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Unlike GOP, Dems
aren’t suppressing vote
Re: “Democrats try to undermine election integrity” (Page A6, July 24).
Daniel Borenstein recently conflated California Democrats’ behavior regarding ballot language on state bond measures with the Republican strategy to disenfranchise any and all voters not likely to vote for them.
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Disingenuous at best, this allegation should be the poster child for false equivalency. Suggesting the financial information about fiscal impacts of bond measures be provided in other ways than on the ballot (voter pamphlets instead) hardly compares to a nationwide campaign to deprive people of their right to vote.
And Borenstein absolutely knows it and should be upholding a higher standard of journalistic integrity than he demonstrates in his column.
Eugene Ely
San Jose
Motels make perfect
homeless shelters
Re: “Ex-motel becomes lifeline for residents” (Page B1, Aug. 9).
A close member of my family lived at a former motel on First Street in San Jose until she passed away from natural causes. My family and I visited her frequently at her residence.
This motel turned housing for the homeless was well-managed and safe. If you didn’t know it had been converted from a motel, you might think it was still a motel. Visually it had no discernible negative impact on the neighborhood. The folks who lived there grew friendly with each other and respected each other’s privacy and space.
Having experienced this, it became apparent to me that the ubiquitous motels along the Bay Area’s major boulevards are ready-made facilities to house those struggling with homelessness. I encourage everyone who is against this solution to face your fears. They are unfounded. With good management, motels are safe and unobtrusive shelters for our homeless.
Greg Salerno
San Jose
We must speak out
against Trump policies
Recently, the Trump administration planned to incinerate $9 million in birth control pills and other contraceptives stored in Belgium and not distribute them to Africa, since USAID was shut down. Taxpayers should hate to see these wasted and not provided to those in need.
In addition, the U.S. Air Force is denying transgender service members who’ve served 15-18 years the option to retire early and will separate them without retirement benefits.
Every single day this travesty of an administration acts in some egregious manner, and these instances don’t even equate to the injustice of deporting immigrants without criminal records. We need to postcard this administration denouncing its ignominious, cruel and inhumane exploits. While postcards won’t make it to the top, staff do record mail received. “We the People” must speak our voice to these atrocities.
Michael Fallon
Santa Clara
Israeli guns try to
silence truth on Gaza
Re: “At least 55 killed in Gaza by Israelis, health officials say” (Page A4, Aug. 11).
A Brown University report’s finding indicates that more journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7, 2023, than “the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined.”
Journalists are the eyes and ears of truth; their deliberate targeting is not “collateral damage” but an assault on accountability itself. Silencing those who seek truth denies both justice and the common good. The measure of a civilization is not its powerbut its capacity to protect truth-tellers, even in war.
History’s judgment will not be kind to silence.
Akeem Mostamandy
San Jose
Israel’s campaign shows
no regard for law
Re: “At least 55 killed in Gaza by Israelis, health officials say” (Page A4, Aug. 11).
On August 11, Israeli forces deliberately killed four Al Jazeera journalists — Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal — and freelance cameramen Moamen Aliwa and freelance journalist Mohammed al-Khaldi with a targeted airstrike on a media tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital. This was no battlefield accident; it was an execution aimed at silencing those documenting Israel’s planned seizure of Gaza.
Gaza officials report 238 journalists killed in 22 months. U.N. Special Rapporteur Irene Khan calls out the threat to freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, over 220 people — including more than 100 children — have died of hunger. Fifteen-year-old Muhannad Eid was killed when an airdropped food pallet crushed him.
Killing journalists is a war crime. Starving civilians is a war crime. The U.S. and its allies face a choice: enforce international law or be remembered as accomplices in the destruction of truth and the mass killing of a people.
Jag Singh
Los Altos
Letter lets supporters
of Palestinians off hook
Re: “Coffee shop lawsuit should be tossed” (Page A8, Aug. 10).
I do not know where David Spero gets his information about Judaism, but the Star of David is a symbol of the faith.
Amid the obvious bias of his opinion, what is noticeably missing is a condemnation of the pro-Palestinian groups that parade Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian symbols and threatening language with the intension of intimidating Jewish people.
I too wish that this war and the suffering would end. However, a balanced and informed opinion would recognize that there are two parties continuing this travesty. Hamas deserves, at least, half the blame, if not a much larger portion. They started this round of violence. They rule Gaza with a bloody iron fist. And they have stalled and derailed ceasefire negotiations more frequently than has Israel.
Richard Kroll
San Jose