Letters to the editor

Twitter needs to apply rules to other leaders

It’s about time Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey flags tweets that are suspected to be untrue or that incite or glorify violence — both of which were applied to President Donald Trump’s tweet barrage.

This application of rules is not censorship and did not violate the First Amendment. It simply flagged the tweet as worthy of further investigation. That’s what the First Amendment is about!

Now Twitter needs to start applying these rules to other world leaders. A good place to start would be Iran’s Ali Khamenei. His constant calls for violence and destruction of Israel should be flagged. How ’bout it, Mr. Dorsey?

— David E. Cohen retired, former publisher/owner, Silicon Valley Community

Newspapers

Rhetoric turning us away from the most vulnerable

The Saratoga Ministerial Association includes the leaders of the houses of faith in Saratoga. In our national conversation, we are very aware of how words being used are eroding the fabric of the unity that we seek in our community.

The rhetoric is causing Americans to turn against their neighbors, particularly those on the margins of society.

We must respect the dignity of every human being. We reject the notion that we can ensure the safety of some by sacrificing the hopes of others. We are far too often hearing words of hate and thinly veiled racism, classism and sexism that are disturbing and causing great fear. We reject the uplifting and frequent use of anger and violence. We advocate peace, patience, tolerance (even those with whom we disagree), civil public discourse and wise discernment when speaking and interacting in the public sphere.

— Rev. Erik Swanson, chairman, Saratoga Ministerial Association, Saratoga

Does Trump think any vote against him is fraudulent?

President Trump lost the popular vote by the greatest margin in U.S. history for a candidate who won the Electoral College. Two years later, after Republicans lost key races in the midterm elections, he claimed voter fraud at the polls, saying: “When people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles. Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again.”

That certainly shows that he has never worked a polling place. At least here in Santa Clara County, very strict training and rules are followed, and every single person who works each site has to sign off on every sealed ballot box.

Now, Trump claims that mailin ballots are rife with voter fraud — another of his many debunked theories. He can’t charge cheating both ways — unless, of course, in his mind any vote against him is a fraudulent vote.

— Nancy Czosek, Gilroy

Grateful for the teachers helping students, families

Of course, we respect, appreciate and thank the brave frontline medical and emergency workers who are fighting COVID-19 for and with us. But will anyone thank the teachers?

Think about how much teaching they are doing: creating lessons, emailing and calling students, comforting parents and children, advising how to homeschool and conducting Zoom sessions with the children. Many teachers are also home-schooling their own children as well.

After 9/11, no one thanked the New York teachers who carried handicapped children down 13 flights of stairs. So many New York and New Jersey children lost family members as did teachers. We tried to be there for everyone. Please, this time, recognize the teachers!

— Marilyn Feldman, San Jose

Why is there so much plastic being produced?

You may have heard that in 2018 China began essentially rejecting the huge quantities of recyclable material that the United States used to ship there by enforcing very tight contamination restrictions on recovered material.

With this news, many material recovery enterprises at home and abroad could no longer process the overwhelming volume of material. In fact, I learned as a senior in high school that we didn’t have a recycling system in place, and that UC Santa Cruz, after years of accepting highly contaminated material, eventually gave up and sent everything to the landfill.

These revelations expose two issues: Why is there so much plastic and other waste being produced? And why aren’t people diligent with their recycling?

The second issue has no easy solution, but the first one we can address with a simple ban on nonessential single-use plastics in California by passing SB 54 and AB 1080 in the Legislature. — Bijan Ashtiani-Eisemann,

Santa Cruz