San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Reveal drug prices
Regarding “Drug makers sue to block requirement for listing prices in TV ads” (Business, June 15): A few decades ago, food processors tried to stave off providing nutrition data on packaged foods because they deemed the public too stupid to understand nutrition labels.
We all know how that turned out. But here we go again, as Big Pharma tries to hide behind us patients, resurrecting the canard that we’re too stupid to understand ... drug prices, of all things!
Every day, Big Pharma tries to sell us drugs with the explicit warning that they might kill us. The least they can do is tell us how much it will cost.
Karl Hittelman, Corte Madera
Food hurricane
Concerning “Delivery from the skies” (Spencer Whitney, Last Word, June 15): The news that Uber Eats is planning to deliver food with a fleet of drones is a case of life imitating art. Just ask any kid (or kid-like adult) who has read the book and/or seen the movie version of “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”
Let’s just hope that these drones don’t cause a real-life food hurricane to develop like the one that came from the “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” author’s imagination.
Not worth the money
As a retired San Francisco United School District educator who taught at Bessie Carmichael Elementary School for 22 years, I find it inconceivable that the SFUSD school board would spend more than $800,000 on removing an historical mural at George Washington High School.
Bessie has a population in which more than a quarter of students are homeless and more than half eat federally funded meals. It also was woefully bereft of support staff for my entire tenure. That money can be better spent. I also have two children who graduated from George Washington High School and who were taught by their teachers that the mural was a piece of history that was influenced by the Depression and put former President George Washington’s life in perspective.
The mural may or may not be great art, but it is tangible history on its own. Covering historical art is right out of Adolf Hitler’s playbook.
Qualified professionals
Concerning “Education reforms” (Letters, June 15): The letter writer who calls for fundamental changes to tenured teacher evaluation to rid our public schools of lazy, incompetent or poorly performing educators might not be aware that they are subjected to regular performance reviews by their school districts and must meet certain continuing education requirements to maintain their credentials.
As a retired teacher who worked in public schools for 35 years, I can attest that the vast majority of teachers are very qualified, hardworking, underpaid and unjustly criticized by the media and those who have never worked in a public school classroom. This letter writer might also want to examine the role of administrators and parents in his critique of today’s public education system.
Compassion for refugees
Refugees and migrants who come to the United States hope for better opportunities and a pursuit of happiness. I know, I’m a former refugee. What I’m seeing now are families being torn apart, kids dying in anxiety or being ill-treated, and people being held against their will.
They can’t walk back to where they’re from, knowing the hard journey and costs it took, and the lack of food and safety from which they tried to escape.
They risk a lot and are now being ridiculed by the ignorant, arrogant and callous. We, in moral grounds, should show compassion and not hatred. We should be cautious but also understanding. We should not close our hearts, eyes and ears.