San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Plant redwood trees in honor of lives lost to COVID19
To honor the nearly 35,000 Californians who have died from COVID19, a number that will sadly continue to increase, I propose the state of California plant and name one coast redwood tree for each person lost. Redwood trees can live for hundreds of years, making them ideal for memorializing our loved ones.
Furthermore, coast redwoods capture more carbon dioxide than any other tree on Earth, so we should be planting as many as possible.
A slap on the wrist
Kurtis Alexander’s article “Baltimore suit against Big Oil has ramifications for Bay Area” ( Jan. 19) highlights Baltimore’s case against oil companies, but this is merely a BandAid on a bullet wound.
While seeking damages from Big Oil is a good first step, it fails to hold these companies accountable for future damage to the environment. What we need is a more permanent solution like the carbon fee proposed in the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. The act would not only charge these companies for the damages they cause going forward, it would also distribute this money back to Americans — directly strengthening the communities these companies are harming in the first place.
We should implement effective, forwardthinking policy to deal with fossil fuel emissions, not a onetime financial slap on the wrist.
Leave the seat, Feinstein
Regarding “Feinstein defends GOP senators’ election objections” (Nation, Jan. 20): I have always been a strong believer that elections were our term limits and people have to come out and exercise this option. I strongly believed that legislating term limits is wrong. However, reading the article about Sen. Dianne Feinstein has made me see that there perhaps is an argument for limits. Feinstein, you are out of touch. Come home to San Francisco, and leave the seat to someone else.
Resign with honor
I am appalled that Sen. Dianne Feinstein defended Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and intimated that the impeachment trial of the former president wasn’t important because he was gone from office.
This is outrageous! Of course we need to convict him at his impeachment trial! Unless the Senate convicts him, he can run for office again, God forbid! Isn’t four years of hate and destruction and lies enough?
And as for the senators who supported the former president’s lies and distortions, they need to appear before the ethics committee at the very least for trying to undermine the election, to say nothing of supporting the storming of the Capitol.
It’s time for Feinstein to resign with honor rather than continue making statements and taking actions that are counter to a democratic nation.
Correct Trump’s tweets
A number of senators have expressed the view that they are against impeachment because they favor uniting the country. I believe this is an incorrect view.
The best way to unite the country is to convict former President Donald Trump at his impeachment trial — the best way to correct his tweets and messages that have persuaded too many people to disregard truth.
GOOD WEEK
She’s sworn in as vice president of the United States, making history in highest office achieved by a woman or woman of color. We knew her when!
Amazing 22-year-old poet laureate becomes national phenomenon with her elegant delivery of a call for recovery and renewal in “The Hill We Climb.”
The reporter who once covered S.F. City Hall so deftly for us is now ABC’s chief White House correspondent. We knew her when!
Pence shows some class
Regardless of what you think of him and his politics, former Vice President Mike Pence turned out to be the classiest member of the circus we watched these past four years. I appreciated the outgoing and incoming vice presidents having a laugh on the steps as the Pences headed out.
A test of legality
The editorial “Art of the Grift” ( Jan. 21), asserts that perhaps the only surprise is that former President Donald Trump didn’t pardon himself, his family or Rudy Giuliani.
This presupposes that socalled “secret pardons” were not issued that could be produced by defendants upon future indictment.
Given the sleazy nature of this former president and the fact that such an action is not explicitly restricted by the Constitution, does anyone really believe he is above testing its legality?
There doesn’t appear to be any downside for producing such documents, which criminal associates keep locked up as potential “Get out of Jail Free” cards.
BAD WEEK
Disgraced ex-president who had refused to accept election result slinks out of D.C. without greeting his successor at White House or attending inaugural. In a word: loser.
President Biden announces that the U.S. will re-enter the Paris Climate Agreement and cancels the Keystone XL Pipeline. It was a good week for the planet.
House GOP leader backpedals from an earlier statement that the 45th president provoked the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Fear of Trump endures.