San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Carry over talk about violence in NFL to rest of society
Everyone was affected by NFL player Damar Hamlin’s life-threatening injury: players, coaches, commentators, fans and the public at large. It touched everyone’s humanity and showed us that life is precious and tenuous.
It also brought up the expected questions about the violent nature of football. Why then, is such a violent sport so popular in this country?
A throwback to the time of gladiators fighting to the death? The need for fans to identify with and idealize a particular form of aggressive masculinity? Is it related to the prevalence of guns in our culture? Underneath, are we actually afraid, but cover it up by identifying with strength and aggressiveness?
Can this frightening incident promote a conversation about the nature of violence in our world?
Peter Klein, Menlo Park
Servers need tips
Regarding “Put tips into the price” (Letters to the Editor, SFChronicle.com, Jan. 6): Sounds very nice, but unfortunately it is not practical. The writer says that tips should not
be part of a server’s wage. Really? Have you ever worked in a restaurant?
Servers pay the bussers, hosts, food runners and bartenders from their tips. So you would now like to increase the price of the menu items to pay these salaries, not to mention the cooks and dishwashers who don’t receive tips?
Servers are required to do a lot more than you guests realize: Knowledge of the menu, wine knowledge, dealing with difficult guests, handling five to eight tables at a time, timing the pace of the kitchen and dealing with a bad tip on occasion — which comes directly out of our pocket when we tip everyone out.
Tipping is as American as you can get. Every shift I work requires me to give 100% with every guest I serve or I don’t get paid.
Roger Lema, Hayward
Wood Street a success
Regarding “I’m a resident of the Wood Street encampment.
Oakland is trying to erase my community” (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, Jan. 6): Genuine community can be the saving grace of any society or city. LaMonte Ford describes such a community in his article.
The Wood Street encampment is an example of how people who live together can and ought to relate with one another and share the resources for a more holistic community. Most neighborhoods in which we live could never claim such collaborative relationships other than coexisting in proximity with one another.
I am aware of cities where churches, synagogues and mosques have hosted intentional tent city communities on their properties for limited periods of time with great success. Wood Street has been able to operate similarly for the past decade.
With the city planning to evict the remaining residents on Monday, perhaps it is time for the religious and humanitarian communities to gather and surround the Wood Street encampment as a human shield to protect these people and their property from eviction and demolition.