California forum letters: Bee readers take on Ukraine, church shooting, golf course bill

False government

“EXPLAINER: A look at West’s tightening sanctions on Russia,” (sacbee.com, March 4)

Vladimir Putin made Russia a new autocracy.. He wove a new iron curtain. He thought Ukraine could be secured under a puppet government to seed the restoration of a Soviet Union. But the taste of democracy was too addictive for Ukrainians to forfeit; they revolted and purged Putin’s false government.

Fearing the growing strength and independence of Ukraine, Putin is now waging a merciless war to rob a sovereign nation of its freedom and halt the growing aspirations of Russian citizens to acquire the same.

Daniel Fong

Rancho Cordova

Enforce laws

“Church massacre highlights how California lets abusers keep guns despite restraining orders,” (sacbee.com, March 2)

California law is clear: If you are served a restraining order, you must turn your firearms over to law enforcement. . The law needs to be strengthened and fully enforced to crack down on ghost guns, illegal firearms and the accessibility of weapons to those who are not allowed to have them.

When someone is found to have helped a defendant such as David Mora acquire a firearm, they should be prosecuted and their name should be publicly released to let Californians know that this issue is being taken seriously.

Michael Santos

Antelope

Better protection

“He killed his kids at a supervised visit. Sacramento church massacre exposes looming risks,” (sacbee.com, March 4)

It’s devastating to read how systemic failures continue to affect children and families. Even after so much research on the dangers of intimate partner violence, we continue to see that there is not enough funding to protect our children. Even after an abusive relationship ends, that does not mean the risk of danger ends. Separation does not equal safety.

Many families turn to the system in hopes of protection and then realize that the abusive parent has equal rights to the children. Granting court-ordered visitations without providing secure locations for supervised visits is a problem that needs to be talked about and solved at the local, state and federal level.

Paola Soto

Pittsburg

Important step

“Inside Roseville school board’s politically driven defiance of California’s mask mandate,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 16)

I found it valuable that students from the Roseville Unified School District provided their input about masking at school. It’s important to look at all sides of a situation before making a decision.

The Roseville Joint Unified School District lifted its mask mandate, making it optional for students to wear masks. This is an important step as I believe masks have prevented children from having the opportunity to see how words are formed when others are talking. Speech therapists specifically were at a disadvantage because they were unable to show lip formation to their students when teaching.

Jamie Cobabe

Roseville

Troubling act

“Jim Cooper is running to succeed Scott Jones as Sacramento sheriff. Could he make history?” (sacbee.com, Feb. 9)

No excuse or justification can reasonably explain why Assemblyman Jim Cooper attempted to carry a loaded pistol onto a commercial aircraft departing from Sacramento International Airport on Monday. According to his staff, because he is a retired policeman with a concealed-carry permit, a legal loophole allowed him to lawfully possess the firearm on airport premises. However, under no circumstance does the law allow an individual to bring a loaded firearm onto a commercial aircraft.

His actions betray the law. This callous, I’m-above-the-law attitude is not consistent with the values we want our Sacramento County sheriff to have. Voters must reject Cooper’s attempts to become our county’s next top cop.

Steven Sander

Sacramento

Wrong solution

“California is overlooking this vast supply of public land for affordable housing,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 26)

Assembly Bill 1910, which would offer taxpayer dollars to developers seeking to turn publicly owned golf courses into housing complexes, would cause great harm to the 3.6 million Californians who play golf and to the millions more who enjoy California’s parks and open spaces.

Publicly owned golf courses are part of the same park systems that provide soccer, baseball, swimming, picnicking, biking, tennis, walking trails and numerous other recreational amenities — one difference being that golf courses are better used than the rest. They preserve open space, sequester carbon, provide habitat, promote biodiversity and allow rainwater to get into groundwater basins. In times of global warming, golf courses reduce temperatures in surrounding areas. They provide these benefits almost entirely in densely packed urban environments where they are most needed and in communities disproportionately identified as “park poor.” Converting them to pavement exacerbates these problems.

Craig Kessler, Southern California Golf Association

Studio City

Protect our ocean

“California officials approve plan to crack down on microplastics polluting the ocean,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 23)

A recent study from the World Wildlife Fund shows that plastics in our oceans are projected to quadruple by 2050 and microplastic levels will grow more than 50-fold by the end of the century.

Plastic pollution is a global problem that has a statewide solution. Assembly Bill 2026 would eliminate single-use plastic packaging – think bubble wrap and foam peanuts – from online retail shipping. If passed, this bill could be a first step towards protecting the environment from plastic.

Jackson Gould

Davis