Letters to the Editor

Re "NRA promotes gun-makers" (Letters, April 5): Looks like Friday is bash the NRA day The Bee. Letter writers should realize that the NRA has always been first and foremost in developing and promoting gun safety programs for children and adults.

Re "Would rail cynics have nixed our federal highways?" (Editorial, April 5): Although Amtrak has been running trains in California for years, it is still not possible to take a train all the way from Sacramento to San Diego without a bus ride in the middle.

Re "Drugs you toss could end up in your water" (Editorial, April 5): We agree with your editorial on the importance of properly disposing unneeded or expired prescription drugs.

Re "Jury's out on computerized essay grading" (Page A1, April 5): The New York Times article published in The Bee reports on the use of computers to grade college student essays.

Re "Why we need food stamps" (Forum, March 31): Yes, we need food stamps and Elaine Corn so well pointed out how they can be used wisely, suggesting SNAP may be a bit too generous overall.

Re "Why we need food stamps" (Forum, March 31): There are many arguments one can make in support of food stamps, as Elaine Corn does. But economic stimulus is definitely not one of them. Every dollar of economic stimulus provided by food stamps is provided only by taxing a dollar out of the private sector. Whether she gets to spend the dollar at Whole Foods or the taxpayer does, the economic stimulus is the same. To discount this effect is either sloppy thinking or plain dishonesty.

Re "Why we need food stamps" (Forum, March 31): What an original idea Elaine Corn has shown us. You can save on food purchases by shopping for vegetables, fruit, and things that would keep us healthy instead of Ding Dongs and hamburgers.

Re "Why we need food stamps" (Forum, March 31): During the Depression, there were soup kitchens. Food stamps are a much better solution to hunger.

Re "Congregation split over gays, but shares site" (Page A1 April 3): With all the mudslinging and unkind remarks being exchanged over current issues, it's refreshing to see the members of the Fremont Presbyterian Church reacting with love and compassion for each other and showing a willingness to compromise, unlike so many others.

Re "Mentally ill were booted before" (Dan Morain, March 31): Laura's Law reduced incarceration of the seriously mentally persons enrolled in it by 65 percent in small Nevada County and 78 percent in large Los Angeles County. It's past time for Gov. Jerry Brown to urge the Legislature to pass SB 664 by Sen. Leland Yee and Sen. Lois Wolk, which which would clarify that Mental Health Services Act proceeds can fund Laura's Law. The money is there; the leadership is lacking.

A Republican senator from Alabama would perhaps not be my first choice as moral arbiter of any social welfare safety-net program.

Re "Why we need food stamps" (Forum, March 31): Food Stamps help the truly desperate who lost their employment through unnecessary government regulations that resulted in lost employment and elimination of key employment opportunity industries.

Re "Why we need food stamps" (Forum, March 31): I have been an educator for going on 40 years now- at one time because of the lack of foresight in a building project a church in Oregon was forced to close the school it said it would never close. I lost my retirement and with no unemployment compensation my family needed food stamps. We are so glad for it.

In addition to choosing water efficiency over building new dams, we can choose energy efficiency over extracting more oil.

"Smiles for camera, return" (Sports, April 5): As if the Sacramento sports world does not have enough problems, now I understand that Raley Field concessionaires can not sell beer anymore because they lost the opener.

I’m sick of the hyperbole over a new arena and the Kings leaving Sacramento. Let them go. They’re a bunch of rookie losers.

Remember the S&L disaster of the late 1980s? Doesn't that disaster seem quaint by comparison? Obamacare will hit us when we have not yet recovered from the latest massive real estate and finance disaster. Each disaster is worse than the last.

Re "Feinstein claims NRA intimidates" (Page A4, April 4): Sen. Dianne Feinstein claimed the NRA is intimidating senators. She is absolutely right. That intimidation and its half-baked lies make quite a combination. Let's hope these senators show some backbone. Job security is not worth the lives of 20 massacred children.

Re "Arm school guards, NRA panel urges" (Page A6, April 3): Let me count the ways that introducing armed guards and gun education into schools is a horrific idea: Schools can't afford enough teachers, books, and maintenance. How can they afford armed security and curiculuum?