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Oakland must manage
trees through thinning
Re. “Wildfire tests years of forest management efforts,” Page A4, July 21:
This test demonstrates removing smaller, younger trees makes fire prevention and fighting more effective. With selective removal of larger trees, wildfires can be reduced now and into the warmer future.
Oakland talks about prevention but has taken little action. Parks are big problems, as are houses packed into surrounding forests, so they are simply additional fuel. Oakland Fire struggled with a Vegetation Management Plan for years, the latest draft shows thinning as the way to go. Our forests suffer from a lack of brush and debris clearance done previously by fire. They are not natural, as they replaced the original ones and change dynamically every year. Views we had just two decades ago are gone due to tree growth. Goats help but are insufficient. Forests are explosions waiting to happen.
Oakland must get its plan working ASAP before it suffers yet another disaster.
Jere Lipps
UC Berkeley
Oakland
Measure P has failed
to help homeless
Joel Libove’s 2018 letter, “Tax on ballot ‘could’ help homeless, not will,” was almost entirely correct in its foresight and understanding of politics in Berkeley.
Libove spoke the truth as he perceived it and was correct. Measure P was not and has not been used as it was originally portrayed to the public. Its wording was a manipulation of ballot writing that borders on or beyond the scope of legality. Measure P has indeed turned out to be nothing more than a manipulation of taxpayers and their money.
An investigation is needed, specifically of how the ballot was written and then amended after the fact as well as how these tax dollars have been spent.
Leah Gonzales
Berkeley
As cases rise, state
should work with parents
The significantly greater transmissibility of the COVID-19 Delta variant changes everything including how California should start public school next term.
The state effectively banned school districts from offering distance learning by announcing it would not reimburse public schools for educating students who are not on campus or in independent study programs. State officials want all students back on campus.
This heavy-handed approach must be reversed. The legitimate safety concerns of parents, especially those with children under age 12 who are not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, must be respected. Parents should not be forced into risking the safety of their children or having to home-school their kids.
Distance learning is a far better alternative for many families. The state should work with, not against, parents. Our school districts should have the flexibility of providing instruction both on-campus and online.
Stephen Cassidy
San Leandro
Clapton’s anti-vaccine
stance disappoints fan
So disappointed to read that Eric Clapton has chosen to take the “knuckle-dragging” approach toward the COVID vaccines (“Clapton won’t play where vaccination proof is required,” Page A2, July 23).
While he has maintained such a positive influence over millions of music aficionados spanning multiple generations worldwide, this recent decision is simply wrong-headed.
I’m sorry to say that, as one who cherishes all 172 Clapton-based songs in my iTunes library, they will now have to be relegated to the unplayed.
John Ebert
San Ramon
Push back against
Court’s anti-voter rulings
The majority-conservative United States Supreme Court’s Brnovich vs. DNC decision, which upheld voting restrictions against American Indians, African Americans and Latinos in Arizona strikes down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Along with the court’s 2013 Shelby decision, which struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the court’s Brnovich decision is in line with the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which stated that African Americans are not entitled to be citizens, and the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson decision, which ushered in a separate but equal doctrine.
What the ruling of the majority-conservative United States Supreme Court means is that people of color should not participate in a democracy that benefits them. We need to push back.
Billy Trice Jr.
Oakland
Nation should unite
behind ‘Made in America’
American conservatives need a rallying point to get behind. I suggest “Made In America.”
Renewable energy, made in America. Technology and electronics, made in America. Affordable prescription medications, made in America. Environment-friendly textiles, livestock husbandry, farming, vehicles, etc., made in America.
The federal government’s role here may be to create or promote state-owned industrial interests that pay workers well, provide them with health care, train them for upward mobility, and help care for them in their old age; non-state businesses will then have to compete for workers. An example might be revitalizing the Post Office to compete with private shippers by floating revitalization funds to USPS to improve wages, benefits, training, and technology.
Conservatives and Democrats need to work together to prevent Donald Trump from returning to power, and uniting behind “made in America” jobs and products could do that.
Sharlana Bacchus
Berkeley
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