Time to rethink how to use fairgrounds best

Re “Del Mar Fairgrounds requests $20 million in emergency aid” (May 4): Seeking aid from the state is understandable given the event closures. The fairgrounds are a valuable community asset and must be maintained.

Crisis always forces thought and, possibly, reassessment. The board should be thinking of options and ways to create more value from its assets before it goes to the state taxpayers asking for aid.

And I am sure taxpayers in San Diego County may have some good ideas for creating land-use value. It would be nice to hear from both.

I don’t want to enable the Del Mar Fairgrounds to continue hosting animal abuse, a la the cruel-as-ever Del Mar horse races and livestock exhibits/auctions. But if it can get this financial aid, then it shouldn’t need the horse race money.

And these COVID-19 relief funds should not go toward subsidizing the horse racing industry, which has been in decline since the 1990s, as stated by the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The fairgrounds board was unwise to take on massive debt in 2002 to build the present grandstand in the wake of the LAO’S pronouncement in 1998.

Don’t keep throwing good money after bad.

SDG&E could give its customers a break

During these times, when many are staying home 24/7 and many are out of work, I believe SDG&E can help the San Diego community by comparing each customer’s monthly bills from last year at this time to the bills we currently have as a result of this lockdown/stay-at-home directive.

We could then be charged the lesser of each monthly bill. SDG&E has this information at its fingertips. We can see our bills from last year on its website and the utility can too. This would require some effort on the part of SDG&E, but

it would greatly help the people of San Diego.

Kids should come first in any reopen decision

As far as “opening up” the society, the first priority should be schools at all levels from preschool to college. School-age kids are the least likely to have a negative outcome from the coronavirus and are suffering the most during this shutdown.

Go ahead and keep the restaurants, bars, sporting events, hair salons and concerts closed, but open up the schools. We are creating a “lost generation” of kids who are not just missing a few months of school but are becoming incredibly turned off by the online learning that they are being offered as an alternative.

At this point, it is recoverable, but if the schools do not open in September, it will be a disaster. If teachers and school employees are in high-risk groups, they should stay home and protect themselves, but otherwise, education (of all things) should be considered an “essential” activity.

Unsung heroes offer words of hope, support

Re “Hospital and hospice chaplains adjust to COVID-19 changes, but ‘active listening — that stays the same’” (May 1): Thank you for the article last week on hospital chaplains serving during the current pandemic. It’s the first time I have seen anyone add this group of selfless servants to the list of heroes in the present challenge.

They are too often the unsung servants who support both the medical staff and the patients with comfort and care when it seems to be all questions and no answers in life. Along with the nurses and doctors and other medical staff, the chaplains are everywhere with a word of hope and presence of support.

Remember who puts food on our tables

Re “U.S. farmworkers deserve a raise, not a pay cut” (May 3): Without these immigrant and naturalized workers, we would be paying much more for produce that is grown in the U.S., if grown here at all, given that we could import produce,

which very likely uses underpaid farm workers in other countries but could destroy the U.S. farming communities.

That sentiment also includes many, if not all, of the meat-packing plant employees. Why should farmers and their farmhands suffer when we have all been reaping the benefits of their labor for years? And kudos to the U-T for the three articles on the opinion page of Sunday’s paper under the title “The fate of farmers.”

Biden is fit to lead us, Trump simply is not

Re “Harassment, assault absent in Biden complaint” (May 3): To me, whether or not former Vice President Joe Biden inappropriately touched a woman 27 years

ago is not the point.

Biden has the intelligence to be president. Donald Trump does not.

There was a time Americans sacrificed

Re “From the archives” (May 6): I enjoyed your reprint of the 1942 story about “thousands waiting in line for War Rationing Book.” It explained how San Diegans waited hours to get their ration books so they could buy restricted items like sugar, meat, coffee, etc.

There was no mention of loud, flag-waiving, sloganbelting pseudo-patriots protesting this ration book attack on their personal liberty. Self-sacrifice for a good cause was patriotic then. It still is, America.