Letters: McClatchy High students used the ‘n-word.’ Trump set a deplorable example

Bad influence

“McClatchy High students suspected of posting video with racist slurs, district says” (sacbee.com, Aug. 15): As a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council, I read the article on teens making and posting a racist video as within the context of our current national discussion over whether there is a recording of the president using the n-word. We are experiencing what can happen when the president provides a questionable and, frankly, a deplorable example to impressionable teens of what is acceptable discourse. We need to support the efforts of the NAACP and Black Lives Matter to call this to our attention.

The ‘war’ continues

“President Trump, end your war on our free press” (Editorials, Aug. 15): I suspect the president will end his war with the press when the press ends its war with the president. The president's First Amendment rights didn't get suspended when he was elected. It protects everyone's opinion, even his. The press doesn't get any special treatment. While the opinion staff at The Bee may not like being called an enemy of the people, as someone who reads what The Bee prints, I have to agree with the president. No president in history has been attacked like this one. His family, friends, staff and administration are all lumped together with “Trump did this” and “Trump did that.” The Bee better toughen up because we have another 6 years to go.

Don’t stop, Sasha

“President practices the art of destruction here, abroad” (sacbee.com, Aug. 6): One thing that strikes me about the email and phone messages Sasha Abramsky gets from those who dislike his views is that the senders seem to believe they are more American than those with whom they differ. But they are the absolute antithesis of what it means to be American. To insult, threaten and terrorize Abramsky because of his perspectives only illuminates the devolution of the fundamental effort and ability to think, communicate and disagree in any rational way. Abramsky is right about one thing, whether or not you agree with his political views: Those who attack him are cowards. Fear, isolation, arrogance and anonymity breed hatred and serve as catalysts for horrifying behavior as demonstrated by Abramsky’s Internet friends. Keep writing, Sasha. The rational need to hear your voice.

Electric vehicles

“If you think Trump is the only one critical of electric cars, think again” (Erika D. Smith, Aug. 8): suggests those calling for better working conditions are taking the EV industry backwards. In fact, the opposite is true. How the clean economy moves forward is critical to its success. The UAW supports EVs. We’ve worked with UAW for years promoting clean vehicle standards and other policies that support leadership in EVs. The UAW’s statement on jobs – quoted out of context – was part of an argument for stronger policy to support EV technology. As the industry grows, some companies are taking paths that downgrade working conditions, while others show EVs and good jobs go hand-in-hand. We need all stakeholders, including policymakers, to steer EVs toward a future that cuts emissions while delivering on the American dream for working people.

Tom McClintock

“California has enough water to fight fires. The problem is overgrown forests, McClintock says” (sacbee.com, Aug. 10): McClintiock says environmental regulations are preventing forest clearing. Environmental review delays some individual projects, but the overall amount of work accomplished has been severely limited by funding levels. Federal agencies like the Forest Service and BLM have been pleading for funds from Congress for decades. Meanwhile, small-government ideologues like McClintock have made it their mission to starve the agencies of funding. When tragedy strikes, rather than address the funding shortfall, they use it to advance their war on regulation for their corporate backers. The greatest long term threat to our forests and forest communities is climate change. But the GOP declares the overwhelming scientific evidence for it “bad science,” and pretends it will go away. Consider this: Would someone who truly values forests and wildlife, and whose district is in the Sierra, live out-of-district like McClintock in Elk Grove?

Conflating causes

“The President's Right: Interior chief pushes thinning forests to cut fire risk” (sacbee.com, Aug. 12): Trump and Zinke conflate, whether intentionally or out of ignorance, lumber harvesting with forest thinning. Environmental groups often oppose the former, which usually involves clear cutting, because of the damage done to the health of the forest and the risk of fire in the dense brush that replaces the clear cut area. Thinning is another matter. The material removed has no little or no economic value and even if some marketable trees are taken the operation is a net loss. Thinning on federal land requires a lot of money, money the current administration and Congress doesn’t want to spend. Of course, the best way to prevent forest fires is cut all the trees in all the forests and pave over with asphalt. Perhaps that's what Trump and Zinke have in mind.

No more delays

“Trump, Congress try to breath life into long-delayed criminal justice reform package” (sacbee.com, Aug. 8): Congress should not delay the First Step Act. We have been testing over-incarceration of prisoners for decades and it hasn’t worked. It’s time to embrace the sentencing and prison reforms that have already proven successful in cutting crime while reducing prison populations across the country. The president’s openness to reform is a welcome shift, but California senators should be wary of overloading the bill.

Seirra Club

It is astounding that the Sierra Club or a professor would oppose, rather than jump on board, the proposal to thin dead and weak trees in the Sierra. It is astounding that an educated person would use the thesis that the fires started in "shrublands, not thick forests" as an argument against thinning forest trees. Fire defensible spacing is a cornerstone of those of us who have properties in the Sierra. I can personally show you fire defense spacing that is healthy/attractive and national forest properties that have trees that will be the fuel for the fires of tomorrow. Everyone should endorse and promote thinning our forests. My guess: Some partisans concluded, since the idea is proposed by the Trump administration it has to be wrong. Everyone should set aside their partisan differences and endorse the proposal of the adminisration for thinning our forests and savng our state.

Eloy Oakley

Never before has such a pathetic education plan been rolled out, destined to ruin community college education cheered on by our useless Chancellor Eloy Oakley. He runs our chancellor’s office like it is his private business. Oakley politicized his pathway program by overinflating the data to make the program look successful. This is a $6 million program wasting taxpayers’ money. Time to vote no confidence in Oakley and run him out of office.

Image of officers

Every work day, I enter I-80 westbound and I see a California Highway Patrol motorcycle moving into the diamond lane. I usually accelerate to 70 mph as I enter the freeway. The motorcycle accelerates and separates from me very quickly. He is on his state provided vehicle, in uniform, and in less than hour, he will be handing out citations to drivers for traveling at the same speed he was riding at going to work. Actions speak louder than words. Our traffic officers need to be conscious of their image and actions especially in a time when the image of law enforcement may be at an all-time low.

Sports politics

“Is there a path forward in NFL politics?” (sacbee.com, Aug. 13): Another NFL season with an unnecessary controversy. NFL owners insisting the national anthem be played at sporting events is injecting their brand of politics into sports. We can end this false jingoist initiated controversy very quickly by not playing the national anthem at public sporting events. Celebrate your political commitment to nationalism in the privacy of your home.

‘Trump Village’

President Trump, role model, or racist? When I was 16-years-old my parents moved from the projects to Trump Village in Coney Island. It had seven, 23 story buildings. I hardly ever saw a person of color there. By 1967, state investigators found that out of 3,700 apartments in Trump Village, seven were occupied by African American families. Trump Village was built by Fred Trump, Donald’s father. Imagine the racial prejudice of 50 years ago, acknowledge the racial prejudice of our current time and draw conclusions about the prejudice in the heart of our current president.

 

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