Recent rash of mass shootings are disgraceful
Regarding “Officials: Gun in supermarket shooting bought 6 days earlier” (sfchronicle.com, March 23): On March 16, eight people were killed, including six Asian Americans, at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area. On Monday, 10 people were killed, including one police officer, at a supermarket in Boulder, Colo.
These attacks were the sixth and seventh mass shootings in 2021 of four or more dead, not including the shooter. That’s a record Americans should be ashamed of. And we are only in the third month of 2021.
Unfortunately, gun violence has become as American as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. I fear that after all the sound and fury is over, the cycle of killings, hand wringing and mourning will continue ad infinitum. Gun control legislation anyone?
Ralph Stone, San Francisco
A real apology needed
As so aptly stated in the recent editorial, “Education of a school board” (Editorial, March 22), regarding Alison Collins’ nonapology for her racist tweets against Asian Americans, “But if she and other school board members can condemn Americans on the basis of actions a century or more ago, then surely a Twitter post from 2016 should be fair game in the assessment of an elected official.”
I have a feeling that Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant would have been honorable and humble enough to apologize themselves!
Ken Sakatani, San Francisco
Amused by school board
I used to follow sports. Now I follow the San Francisco school board drama. Mable Jang, San Francisco
Stop clock changes
Twice a year, almost the entire country goes through the hassle of changing our clocks. In the spring, we complain about losing sleep or an hour of our weekend. In the fall, we fret about winter darkness coming on so fast, and our sleep schedules are disturbed again. Along with inconveniences there are much more severe problems associated with the time change, including spikes in car accidents, workplace injuries, miscarriages and suicides.
Such serious issues seem to provide ample reason to end the time changes.
I would like to offer the perspective as well that these time changes are significantly worse when people do not work on a regular schedule. For people with weekends off, the fact that the time change always comes between Saturday and Sunday helps to buffer the change.
For those that do not have regular daytime work hours or regular weekends, the time change is a greater disruption, with more hassles and a greater danger of serious negative outcomes. As someone who works in a health care industry with irregular weeks and long shifts, I have no idea why we have been forced to put up with two time changes every year for so long. Lilliam Morrison, Richmond
End the filibuster
The filibuster has become nothing more than a weapon of obstruction favoring the minority party. It must be abolished because it has been and continues to be abused.
The GOP plans to use the filibuster to block HR1, even though this voting rights/anticorruption legislation is urgently needed and has bipartisan support of over two thirds of the American electorate.
When majority party policy aligns with the overwhelming will of the people, it is wrong to allow an undemocratic minority to continue to thwart that power and will. As Sen. Dianne Feinstein put it, I also don’t believe one party should be able to prevent votes on important bills by abusing the filibuster.
It’s disappointing that the Republican Party is openly working to bar the current administration from fulfilling its constitutional duty to legislate for the general welfare of American citizens.
Democrats must accept the Republican Party’s unwillingness to compromise and acknowledge that abolishing the filibuster merely reflects acceptance of continuing Republican abuse and intransigence. Discarding the filibuster is the only way for the current administration to move on, with righteous purpose, reflecting the majority will and best interests of our people. Eve Hill, Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles County