Protect teachers and students with vaccine
Regarding “No timeline for opening schools, despite pressure” ( Front Page, Oct. 20): This retired educator believes that the timeline for safely reopening public schools in the Bay Area is after a COVID19 vaccine has been federally approved and locally distributed.
Many states are experiencing a second wave of coronavirus cases, and the best way to protect both teachers and students from further exposure or transmission is by providing them with vaccinations.
Phyllis Ramirez, San Francisco
Vicious namecalling
A respected and trusted infectious disease expert like Dr. Anthony Fauci does not deserve to be called a disaster by an antiscience president like Donald Trump.
Like so many other times when Trump has engaged in vicious namecalling, his smear of Dr. Fauci is another example of this familiar saying: “When you point one finger, there are three fingers pointing back at you.”
Fred Van Vliet, Petaluma
The presidential box
Turning off the president’s microphone during Thursday’s presidential debate is apparently designed to make the viewers’ experience less chaotic and more meaningful.
But this will do nothing to prevent him from continuing to talk and yell at Joe Biden with the goal of bullying and disrupting him. President Trump’s antics will probably be even worse as he will know the audience can’t hear his loud and provocative statements. The solution is a Miss Universe-type plexiglass box to drop over Trump; it would be wired with sound so he can hear Biden but Biden can’t hear him. Surely, Trump has some of these leftover boxes stored somewhere!
Karen Cliffe, San Francisco
Insult to intelligence
Regarding “Constant commercials” ( Letters, Oct. 20): Brother, I feel your pain. If I want my intelligence insulted, I’ll watch any of Kayleigh McEnany’s White House press briefings. Instead, I leave one of our TiVo tuners set to CNN ( or whatever channel suits your appetite for factbased news) so it can deliver the last 30 minutes of programming as soon as I turn on the TV, then hit fast rewind and begin watching what aired 20 or 30 minutes ago.
I can usually watch for about an hour, zipping through commercials, before bumping into real time. That way, the only insult to my intelligence is the president’s distraction du jour or anything leaving Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s lips. Sipping a beer helps, too.
Doug Roffmann, Petaluma
Debunk the myth
The letter about the overabundance of radio and television advertising gets close to a key point but doesn’t quite articulate it. The great myth about advertising supported television and radio advertising is that advertising supports programming.
That ceased to be true in the earliest days of radio. Programming is instead created to support the advertising. High minded content that doesn’t attract enough slackjawed viewers to the ads is quickly canceled.
Which is why corporatecontrolled forprofit radio and television reeks: it spews forth from the bottom of a lowest common denominator septic tank. A key question then becomes, how well can that model of broadcasting serve society as a whole?
Riley VanDyke, San Francisco
Terrible policies
Regarding “Fetal cells used in drug Trump took” ( Oct. 19): The article delineating how the Trump administration has initiated policies to hobble the use of human stem cells in medical research was gutwrenching. The fact that products of earlier stem cell research may have helped Trump in his COVID19 recovery is irrelevant to the deeprooted malevolence of the antiabortion ideologues, most of them
Trump worshipers. Like so many other administration initiatives, instituted in many cases surreptitiously, people will suffer and in some cases die from the implementation of these policies.
The best response from Californians is to vote wholeheartedly for Prop. 14, which continues funding for stem cell research at the state level.
John Stedman, San Francisco
Spread the wealth
Regarding “New federal strategy on homeless” ( Oct. 20): I don’t understand why it isn’t obvious to everyone that the U. S. allows poverty wages so, of course, there are demoralized American men lying all over our streets. Our previously wonderful, high quality, living wage manufacturing is done now that labor is cheap and expendable.
How about we create some real jobs for the next generation I expect will be living on the street, too? Instead of fabulously rich executives, how about sharing some of the proceeds with the people who actually do the work?
Jean Amos, San Francisco
Don’t rename, inform
Regarding “Disney toughens ‘ racist’ warning” ( Oct. 20): Disney’s new plan to treat inappropriate content in its historic films with detailed, culturally sensitive warnings instead of removal is a rational approach. Maybe something similar could be done for public schools instead of wholesale renaming, by posting information about the namesake that is historically accurate, balanced and sensitive to our modern ethical, moral and humanitarian concerns. An added benefit would be that the posted information could be changed in the future if our current state of awareness also doesn’t stand the test of time.
Tracy Schwartz, Mountain View
Consequences of crime
Regarding “Brazen shoplifters force another Walgreens to fold” ( Oct. 18): I want to thank Phil Matier of The Chronicle for his very factual report regarding Walgreens’ closing after 30 years of successful service to the community. The issue has developed due to the illegal occupancy, theft and drug dealing that has increased on Van Ness and Eddy Street. It is selfevident that the city politicians plus police department are doing nothing to get rid of the problem.
The homeless seem to be camped out in the vacant city property directly across from the Walgreens store. The health and the safety of the area are paramount, and nothing has been done to eradicate the problem. Jobs are also being lost, and so is the sales tax revenue for the city.
Arthur Zanello, San Francisco
Listen to the experts
Jill Tucker’s article (“S. F. public schools don’t have a timeline for reopening,” Oct. 20) indeed highlights the frustration of our current learning context. But I would argue, instead of “deriding” the experts, we should be listening to them.
The hatred of “Zoom school” is due, in large part, to parental insistence on larger periods of live teaching, forcing their students to be tied to their laptops and ignoring the expertise of trained educators. From the outset, experts advocated for a combination of short live lessons and community building coupled with more asynchronous learning which would provide greater flexibility for families.
Now those same parents are demanding a return to school, without seeing the full picture: students unable to move freely in the classroom, no collaborative work or shared materials with which to engage. No one sees distance learning as the ideal, not teachers or parents, but those of us in the classroom understand that a return to inperson teaching won’t be the panacea parents insist it will be. And we hope, for our health and that of our communities, that we will finally be given the professional courtesy we deserve.
Jessica Bailey, Livermore