Trump, Scalia, campaign funding, report rip-offs

Trump’s right about 9/11 attack

Re “Trump dispels a GOP fantasy on 9/11 attacks” (Viewpoints, Feb. 16): It is sadly ironic that the most outrageous candidate for the GOP presidential nomination is the one who, as columnist Eugene Robinson correctly opines, demolishes the oft-stated Republican fantasy that George W. Bush “kept us safe.” I agree with Robinson that neither Bill Clinton nor George Bush is to blame for 9/11. The terrorists are to blame.

But that tragedy did, in fact, occur eight months into Bush’s first term. It is inaccurate and, most important, disrespectful to the families and friends directly impacted by that horrendous day for the GOP to repeatedly foist upon us the fiction that “he kept us safe.”

Scalia’s ruling unfairly judged

Re “Scalia allowed racial profiling” (Viewpoints, Feb 16): Racial profiling is wrong, but Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion in Whren v. United States is not responsible for it.

First, as UC Davis law school dean Kevin R. Johnson notes, Scalia wrote the opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court. There were no dissents and no concurrences that even hint that any of the other justices held differing views. To single out Scalia seems unfair.

Second, Whren was a Fourth Amendment case where the remedy would have been suppression of evidence of criminal conduct. Probable cause is not negated by the officer’s motives – it either exists or it doesn’t.

There are many legitimate reasons to be critical of Scalia’s time on the court. Whren isn’t one of them.

Both sides are funding candidates

Re “Past presidents couldn’t imagine Campaign 2016” (Editorials, Feb. 16): The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board calls out several conservatives for contributing to conservative candidates, namely the Koch brothers and Karl Rove as well as several conservative organizations.

The editorial board should have pointed out the millions of dollars contributed by George Soros and various liberal organizations.

Repair crumbling roadways first

After months of back-jarring, tire-killing travel on the freeways, highways and surface streets of Sacramento County, I marvel at the tone-deafness of the California Legislature and governor regarding proposed transportation spending plans for this area.

More than $47 million was proposed as a “fix” for Sacramento County, for projects that do not address the significant concerns of most California drivers – crumbling and rutted roads filled with potholes and other damage.

Where have all the additional dollars collected from a tax attached each gallon of gas pumped by consumers gone? What portion of the vehicle registration paid yearly by the public is allocated to road infrastructure?

Teaching is thankless, stressful

I am a psychotherapist in Sacramento and a retired teacher with 30 years of experience in Los Angeles-area public schools. I have had several former and current teachers as therapy clients, and, in working with them I have concluded the answers as to why we have a teacher shortage in California are fairly simple. Teachers now are being asked to do too much, to work too hard, and to do this with too little compensation.

Education is overregulated and regimented, and there is little room left for spontaneity, creativity or innovation. Doesn’t sound like a profession that would seem attractive to many.

I think money is the least of the problems. Let’s make education once more a profession of emotional reward and personal satisfaction in which the emphasis is on students as children rather than as test-taking automatons.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Trump, Scalia, campaign funding, report rip-offs."