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Don’t let graduation
shooting become statistic
Re: “3 people shot after graduation ceremony” (Page A1, May 25).
While the media rightly covered the tragic Skyline High shooting, the community’s resilience and the graduates’ achievements will be overshadowed. We won’t hear about the joyous celebration, beautiful speeches encouraging kindness and perseverance, community support providing parking and transport, or the valedictorian’s inspiring words embracing identity while showing empathy.
The response to this shooting represents a tiny fraction of Oakland’s vibrancy overcoming oppression through love. The Class of 2024 embodied this spirit, now drowned out. When will enough be enough? Child gun deaths rose 50% from 2019-21. The United States is the only developed nation where it’s the top cause of child death over car accidents.
How many more lives must shatter before demanding real gun law reform? Prioritizing child safety over gun lobby interests is vital for their futures. This can’t be another tragic statistical blip.
Laurie Manning
Pastor, Skyline Community Church UCC
Oakland
Let’s accelerate push
toward green energy
The passing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act instilled much-needed hope and invigorated our country’s momentum in transitioning to a clean energy future.
Let’s not let our outdated power grid hold us back.
Estimates show that if we continue at our current pace of transmission buildout we’ll miss out on 80% of the infrastructure law’s emissions reduction potential.
The current bottlenecks are severe: There’s more clean energy waiting to connect to the U.S. power grid than the total generation capacity of existing power plants.
This is a daunting challenge, but a remarkable opportunity.
I urge Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza R. Butler to co-sponsor and publicly advocate for federal laws that address key issues affecting building new transmission — including the SITE Act and the BIG WIRES Act.
This is a historic moment to meaningfully accelerate clean, reliable and affordable power across the United States. Let’s give transmission reform the attention it deserves.
Matt Carona
Oakland
Voters need a choice
that’s not lesser evil
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If there ever was a time for a third-party presidential candidate to succeed, it is now. Voters are tired of holding their noses and voting for the lesser of two evils. Donald Trump seems unconditionally backed by the Republicans despite his recent 34 felony convictions and the possibility of serving jail time.
Biden, on the other hand, is guilty of egregious crimes against humanity. He continues to supply bombs and munitions used in the slaughter of innocent trapped Palestinian women and children. When it comes to Israel, he has no red lines.
We need a presidential candidate we can be proud of. Holding your nose and voting for the lesser of two evils will just perpetuate the status quo and accelerate the decline of America’s reputation.
Forrest Cioppa
Walnut Creek
