GOP, abortions, American Indians, homeless

Scrambling for a better candidate

Re “Let’s send out the clowns for California’s GOP debate” (Editorials, Sept. 16): The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board is right about the GOP clowns, but it’s not really the Republicans’ fault.

The GOP just hasn’t been able to find a candidate who is under investigation by the FBI, who has accepted millions of dollars from foreign sources while being a high federal official, someone who has hidden classified and important government emails on a private server, and who has a long family history of lies and deceit.

Till they can find one, they just don’t have anyone else to offer but their “clowns.”

Keeping abortions, deaths minimum

Re “Sanders casts platform in moral context” (Page 8A, Sept. 15): When abortion was illegal, 5,000 to 15,000 women died each year from illegal abortions.

Will Bernie Sanders and the left quit saying they are for a woman’s right to choose? Instead, would they say they are against illegal abortions?

Let us not compare the death of an unborn child with the death of a woman from an illegal abortion. Let us try to keep both to a minimum. Let us fund Planned Parenthood’s birth control program, and let us fund Planned Parenthood’s procedures that end a pregnancy (when a woman might kill herself trying to end the pregnancy herself).

Another side of the genocide dispute

Re “Dispute with professor stirs historical debate” (Local, Sept. 14): Maybe it was genocide, as the Sac State student says about the treatment of American Indians. Maybe it wasn’t. That’s not the point. If you’re going to challenge your college professor, is a public confrontation in the classroom the best first step? How about you go to their office first and talk about it one on one. Maybe go public after that.

A strong argument for diversity

To not use the term “genocide” to describe what happened during the geopolitical conquest of the American nation-state from the indigenous people borders on unconscionable. There is more than adequate first-person, original documentation and historical narrative to support this position. There are also ongoing experiences that are the legacy of public policies and prejudiced attitudes.

Appalled over genocide view

I am appalled that California State University, Sacramento, history professor Maury Wiseman does not believe that American Indians were systematically exterminated. This revisionist history is appalling and close-minded. Europeans have exploited and exterminated North, Central and South American tribal cultures for hundreds of years.

The solution for the homeless: WPA

Re “Land Park homeless alarm neighbors” (Local, Ryan Lillis, Sept. 14): For years I have read and heard about the homeless. The police raid a homeless campsite and tell them to move on. They move on to another campsite. It’s reported that we have 1,000 homeless people on the streets at night in Sacramento County. Add to this all the other California cities that have the same problem.

The solution is implementation of the WPA, or Work Projects Administration. Between 1935 and 1943, 8 million jobs were created for the unemployed, unskilled workers. They performed public work projects such as construction of public buildings, roads, public parks, schools and bridges. Work relief was preferred over public assistance because it maintained self respect. Instead, we now have some who want to work, many who are on disability but are still physically able to work, and many who have no desire to work and prefer to stay on the public dole, a learned lifestyle.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "GOP, abortions, American Indians, homeless."