Oil drilling vote: Letters to the editor, Sept. 30, 2020

Sen. Caballero’s no vote was proper

Re: “State senator’s vote on safety zones from oil drilling was wrong and poorly explained,” published Sept. 13:

The authors’ attempts to bully Sen. Anna Caballero over her “no” vote on an arbitrary and economically devastating bill (AB 345) are misguided. Caballero’s Aug. 24 piece in this paper (“There’s environmental justice, and there’s bad legislation. She voted against the latter”) was correct in saying “AB 345 failed to look at the whole picture.” The recent authors also failed to do so.

AB 345 would have destroyed thousands of family-wage jobs in California. This is a fact — not an industry “talking point.” We reject the decision to politicize facts and mischaracterize them in this way.

While some might be able to ignore economic issues like the price of gasoline, many do not have this luxury. We respect politicians like Sen. Caballero for making decisions that best support their communities, not just decisions that are politically convenient or swayed by extremists.

If you want to talk about common-sense requests, let’s at least agree on the facts of the issue. Otherwise, let’s call this what it is — a publicity stunt that does nothing to help the people or economy of Fresno County.

Here’s ideas on limiting wildfires

Looking at the fires raging in our Central Valley as well as elsewhere in California and Washington state, I cannot understand why authorities cannot bring in measures to stop them.

While we cannot control natural causes, there are a lot of measures we can take to prevent them.

It is important to put into place a law that prohibits use of any type of fireworks or inflatable entertainment gadgets for parties or any occasion. The fire caused by use of such things in the gender reveal party is ridiculous. How important is to have a party with such gadgets for such a trivial thing that has caused so much devastation? It is time people understand the importance of safeguarding life and property, not to mention our forests.

Simple measures could help prevent fires. Ensure buckets of sand are located all around campgrounds.

Stop all use of inflatable entertainment gadgets within a perimeter of vulnerable areas.

Create fire-resistant areas by setting controlled fires before the season begins.

And if experts get together, we can limit these fires and destruction of property and our forests. We need to brainstorm and prepare a plan of action now.

Trump is direct, gets things done

Trump does not have a difficult personhood, even though that’s how the media portray him.

He is a direct person and wants to accomplish his goals. All people who are direct day in and day out know that not everyone takes it very well. However, it is the most efficient way to accomplish goals. Beating around the bush only saves people from hurt feelings and does nothing for progress. Efficiency thrives when people are direct. He gets his point across directly, and doesn’t try to sugar-coat anything to save people’s feelings.

So no, Trump is not insensitive or is flawed in his personhood; he has goals he is striving to achieve and will not put people’s feelings before his desire to achieve. And on top of this, day in and day out we constantly judge people on their achievements; it is how the majority of people measure success, so why can’t we pause for a second and take a look at those.

This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Oil drilling vote: Letters to the editor, Sept. 30, 2020."