About that London Breed endorsement
It’s altogether unsurprising and disappointing that The Chronicle has chosen to endorse London Breed as the next mayor of San Francisco (“Right blend of passion, practicality,” Insight, April 15). This newspaper has regularly sided with moderate politicians who don’t dare to upset the status quo with more regulations and less gentrification.
Breed fits that moderate mold and is being backed by real estate developers and tech financiers like Ron Conway. Frankly, I’d rather give someone like Jane Kim the chance to be our next mayor, even though she has been labeled a progressive. Kim helped back a higher minimum wage, worked to make City College free and supports a June ballot measure to raise the commercial real estate tax to help fund child care for low-income families.
Let’s not choose our next city leader using oversimplified labels. Rather, let’s support someone whose vision of San Francisco for the future is not reshaping it into the Manhattan of the West. Elliot Branca, San Francisco
Daring to print it
On the Breed endorsement by the Chronicle: “Da Mayor” Willie Brown has spoken again. Our city is headed in the wrong direction. London Breed keeps the boat steered that way, downhill. The coalition of Brown and Ron Conway is destroying this once great city. Sad. I used to work for the mayor.
I doubt you will print this; no guts on The Chronicle’s part.
Mike Mallen, San Francisco
Democracy’s defenses
Regarding “Better defenses for our democracy” ( John Diaz, Insight, April 15): Of course it’s important to address the integrity of our election process through improved cybersecurity and paper ballot trails. But of greater concern to me is what steps are being taken to ensure that certain minority groups are not being intimidated or excluded from casting their ballots because of overly stringent voter ID laws.
Our political leaders should be taking concrete steps to maximize voter turnout in this year’s midterm elections, not to suppress it. The expansion of voting hours and weekend voting should also be implemented to give lower-income citizens who hold multiple jobs more opportunity to go to the polls. As we saw in the narrow margins in state voting results in 2016, every vote counts, and everyone who wants to vote should be able to vote.
Charles Carrington, San Francisco
Mission incomplete
After President Trump claimed “Mission Accomplished!” following the U.S. bombing of chemical weapons facilities in Syria, I thought: Where have I heard those words before? Oh yes, when President George W. Bush stood beneath a banner with the same phrase, signaling that major combat in Iraq was at an end in May 2003. Of course, the conflict continued for many years after that, causing thousands of casualties to both U.S. forces and Iraqi civilians.
More problematic with Trump’s declaration is that he really doesn’t have a real foreign policy concerning Syria. One moment he’s declaring that all U.S. troops will be withdrawing from that war-torn country, the next moment ordering bombings that surely preclude any such troop withdrawal.
And what of the thousands of Syrian refugees, including many children, seeking to escape the endless violence enveloping their nation? If our president truly cared about Syrian President Assad’s use of chemical weapons on his people, he would offer those families with young children an opportunity to emigrate here.
Vivian Wexford, San Francisco
Just an allegation
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is the international body that monitors and investigates chemical weapon use anywhere. So far this body hasn’t documented any such use by the Syrian government. You owe it to your readers, then, to always preface such accusations with the word “alleged” unless the facts from such a body are in. Vaughn Hovanessian, Oakland
Peace begets peace
How can there be such disagreement about the merits of our missile strike against Syria’s chemical weapons? Perhaps because there are two differing truths. On the one hand, if our international relations are based on military prowess, this may have been an appropriate way to use that strength. But on the other hand, we might also realize that, in the long run, mere military opposition to violence tends to promote further violent and militaristic behavior. From this perspective, if we have not devoted our resources at least as much to peacemaking as to military preparations, threats and excursions, then we have failed to move toward peace.
If we really want long-term peace, we must first and foremost be peaceful.
John Steinhelber, Fairfax
They’re immigrants too
It’s bizarre that President Trump and gang are anti-immigrant. Just look at their names — Trump, Pence, Sessions, Ryan, McConnell, Bannon — none is Native American. They are all descendants of immigrants from Europe. They would deny sanctuary to their ancestors. Perhaps we should have enabled Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier, like 1776? Margot Smith, Berkeley
It’s Lotta’s Fountain
Regarding the proposal for Ed Lee Fountain raised by Willie Brown in his April 15 column: Lotta Crabtree’s Fountain, a gift from her to the city after the 1906 earthquake, is becoming a monument to a man? Says who, and when did they say it? Excuse me if I think it’s a really lousy idea! No disrespect to Ed Lee, but really, this is outrageous. The women in San Francisco’s history already get pretty short shrift in the Public Works Department. This is such an insult! Candace Forest, San Francisco