Libertarian could tip scales in Trump’s favor
According to “Libertarian candidate” (News From Across the Nation, April 30), U.S. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who left the Republican Party to become an independent and later supported President Trump’s impeachment, has decided to run for president as a Libertarian.
Rather than offering people a choice beyond a Democratic or Republican candidate, Amash, a frequent Trump critic, should remember a lesson from the 2000 presidential election: Sometimes a thirdparty candidate (back then, Ralph Nader of the Green Party) can help tip the scales in favor of a candidate (in that year, Republican George W. Bush) who you don’t want to win.
Inez Cara Villanueva, Foster City
Concerned for canines
As someone who shares his home with a furry, fourlegged companion known as man’s best friend, I’m alarmed to read “First case of dog testing positive” (Across the Nation, April 30).
Now that a pug named Winston has contracted the coronavirus in North Carolina, might other canines be vulnerable to this sometimes deadly illness? One of the things that has kept me sane during this stressful pandemic has been a routine of three long, daily neighborhood walks with my feisty pooch.
Now I’m worried if that’s such a good idea, or if we should have shorter outings closer to home. After all, dogs can’t wear protective face masks like their humans can to help shield them from COVID19.
Finn MacLaughlin, Daly City
Schools need funding
Regarding “Schools face rocky days ahead” (Page 1, April 29): As a public school teacher, I appreciate Jill Tucker’s article about education funding and the global pandemic. Chronicle readers can help our schools by voting yes for the Schools and Communities First initiative on the statewide ballot in November. It is incredibly difficult to care for my students right now. My school just doesn’t have enough resources for this work, and now more of my colleagues are being laid off.
The underlying issue is that schools depend on income taxes and sales taxes, which drop in a recession. California schools used to be funded mostly by property taxes. Now huge corporations like Chevron avoid property taxes because a tax loophole allows them to claim 1978 property values. The Schools and Communities First initiative will eliminate this loophole, bringing in $12 million annually for schools, and also for public hospitals and community services.
Schools and Communities First forces big corporations to pay their fair share while protecting residences and small businesses. My students deserve stable, wellresourced schools to help them through this crisis. Please support the Schools and Communities First initiative in November.
Miriam Walden, Berkeley
Send hogs to zoo
Regarding “Meat shortage unlikely, but higher prices possible” (April 30): This vegetarian is angered to read a comment by Jim Monroe, assistant vice president of communications for the National Pork Producers Council, that due to plant closures and worker absenteeism during this coronavirus pandemic, “hogs are backing up. There are too many hogs with nowhere to go.” How about sending them to farms or zoos where they won’t get slaughtered? Better yet, how about urging citizens to reduce their meat consumption?
The mass breeding of pigs, cows and chickens that are pumped full of antibiotics and often kept in crowded conditions is both ethically inhumane and environmentally hazardous.
During this health crisis, there are surely more important things to worry about than whether (as Daniel A. Sumner, director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center, said) you’ll be disappointed because you can’t choose from thin or thickcut pork chops when you’re grocery shopping.
Though meat lovers will disagree, I urge everyone to consider more plantbased dietary choices.
Kendra WiltonDavis, Richmond
Expensive homes
So according to “As shelter extended, some rules relaxed” (April 30), one of the precoronavirus activities being allowed to resume to get back to a sense of normalcy will be real estate transactions? Will that still unfortunately include open houses for properties with an average sales price north of $1 million?
Xavier Betancourt, San Francisco
Alarming solution
Aidin Vaziri’s article, “Risks for seniors could linger for years” (April 30), envisions a starkly limited future (with no dining out, no public transportation and no travel, with life becoming more about fundamentals and not much else) for one group of people, those over 65, as society opens up for those who are younger.
While the dangers and vulnerabilities outlined are real, the solution envisioned is alarming and indeed dire for the many people who are occupied by life well beyond medical appointments and receiving grocery deliveries. Embracing the idea that older people have to be isolated for their own good risks turning existing ageist attitudes into suffocating social norms.
Even the most engaged and determined of persons, by simply living their lives, will feel the burden of pushing up against the spoken and unspoken pressure to stay safe. It’s as if it were their personal responsibility, instead of everyone’s, to keep everyone, albeit relatively, safe.
Deborah Carmichael, Mill Valley
How to show gratitude
Would someone please explain to me how planes flying overhead (at taxpayers’ great expense and polluting our air) expresses gratitude to our health care providers?
It seems to me that if we truly want to thank those health care providers (as well as others performing essential services), we should spend those funds (and more) on the equipment they need to stay safe and the wages they so richly deserve.
Joel Levine, San Francisco