Trump and CIA: Letters to the editor, Feb. 21, 2019

Trump ‘knows’ more than CIA, FBI

Isn’t it comforting to know our president is so much smarter than all of our intelligence agencies.

He has no background in intelligence gathering, doesn’t read his daily briefings and yet has superior knowledge of all threats to our nation.

Maybe such profound knowledge just magically seeps into his genius brain.

Rex Tillerson called him a moron. Many countries call him a preening clown. But they don’t understand his brilliance.

I’m so proud.

Create new housing in old buildings

In an attempt to help the housing crisis, Gavin Newsom has introduced a plan to build 3.5 million homes in California by 2025. This equals about 500,000 units a year, which will be a big leap from the last 10 years; which was on average less than 80,000 homes built, according to California’s housing department.

Governor Newsom has already begun the process of allocating $1 billion to certain cities and counties. However, research from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs shows the state doesn’t have enough land set aside for all of the development.

The state of California should look to Salt Lake City, Utah which has started an initiative to refurbish abandoned buildings and turn them into affordable housing. Especially in downtown Fresno by Chukchansi park. The city of Fresno needs 41,108 homes to meet current demand, according to numbers by the Fresno Housing Authority. A great way to help with the housing problem we face for a lower cost would be to reuse existing buildings instead of building more and cutting down on our already limited land.

Academic study of religion a worry

I read Andrew Fiala’s Feb. 3 column about the need for “academic study of religion,” presumably in public schools. He presents some compelling reasons to support this contention, about which I do not disagree. But watch out!

Back before the turn of the century (1996) I taught science at Edison High here in Fresno. I was aware that the English Department at Edison was teaching a unit called “The Bible as Literature.” Well, OK, that seemed fair enough, although I was suspicious. Then, one day, a group of students who were supposed to be doing a physics lab were obviously engaged in something else. I checked to see what they were up to and saw a number of flash cards on the table: one side had a word on it and the other a definition. The one that really shocked me went something like this: Hypothesis: a term scientists use to mislead students into thinking science is valid. When I asked what the flash cards were for, I was told that they were preparation for a test for the Bible as Literature unit.

I am certainly not a biblical scholar, but I somehow doubt that the Bible contains this definition of that scientific term. I am familiar, though, with the fable about a camel getting its nose into a tent: it seems innocuous at first, but bad things can follow. Teaching an academic study of religion seems innocuous at first, but what might follow?

Hit in eyeballs with the unexpected

Since moving to Fresno and subscribing to The Bee, I have found that Andrew Fiala writes with an intelligent prospective in most of his articles. Recently I was hit in the eyes with something I would never expect to read from him..

As a professor of philosophy, it is hard for me to believe that he is promoting religion in a prescribed manner to be taught in the public schools. It is difficult for me to decide on the curriculum of what is being taught when probably two people of the six would come from one religion as would the other four members. Even if all six came from the same religion, I doubt if the students were. Then, there is the teacher. Maybe, he or she is from another facet of their religion and can easily change the approach.

The parents are the ones designated to point the children in their religious following, not our public schools. If, in maturity, a person wants to discover any of the many religions, let them do it in the proper environment taught by educated people in that area.

Please tell Professor Fiala, that the educated gentlemen who spoke of the separation of church and state were not wrong. I will, however, continue to look for many more of Fiala’s columns.