Letters to the editor

Getting rid of statues won’t heal America

The bitter assailing of Confederate statues and name places is symptomatic of the demons in the American psyche, just as is the vehement upheaval of white racism sprouting up everywhere. The illusion of getting rid of outward signs of our tragic past will not transform and heal our collective soul. Jesus said that when an unclean spirit goes out of a person, and even if that person things he has rid himself of this evil, in fact the unclean spirit will return with seven other spirits more evil than himself.

What we are witnessing today is the return of the seven other spirits more evil than the past because we have not taken responsibility for our heritage of genocide, slavery and racism. Perhaps we should place statues of enslaved peoples next to Confederate generals, reminding us of we were and what we need to transform.

— Rev. Jerry Drino, San Jose

Statues are reminders of America’s history

I, too, have relatives who are Native American, not one of whom, as far as I know, is angry at Christopher Columbus. If protesters worked as hard at a job as they do at tearing down things, they might just improve their own lives, instead of blaming someone else for their problems, as Ruben Navarrette (Opinion, Aug. 24) describes so well. Statues are reminders of our history, be it the good or the bad, and we need to remember both. — Sherrie Hall , San Jose

Erasing past makes ignorance a virtue

Private monuments are free speech and private property. And the law protects both. Public monuments are archives of history and record the public’s sentiment, priorities, and judgments at a time in the past.

The record of the public’s sentiments and actions informs the present, and the current generation must know the full truth of its past and the lessons that previous generations learned or failed to learn.

Destroying monuments and erasing the past is simply proclaiming ignorance to be a virtue. Every generation is entitled to the knowledge of its past and in rendering judgment on its history. — T. G. Holford, San Jose

Don’t pay any attention to white supremacists

How to respond the white supremacists? By paying no attention whatsoever.

No media coverage of any kind. No TV, radio, written media, photographers, Internet or drones. Haters want attention and confrontation; the more, the better.

If you absolutely must protest in person, stand silently, peacefully, and turn your back towards them. The rest of us will demonstrate every day by living our lives modeling inclusiveness, understanding and freedom from bigotry. To quote former first lady Michelle Obama, “Our motto is, when they go low, we go high.” — Marcia Fariss, Saratoga

GOP’s Mayes merits climate change praise

Californians concerned about climate change owe a debt of gratitude to former Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes and his seven GOP colleagues who provided bipartisan votes for California’s new cap and trade bill. It is sad that other Republicans voted Mayes out from his leadership position.

California’s bipartisan climate policy is heartening, and even the news from Washington is not uniformly bleak. Since President Trump took office, the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus has quadrupled to 50 members of Congress. With its 25 Republicans, climate realists now have a majority in the House. Let us hope more Republicans join their brave colleagues to support bipartisan climate solutions. — Max Henrion, Los Gatos

Re-examine state’s violent crime numbers

Dan Walters (Opinion, Aug. 23) claims that violent crime increased 7.4 percent from 2011 to 2016, and blames that increase, without any proof, on “lenient” policies. In fact, the long term trend in California since 1992 is almost uniformly toward lower violent crime rates. Nearly all of the increase Walters mentions is due to an increases in 2012 and 2015, with flat or decreasing rates in intervening years. (For example, violent crime decreased 6.5 percent in 2013.) Moreover, a great deal of the recent increase has occurred in poorer areas of the state —essentially the Central Valley — suggesting a different explanation. It remains to be seen if any increase is part of a trend toward higher crime, and if so, what statewide crime and parole policies have to do with it, if anything. — Peter Haas, Professor Emeritus San Jose State University

It’s reporters’ jobs to challenge Trump

Claiming reporters behaved “unprofessionally” at President Trump’s press conference last week where Trump, for the first time in American presidential history, condoned domestic terrorism, endorsed neo-Nazis and white supremacists as “fine people”, and equated them to patriotic Americans who protested their hate-filled rhetoric, Ruben Navarette seems completely clueless regarding the role of presidents and journalists (Opinion, Aug. 20).

In his first six months Trump has made an astounding 836 false and misleading claims (32 per week on average), according to the Washington Post.

It is the job of reporters to challenge his lies and deceit and seek the facts — real facts, not Trump’s dishonest and realitydistorted “alternative facts”. — Dave Whitaker, San Jose

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

A letter in Thursday’s edition of the Mercury News incorrectly characterized Rep. Anna Eshoo and Rep. Ro Khanna’s position on the censure resolution introduced into the House of Representatives. Eshoo and Khanna support the resolution to censure President Trump.