Pelosi and Schumer: Letters to the editor, Jan. 27, 2019

Nancy and Chuck are clueless

If Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer had a clue, they would give Trump his five and half billion dollars for the southern border wall and reopen the government. The laid off government employees would love them. And all the socialist progressives would consider them the most compassionate compromisers’ of modern times.

And when Trump’s wall is a miserable failure in stopping illegal immigration (as Nancy and Chuck maintain that it will be), they could come to the media outlets and make the announcement: “I told you so.”

It would be the all-time “Win-Win” for them!

But, as I previously noted ... if they had a clue.

Remembering fun at Romain Playground

When I was young, I used to always enjoy Romain Playground as it was just a few blocks from my boyhood home. I was grateful for it and so were the kids in my neighborhood.

Sadly, some kids burned it down. It’s too bad there was no nighttime security. If the building is ever replaced, I would suggest a deterrent that is more effective than security cameras because now it will probably cost a lot more to insure a new building if, in fact, one is ever built.

Not all things are related

I was a little troubled by Marek Warszawski’s “both-sides-ism” piece (Dec. 31). It’s a popular media trope that finds equivalence in things that aren’t really related. Truly, do you think the horrible, hateful, hurtful things some readers say about the deaths of children at the border are really the same as verbal pokes taken at the president’s campaign rally in Afghanistan?

Not long ago the media were issuing mea culpas regarding their year 2016 reporting failures. Those failures included: succumbing to both-sides-ism, “but, what about(s)...”, and to false equivalencies — all effective tools in the sowing of chaos.

There are things that are right and just, and those that are not. While the media may get a pass for finding no moral authority worthy to interview and present a finding of what’s right and wrong in a story, there remains a difference. At the least, please do not state that there are equivalencies in stories when there are none.

I agree that there are many ways to consider most stories and issues. And that it is imperative to attempt to consider those many factors, and perhaps pursue common ground in conversation, if and when that ground is fertile.

Let’s boost community colleges

With a new governor and super-majorities in both houses of the Legislature, Sacramento can do things that meaningfully benefit the people of California.

For starters, it is time California provided free (tuition, fees, expenses, and books) community college education to all students, subject to reasonable standards for admission to the program, such as a minimum high school GPA, and time standards for graduation.

Second, our community colleges should be required to provide courses of training commensurate with demand for needed jobs, such as nursing and information technology. Community colleges have few classes and long waiting lists for these and other high-demand courses because they are labor intensive to teach. So colleges offer classes that can be taught in a large lecture hall by a part-time teacher and skimp on labor-intensive courses.

Educating Californians for good-paying jobs that California needs to fill benefits everybody and makes good sense financially.