Letters to the Editor for July 13, 2018

Time to work together on homelessness

I read with interest the article on panhandling and homelessness in The Bee last week. I would like to advocate that Fresno residents come together to create a 24/7 low-barrier shelter and housing solution such as Community First in Austin, Texas, and Compassion Village in Sacramento, which is based on Austin’s model. Homelessness is complex, and requires complex solutions. We are on our way with services here, but we need to consider the next step together to fill an unmet need; this is where a 24/7 low-barrier shelter could meet that need as a long-term solution. Let’s create that community as a community.

Conservatives have vastly helped society

In regards to the political cartoon (July 9), Republicans are not all racists. Democrats are not all communists wanting dumb down our society into the haves and have nots.

In reality, “conservatives” have helped the American society in several ways:

The border is more secure. We, as Americans, are still rescuing those who need to be helped. President Trump is working hard in keeping the peace with China and North Korea. In Europe and the Jewish nation we have been re-established as allies including some Muslim countries. Unemployment is low. The stock market is healthy. The 20 percent tax rate helps many small companies, not just large corporations.

Also, I’m not sure that anyone is pushing for “more guns” so much as they are attempting to protect those that they already legally own. The mentality of disarming law-abiding citizens doesn’t make sense, seeing as those who would commit crimes will acquire guns illegally anyway.

Finally, I’m really only left with one question: Is The Bee’s goal simply to create more animosity and resent between Republicans and Democrats? Because as of late, I can’t see any benefit coming from such polarizing rhetoric. You know, it is more blessed to be a peacemaker than it is to be an instigator.

Pass carbon dividend legislation

Americans this year celebrated our independence by buying 94 percent of all our fireworks ($900 million) from China, further deepening our trade deficit to a country which, as the recent trade war shows, holds ever more disturbing economic power over us. But there are other ironies that swirl around July 4, 1776.

Did you know that many colonies (especially in the South) were in favor of independence because Britain had begun the process of outlawing slavery? If we stayed a British colony, our “peculiar institution” would be threatened. A more up-to-date irony: CBS news reported the morning of July 4 that “75 million Americans [in half of the original 13 colonies] will be in the grip of an extreme heat wave today [soaring into triple digits, factoring in the humidity]”. People are advised to stay indoors and miss the fireworks?

As global warming makes ever more severe cuts into Americans’ freedom to do as we choose, one hopes lawmakers will soon pass carbon dividend legislation, such as that proposed by Citizens Climate Lobby, so that The Fourth might again be a cause for celebration, not a reminder of what we didn’t do when we had the chance.

Columnist’s hypocrisy on display

I agree with Mike Reddin’s letter “Victor Hanson has it all wrong”: If The Bee recognizes an obligation to publish responsible opinions, it should dump Victor Davis Hanson’s column. As Reddin points out, Hanson simply ignores facts that don’t support his disingenuous arguments, not only on the Inspector General’s investigation of the Department of Justice and the FBI but on virtually anything he writes about.

For example, in his many “drill, baby, drill” columns about the Keystone pipeline, never once did he mention the fact that whatever oil might come of it would not come at all for at least seven years, far too late to make a real difference. He seems not at all persuaded by the overwhelming scientific consensus that the Earth’s climate IS warming and that warming is caused mainly by the carbon released into the atmosphere by human use of those fossil fuels he loves so much. And he just can’t let go of Hillary Clinton and her use of a private server for official emails – as if that were our most pressing issue – even though several high-ranking persons in the current White House have recently been found to do exactly the same thing. I smell hypocrisy.

This story was originally published July 16, 2018 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Letters to the Editor for July 13, 2018."