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California turnout
was shameful
Last week, more than 65% of registered voters did not cast ballot. I could understand if one had to brave a blizzard, survive scorching heat, or stand in line four hours to cast a ballot in person. I could understand if voting to unseat a tyrant or a scoundrel would put one’s life in danger. I could understand if voting was meaningless, except that I remember George W. Bush became president with a margin of just 537 votes in Florida.
I will admit that ballot propositions may be hard to understand. Some candidates may not really be qualified or worthy of public trust. Okay, but at least vote for something. Not voting at all? It’s a shame.
Bruce Fiedler
Dublin
Stronger strains
present pot problems
Re: “Did legal marijuana help or harm Californians?” (Page A1, Jan. 28).
Great article on cannabis legalization, but whither the green elephant in the room?
Forty years ago at San Jose State University, “Reefer Madness” was screened to the hilarity of one and all. De rigeur was to show up stoned at the screening. Fast forward 40 years, with weed more than an order of magnitude stronger: It’s federally a Schedule A controlled substance, and U.S. researchers have been prohibited from conducting studies on its effects. However the NIH partnered with Denmark, and last May, the results of a 50-year metastudy were announced. Results? A significant percentage of CUD (Cannabis Use Disorder) users, primarily males 21-30, had their schizophrenia triggered by cannabis addiction. Unsurprisingly, as cannabis strains have become stronger, incidence of CUD and resulting schizophrenia have risen in lockstep.
Perhaps a genetic screening of those most at risk would be advised before they acquire the potentially life-altering (and ending) habit.
Den Rainer
Benicia
To defeat Trump you
have to know Trump
A pair of new polls indicate that there could be a basic problem with counting on Americans to reject Donald Trump’s wild statements and authoritarian schemes: First, they have to know about them.
Too many Americans are in the dark about Trump’s plans and, unless things change in the way the press reports on both Trump and Joe Biden, the nation could sleepwalk into fascism without ever waking up.
Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power based on a fringe legal theory called the “unitary executive,” giving him and the office more authority than it has ever had and certainly far more than the framers of the U.S. Constitution envisioned.
When voters were told about Trump’s statements, they became alarmed and reported they were less willing to vote for him.
Voters should look into the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and Schedule F before voting.
Frank Grygus
San Ramon
Reject anti-vaxxer
Kennedy’s candidacy
Re: “Kennedy would chart new course for nation” (Page A6, March 1).
American quality of life is vastly improved since 1960: Women’s rights expansion, no Americans fighting in Vietnam or elsewhere, civil rights legislation, 10-year increase in lifespan thanks to advances in health and technology, the most Americans with health care ever thanks to ACA, huge environmental improvements, record stock-market highs, wage growth higher than inflation, record low unemploymentand the best GDP pandemic recovery of all G20 nations.
Our U.S. wealth gap is causing the frustration we often feel, with huge increases in billionaire wealth since 2015 and even bigger tax breaks to billionaires and corporations in the 2017 tax law. I support Biden administration policies of improving life for our middle class, including child tax credits, child care supports, housing and education.
Robert Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine views would have killed millions more Americans during the pandemic. Reject Kennedy’s candidacy, along with his extended family who already have.
Paula Predmore
Danville
Biden’s Gaza policy
is cause for concern
President Biden and the Democrats hope to run on the theme that they are defenders of American democracy. Would that it were true.
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The Democrats undermine that theme as Biden refuses to act upon the clear public demand that the United States stop the genocide against Gaza. For America’s future, Donald Trump is surely the greatest threat in my adult lifetime. But both of these men threaten the peace and security of the entire world.
The United States backing and lying about Israel’s genocidal behavior brings shame upon us all. A system that forces us to choose between these two for president is as far from a democracy as one can possibly arrive. We shall reap the fruits of such deceit one way or another.
Marc Sapir
Berkeley
