Muni needs suggestions from passengers
The mayor’s task force for Muni will crash unless passenger input is solicited and listened to. At the present, the task force appears to be top down without any riders serving in this project.
Is this a cosmetic coverup or a sincere attempt to improve Muni, which could be one of the best transportation systems in the country? Don’t turn this project into a dogandpony show like so many San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency events. Citizens must be represented in this project without delegated authority to “represent” them.
Citizen riders, not bureaucratic organizations, should be able to speak for themselves and provide input to a miserable system that is perpetually deteriorating.
Herbert Weiner, San Francisco
Breath of fresh air
After watching most of the first two Democratic debates, it was a breath of fresh air to watch candidates for our nation’s highest office debate issues, policy differences and discuss their respective visions for our country. What a novel idea!
Unlike the Republican debates from 2016, when candidates called each other names, demeaned each other and talked about the size of a candidate’s hands as it relates to his genitalia.
Al Comolli, Millbrae
Let moderators control
If, as the moderators claim, they prefer a more civil debate without candidates scrambling for more air time and all speaking at once (only to say the same thing over and over), the solution is so simple.
Give the moderators a control panel that turns on the microphone of the speaker who is being asked a question and turns off the other microphones. In addition, have the microphone automatically turn off after the time allotted to that speaker. Elliott Halpern, Martinez
Paint over the mural
Regarding the San Francisco school board’s decision to cover the offensive mural at George Washington High School, I have a suggestion. Paint over the mural with a lovely, inoffensive picture of former President George Washington chopping down a cherry tree and emblazon the top of the mural with the words, “I cannot tell a lie.” That should comfort the students. God forbid we should teach them to think.
Barbara Nagata, Burlingame
Remove the mural
As a retired Latinx San Francisco Unified School District teacher, I want to offer a different view of the mural discussion, even though I agree with some of the points made in other letters to leave the mural in place.
For Black, Native and Latinx students, it can be toxic and it is certainly hurtful to walk by such a graphic depiction of what happened to our people. It is a psychic assault against us all, but especially our children. While curriculum is crucial, it is not what we feel when we walk by that mural. Thank you, San Francisco Board of Education members, for the decision to get rid of it! Pilar Mejia, San Francisco
Lack of self control
Regarding “Debate felt like game show” (Letters, June 28): I agree with the author’s description of the Democratic debates: “Beat the Clock.” Additionally, the candidates talking over each other and interrupting signaled red flag warnings for voters.
If candidates do not have the selfcontrol to respect others in a debate, how will they fair in diplomatic situations with other nations? We do not need more of the same.
Mary Vedovi, Hidden Valley Lake
President’s behavior
Perhaps some experienced elementary school teachers and principals would weigh in on how they handle current presidential behavior: namecalling, lying, bullying, bragging, accusing, insulting, failing to know and do their work — and more.
Also, how do you explain this behavior on the part of the president to your young, aspiring students? How many among them hope to be president, having truly grown up? Edith Drewek, Mountain View
Bored with composers
When I listen to the music that is produced by the composers of today, I am filled with loathing, disgust, and perhaps worst of all, boredom. It appears to me that almost every modern, or at least every modern American composer is incapable of producing anything that is not minimalist or that does not sound like the soundtrack for some bland movie about an aging university professor.
Those few compositions that have a formal title (e.g. “Symphony”) are members of the latter type, while most everything else is wrapped in minimalism as if it were a noxious fog. Today’s composers have taken the character piece to the extreme (almost every composition is furnished with a descriptive title) and yet none of these pieces describes anything of the remotest interest. Each one is an expression of some quiet moment of reflection, rather than a story or actual description of a character or atmosphere.
This is part of the reason that most people are indifferent at best to classical music; it has ceased to tell a story. Gone is the vibrancy that has characterized most of Western classical music, replaced with drab minimalist fatuity.
Charlie Nau, Jamestown, Tuolomne County