San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Adachi a tireless advocate for criminal justice reform
I’m shocked and saddened to learn that Public Defender Jeff Adachi has passed away. He was a tireless advocate for criminal justice reform and took bold steps to reduce recidivism, reform bail requirements, and protect the rights of undocumented immigrants. When I think of the phrase “a true public servant,” I’ll always remember the name Jeff Adachi.
Wake up, Democrats
Democrats should embrace President Trump’s national emergency declaration. By doing so, they force Republicans to either open Pandora’s box for future Democratic presidents to address the true emergencies of climate change, gun violence and access to reproductive health care, or take the lead in thwarting Trump’s absurd declaration.
Democratic legislators should stand aside and allow Trump’s majority court or Republican legislators to further fracture the GOP. What an opportunity to force their hand or render Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump’s conservative court meaningless.
Dare Republican legislators and conservative judges to set this precedence while openly welcoming the prospects of 2020.
Testify to Congress
President Trump’s statement that he didn’t need to declare an emergency can be viewed as a constructive discharge of the emergency, thus terminating it.
Meanwhile, while Democrats are investigating Trump and his administration, members of his administration should be called in to testify under oath and repeat some of the outlandish claims made by the administration about the southern border.
They should also provide the underlying raw data for their wild-eyed conclusions. I’m pretty sure that any terrorist caught at or near the southern border would have the details of those appreciations (time, location, etc.) recorded.
That’s the raw data. The idea is, of course, that if these administrative people lie to Congress, then they should be charged accordingly.
Flawed assessment
Regarding “Fed agency hid Tesla crash data for 2 years” (Business, Feb. 16): Bryant Walker Smith is quoted saying, “The lesson here is a need for candor.”
What struck me about the article was the depiction of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as incapable of doing a scientifically valid assessment of safety. If the NHTSA’s method of assessing safety in other areas is as flawed as their analysis of the safety of driverless vehicles, we have much bigger problems.
Helpful document
Regarding “How to prepare for a good end of life” (Open Forum, Feb. 18): Katy Butler’s piece offered excellent advice on an important “life and death” issue. But there was a glaring omission. She failed to specifically recommend that everyone, regardless of age or current health condition, should complete a written advance health care directive.
In my own experience with my late wife’s death and the death of close friends, I have seen how extremely important and helpful it is to have that written document to help guide the family and medical providers with your final wishes on how you wanted to be treated.
Violence doesn’t help
Concerning “2 Oaklanders with distinct legacies: Newton, Robinson” (Insight, Feb. 17): It’s true that Oakland gave us the recently deceased baseball Hall of Fame player/manager Frank Robinson, a shining example of what writer/UC Berkeley teacher William Drummond calls lifting ourselves (the black community) up by our bootstraps.
Oakland also gave us Black Panthers founder Huey Newton, whose militancy and resistance to police brutality exemplified overthrowing a racist system by any means necessary. But Oakland has also given us less famous people who have been a mixture of these two legacies.
Today’s African American community is not a schism of these two men’s pathways in life, but rather involves a more complex approach toward reducing racism and creating equal opportunity for all. Some people choose to work within the established political process to achieve these goals, while others protest and organize new advocacy groups.
But violence — as history has shown us — is never a rational means to an end, and will never help level the playing field for African Americans in this country.
Recognize greatness
As a San Francisco Museum of Modern Art member, I was puzzled after reading “SFMOMA to sell a Rothko, work on gaps” (Front Page, Feb. 16). The painting to be sold for $35 million to $50 million hasn’t been shown in 17 years? The museum has five other paintings by Mark Rothko — one of the most important artists of the 20th century? How about displaying them together in one expansive Rothko gallery?
Sure, raise money for diversity, but recognize greatness when you have it instead of stuffing it in the back of a closet.
Liberals’ burden
Regarding “California’s real emergency” about the housing shortage (Editorial, Feb. 23) about the housing shortage and high poverty rate: You left out declining educational system . Could any of these factors be attributed to California’s policy of welcoming illegal immigrants into your “Sanctuary State?” You not only hate Trump you hate yourselves. California’s liberal policies have turned the state into a third world haven. Congratulations.