Restaurants and pandemic: Letters to the editor, Oct. 10, 2020
DA is wrong, as are local restaurants
I don’t agree with DA (Lisa) Smittcamp’s decision regarding not charging Fresno restaurants who didn’t comply with COVID-19 health orders.
By continuing indoor dining, not only were the restaurants in question non-compliant with state orders, but were negligent in regards to the safety and health of their employees and attending guests.
The CDC is a credible source whose recommendations regarding the pandemic are being taken into consideration by countries around the world; however, some Fresno restaurants decided to ignore their findings relating to the heightened risks of COVID-19 spread and indoor dining. DA Smittcamp stated in some of the cases there was no clear defendant to be charged. However, Pismo’s Coastal Grill, Culichi Town, House of JuJu, and Luna’s Pizzeria are all locally owned businesses or small chains. The defendant is clear — the owners of the businesses in question since they’re the ones in charge of how their businesses are being run.
Restaurants all over the state have been grossly affected by the pandemic, and if business owners in larger cities such as San Francisco and Sacramento are able to comply with state orders, then I don’t see why it’s not possible to do so in Fresno.
Dilman Sidhu, Fresno
Save our great postal service
The best federal service is the postal service.
Walt Disney worked as a substitute delivery worker as a young man, as did actors Rock Hudson and Sherman Hemsley. Before “The Office,” Steve Carrell worked for the post office. Before Bill Nye was the science guy, he was a postal guy.
Twenty-something Abraham Lincoln did a good job as the postmaster for New Salem, Illinois, in the 1830s. If an addressee could not collect his or her mail at the post office, Lincoln delivered it personally, according to a USPS account.
Rural Americans and veterans waiting for their prescribed medicines rely on the post office.
In 2019 President Trump tried to establish an unprecedented congressional mandate that threatened the postal service's ability to continue to provide good jobs and universal service. President Trump’s intentional debilitation of an American treasure, to fulfill a free-market fantasy from which no part of government, no matter how important, is safe, must be stopped.
Contact your congressman and senators to support USPS workers.
Mike Starry, Fresno
Time to relieve Trump of command
I’m one of Mr. Trump’s suckers and losers. My military service was 1959-62. Two of my schoolmates are on the Vietnam Memorial. I suppose they fit into Mr. Trump’s characterization.
Mr. Trump views himself as a commander in chief. Well, in military terms, he has lost 190,000-plus troops, as of this writing, due to COVID-19; or in other terms, about 16 divisions. If he was in the military, he would have been relieved of command. By any measure it has been a substandard performance.
John Waddell, Lemoore
This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Restaurants and pandemic: Letters to the editor, Oct. 10, 2020."