How about today's exploitation?

Re "Lawmakers want apology for anti-Chinese measures" (Capitol & California, July 6): I do agree that the Chinese were horribly exploited back then.

OK, so if we are going to apologize for what we did over a hundred years ago, then why don't we apologize for what we are doing to them now? How do you think all those cheap electronics and gadgets from China get made? China's lack of environmental laws, labor laws, commerce laws, etc., have made it a powerhouse at the expense of its workers who get paid a dollar an hour, the toxic waste that gets dumped on its shores and is washed to the sea, and the difficulty getting our products into China.

I guess as long as we can buy flat screens and computers cheap, and dispose of our old electronics in their landfills, where children pick through them with bare feet for the gold in the circuit boards while the lead gets washed out, then that's OK.

China needs to apologize to its own people and the world first, and our lawmakers need to focus on passing a budget that balances, for if they had put this much energy and effort into doing their jobs, it would have been done already.

– Justin Bunch, Carmichael

Bring back Gray Davis

Let me get this straight. You want state workers to have the courage to bring their story on how the furloughs have affected them to the public? After The Bee has bashed most of them on how they are overpaid, get too many benefits, etc.? You wonder why you don't have them knocking your door down?

Just look around Sacramento and up and down the state, and see what our glorious, rich, movie star, poor excuse for a governor has done to it.

What does he really care about state workers or anyone else? He has millions of dollars. Unfortunately, he will never know what the average Californian goes through. The proof will be in the pudding soon. Bankruptcies like he still hasn't seen in this state.

I long for the days of Gray Davis. I'd take him over this walking muscle that we have now.

– William Thoms, Bakersfield

'Junior' hunt's a bad idea

Based on anecdotal stories of deer-auto collisions, Supervisor Kirk Uhler irresponsibly put into motion a most egregious Placer County proposal: a special "junior" deer hunt (12- to 17-year-olds) in a residential/rural area that could cost taxpayers.

With no scientific data that there is a deer population problem in rural Loomis/Granite Bay, with no information as to where the deer reside, no study on alternatives or on how killing the does and bucks will reduce or eliminate deer-auto collisions, a special junior hunt was recommended.

It gets worse: Taxpayers may fund the kiddie hunt. Because the Loomis/Granite Bay area is mostly private property, the state's SHARE program will pay private landowners to allow hunting on their property.

Opposition to this nutty proposal may focus on not killing deer, but it should also focus on saving rural/residential neighbors, pets and livestock from errant arrows or shots fired by children armed with lethal weapons.

– Jake O'Rourke, Loomis

Look at others' health systems

Re "Is health care cost debate focused on wrong issues?" (Forum, July 5): Everyone agrees reform is essential. We need to educate ourselves so we can discuss this complex problem intelligently. Drs. Tom Shragg and David Gibson both agree that costs must be contained, but they contradicted each other.

Shragg dismisses single-payer efforts to improve preventive care and efficiency, and throws up his hands, saying expensive end-of-life care is an unsolvable problem. Gibson admits that single-payer would contain costs but says there are no politically viable solutions.

It is not helpful to publish letters from doctors who say nothing can be done.

Arriving at an efficient national health system that covers everyone is new to us but is an old story in the rest of the developed world. The Bee could move this conversation forward by printing a series on the wide variety of successful systems in other countries. The United States is the odd man out. Health care is available and affordable everywhere but here.