Dedicate a museum for offensive monuments State of denial

In “Decades of inaction led statues to topple” ( June 28), Heather Knight points to the slow and cumbersome process of handling municipal complaints about public monuments as one of the key reasons for their sudden displacement in the wake of protests to George Floyd’s killing.

While I generally oppose the destruction of these statues, since this smacks of simplistic wishful thinking as though history can be erased, for years I have thought that many of them should be assembled together and displayed in a huge museum in our nation’s capital. I suggest that this institution be given a name such as: The Museum of the Legacy of American Oppression and Racism or something similar.

These statues and monuments deserve to be exhibited in their proper context, and in so doing, it could accomplish this publicly and simultaneously provide a way for people to visibly and eternally confront and acknowledge our history.

The museum should have numerous other artifacts, archival documents and materials that show how discrimination has been integral to nearly all aspects of American life, from the law, business, health, education, religion, the arts, media and beyond. Collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture would be invaluable.

Tom Herz, San Francisco

Concerning “Why California is closing again” (Editorial, July 30): The one sentence that stands out for me in this editorial is this: “After months of economic hardship and social isolation, Californians want to forget about the coronavirus, and so do many of our leaders.”

But how can we possibly forget about an ongoing epidemic that has already infected more than 2.6 million Americans and caused over 127,000 deaths?

All of the people who are gathering in bars or hanging out at beaches without proper social distancing or wearing masks are foolishly living in the United States of Denial.

Marisol Echevaria, Daly City

Problem with gas stoves

Regarding “Hitting the gas on ‘allelectric future’ ” ( June 30): Cooking over a gas stove has lost any appeal it once had for me. On ever more frequent hot summer days, I don’t even like cooking for myself.

“The gas stove, long considered a musthave for home chefs in the foodobsessed Bay Area,” the article says, and gas have a lot of drawbacks, from the aforementioned excess heat, to amplifying air pollution that leads to asthma and deadlier outcomes from COVID19, to contributing to the climate crisis.

The methane that powers gas stoves is a greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and leaks significantly on its way from the extraction site to your home. Those leaks are also responsible for the fire every four days and the fatality every 26 days that San Francisco Department of Environment Director Debbie Raphael mentions. The good news is we have solutions, including cool, efficient induction stoves. It’s time to end gas infrastructure in new buildings, with no loopholes. What do you want more? The blue flame on your kitchen stove or your kids to have a livable future?

Helena Birecki, San Francisco