFL players “SOBs” for, in his words, “disrespecting the flag,” while he had a campaign manager charged with “conspiracy against the United States of America.” Classic.
Al Comolli, Millbrae
GOP playbook
In the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of Paul Manafort, here’s a question for the 45th president: Why did you hire a campaign manager who had lobbied for a pro-Russia party in Ukraine just two years before the 2016 presidential election? It doesn’t take too much dot-connecting to see that the Trump campaign used individuals with strong Russian ties like Manafort to enable Vladimir Putin to tip the outcome in its favor. Trump’s brand of dirty politics and demonizing the media comes right out of the playbook of one of his Republican predecessors — former President Richard Nixon. Jennifer Erickson-James, San Francisco
Stalwart champion
It was great news when California Senate Pro Tempore Kevin de León declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate. He is a stalwart champion for renewable energy, fighting climate change, universal health care, immigrant rights and other important issues.
He boldly calls out Trump for white supremacy. It was disappointing that Sen. Dianne Feinstein did not follow the good example of Barbara Boxer, Ron Dellums and George Miller, all of whom stepped aside, at a younger age than hers, to make room for the next generation to take their place.
Her support for the Iraq War and Patriot Act and an absurd statement that Trump could be a good president shows she is out of touch with most Californians.
I urge my fellow Californians to help make history by electing the first Mexican/ Latino U.S. Senator from California to take on the retrograde racist, sexist, Islamophobic, oligarchic megalomaniac in the White House and his puppets in the U.S. Senate. Making nice with them, as Feinstein wants to do, will not accomplish anything.
Victor Ochoa, Oakland
Crowded hospital
Regarding “Hospital option” (Letters, Oct. 30): Alta Bates’ Berkeley campus’ emergency department is definitely slated for closure, regardless of the “transition,” yet to be fully described, that the writer says the campus is going through. This closure will affect not only Berkeley residents but those in the entire Bay Area corridor to the north.
Whenever I have used the Ashby campus emergency room, it has been crowded. Imagine if all those patients, who come from all over the East Bay, were added to patients who already rely on Alta Bates’ Summit campus emergency room in Oakland? Is this a sensible use of resources? Second, the distance between the hospitals is closer to three miles than two. And even with emergency vehicles, the traffic on Telegraph Avenue could make the trip longer than the optimal time of twelve minutes.
I wouldn’t want to risk it with a heart-attack or stroke victim. Those people who can now drive to the emergency room would have to rely on emergency vehicles. Again, not a sensible use of resources. If the letter writer hoped to reassure readers, I am not reassured.
Stephanie Friedman, Berkeley
Unfair judgment
Lots of people are coming out of the woodwork and making public accusations of sexual impropriety that go back decades against famous people who wear a target on their backs. I understand that a lot of it is true and it needs to be exposed and have consequences. I do not like that this exposure is happening in the media and the accused perpetrators’ lives are being destroyed, and they are found guilty by the media and the consensus of the public. It smells like McCarthyism to me.
Those accused are immediately assumed guilty. The accusations against former President George H.W. Bush are total overreach and ridiculous, and yet he will die with that stain on his reputation. Who knows if the accusations against Kevin Spacey are true, or what the circumstances were.
The movement has assumed a life of its own, with no regard for the lives of those accused, and it is not fair to the accused. Once again, this is of great entertainment value to the television networks and will most likely result in increased ratings.
Gloria Judd, San Francisco