Necessary verdict in Bill Cosby case
Actor/comedian Bill Cosby’s conviction for drugging and molesting a woman is a painful but necessary verdict. During this #MeToo era, victims of sexual harassment and assault are finally coming out of the shadows to tell their stories. Cosby’s conviction shows that even powerful individuals — including the once-beloved “America’s Dad” on television — are not immune from being held accountable for unwanted sexual behavior.
Gloria Curazon, Daly City
Price on carbon
Regarding “State at greater risk of flooding” (April 24): Kurtis Alexander brings up an excellent point regarding long-term versus short-term weather projections. When discussing climate change, we often point to average temperature increases over time. But the nature of atmospheric warming is that it results in increasingly severe weather swings, which don’t appear in longterm averages because opposing extremes cancel each other out. We’ve witnessed the danger associated with extreme weather swings recently, such as when the charred mountains in Montecito couldn’t absorb subsequent inundation by heavy rainfall, resulting in lethal mudslides.
And last February, record rainfall in Northern California caused the Oroville dam to rise nearly 50 feet in five days, breaching the spillway for the first time ever and requiring the evacuation of nearly 200,000 residents. Shifting our outlook to short-term weather projections makes it clear that we need to act on climate change immediately — especially since the Earth could continue to warm for centuries if we stop emitting greenhouse gases now. By implementing a steadily rising price on carbon with the revenue returned to households, we could effectively tackle climate change and avoid any hit to the economy.
Sienna Shankel, San Francisco
Asserted rights
Regarding “Tribes seek act of Congress to expand” (Open Forum, April 26): I disagree with the writer who is disgruntled because Native American tribes are asserting their rights and building houses and casinos on lands they have purchased. Our European ancestors wiped out entire tribes and stole their land. Read “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee” if you want to have a good cry. The shoe is on the other foot now, and I for one am gladdened.
Elizabeth Larson, San Francisco
Grounded in reality
During his speech to Congress, Emmanuel Macron spoke thoughtfully and coherently about the dangers of trade wars, isolationism and carbon emissions wrecking our environment (“There is no planet B”). He also recognized that an international community is needed to build our world in the 21st century. When Macron finished his speech, I realized something: He and our former president are intelligent men who are grounded in reality and focused on realistic solutions to global problems, while our current White House occupant is, tragically, only concerned with name-calling and himself.
Sasha Englander, San Rafael
Religious progressives
Regarding “Trump’s politics sway GOP-leaning religionists” (April 27): In his column, Andrew Malcolm refers to the enduring historical identification of religious Americans with the Republican Party. Elsewhere in his column, he refers to evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews. But there are lots of religious Americans who don’t fit those categories, and many of them do not identify with the Republican Party.
People of many faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or Buddhism, to name a few, hold beliefs that you won’t find in the modern Republican Party. History? Have a look at pictures from the marches of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, or the protests against the Vietnam War. You’ll find plenty of evidence of religious Americans there, in the front lines of those movements. Somehow, the public conversation on this subject has come to assume that the fraction of the faithful represented by evangelicals is the entire population of religious Americans. But there are lots of religious Americans who support progressive political candidates, because they believe those candidates best reflect their beliefs in our duties to each other. Our conversation should include and respect those folks, too.
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol
Fight rape culture
Regarding “Women: S.F. shrugs at sex assault cases” (April 25): I read with a sinking heart the statistic that only 0.4 to 5.4 percent of rapes are prosecuted nationwide. The number of convictions must be even less. I challenge anyone to look within their circle of friends and family and acquaintances and not find evidence of the profound harm that rape and sexual assault does to individuals and communities. It is a crime that keeps on doing damage over time and even across generations.
Why do universities not protect their students from rape proactively by imposing severe internal penalties on perpetrators, as well as handing them to law enforcement? Why did Aaron Persky in the Stanford rape trial wax empathetic, not about the unconscious victim of a horrific rape, but about Brock Turner, the rapist himself ? Why do women in the article report casual, dismissive treatment by San Francisco law enforcement that is completely unacceptable and, unfortunately, commonplace? No consequences for rape and sexual assault equals a green light to rapists and potential rapists. It is time to make rape culture visible and to combat it on every personal and institutional level!
Kristine Wyndham, Oakland