Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
Article offers insight
on critical program
Thank you for running Ethan Baron’s article in The Mercury News with its thoughtful analysis of how financing from the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act can help to correct historical inequities in tree distribution and promote a healthier, fairer ecosystem.
The article reinforces the idea that investments in urban greenery are not just about aesthetics but also about enhancing the overall quality of life and sustainability in disadvantaged communities. Additionally, your coverage of the difficulties these communities confront, such as the price of tree upkeep and the requirement for public engagement, recognized the challenges as well as the benefits of such endeavors.
Once again, I want to thank you for your commitment to writing about topics that are important to our communities. Your effort is essential in promoting awareness and encouraging constructive change.
Sharon Quach
San Jose
Teach-in will lead
to more anti-Semitism
Re: “Teachers defy the district’s directive” (Page A1, Dec. 7).
Be forewarned. This supposed “teach-in” is exactly the lessons taught to Palestinian children that have resulted in a generation that thinks it is OK to kill Jews; that think that violence is the only option available; that think that the destruction of Israel is a valid goal. If Oakland wants to see a generation of its residents grow up to embrace antisemitic violence in its streets, then continue allowing this travesty.
If a teach-in pled the case of the Palestinian cause to be free in a state of their own in peace with Israel, I would support that. That is not what is being presented in these “teach-ins.” Any class of people, in this case Israelis, cannot be portrayed as uniformly villainous to elementary school children without distorting their worldview in a way that will only lead to more violence, bloodshed and suffering for everyone.
Richard Kroll
San Jose
Without historical context,
teach-in is propaganda
Re: “Teachers defy the district’s directive” (Page A1, Dec. 7).
Oakland Unified School District educators want to present a well-rounded curriculum of what’s happening in Israel/Palestine. As educators, it’s their responsibility to study history before teaching it. They must present an unbiased factual accounting of the subject. Otherwise, it’s not history, it’s propaganda. If they’re going to teach that Palestinians left their homes in 1948, then they must also mention that at the same time, 850,000 Jews, through forced expulsion or voluntarily to escape persecution, abandoned or had their businesses and homes confiscated in Muslim countries. That chapter of the conflict goes unmentioned.
They should mention that in 1948 and 1993, Palestinians were offered their own state but refused to accept a portion of the disputed territory claiming they had a right to it all.
Until Palestinians prove they care more about having their own state than destroying Israel, a two-state solution is not possible.
Woody DeMayo
Los Altos
Lear’s shows coarsened
nation’s discourse
Re: “TV hitmaker Norman Lear dies at age 101” (Page A1, Dec. 7).
Related Articles
Letters: PG&E rate hike | Careful development | GOP dysfunction
Letters: Examine leadership | Permanent fix | Local governments
Letters: Veterans’ lives | Education bill
Letters: Natural regeneration | Follow advice
Letters: Historic buildings | Retire Harris | Voting rule | Israeli violence
Norman Lear, an “iconic producer” of numerous television hit shows, has died. He’s now lauded for bringing to the public arena humor-laced discussions on abortion, women’s rights, and racism.
If only! I was teaching in a local public high school when his hit show “All In the Family” debuted. It aired on Tuesday nights; by Wednesday morning I could count on my students’ reactions. But they were not talking of the issues of the day, but rather sending verbal attacks. The boys told the girls to “Stifle it, Dingbat,” and got in response “Shove it where the sun don’t shine, Meathead.”
Hardly supporting women’s rights, his creations, from Edith to Maude, were either clueless bunglers or snide bullies.
Without question, his productions increased the coarseness of our public commentary. A half-century later we see the full effects in the rudeness of speech of our leaders and politicians — and ourselves. RIP.
Otis Watson
Millbrae
