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Does nation have will
to solve homelessness?
Re: “Poll: Homelessness frustrates residents” (Page A1, Oct. 2).
The front-page article identified the economic and safety concerns that definitely need attention. What is missing, though, is the frustration (and outrage) that we have a homeless population in our nation at all.
We have the capacity to end much of homelessness. Do we have the political and moral will to do so? What are the systems and biases that accept homelessness as inevitable? One wonders where we go from here.
Kim Risedorph
Danville
Newsom made
right call with veto
Re: “Newsom says no to jobless benefits for those on strike” (Page B1, Oct. 2).
Gov. Newsom (wisely) vetoed the bill to pay unemployment benefits to striking workers, and Sen. Portantino (who wrote it), laments, “The hardworking women and men in California need to put food on their table and pay their rent. … SB799 would have injected a small piece of security … that is needed and deserved.”
The honest version: “The employed persons of California who refuse to work because they feel entitled to pay and benefits their education and experience do not merit (otherwise another employer would pay them more), who deny those jobs to hard-working persons who would gladly take them if they could, will not be able to hold their employers hostage for extended periods of time with benefits they do not deserve paid for by the employers they refuse to work for.”
This is what you get when politicians are bought and paid for by union apologists. Disgusting.
Stacy Spink
Castro Valley
ICE targets criminals,
not immigrants
Re: “Newsom’s veto betrays immigrants” (Page A12, Oct. 1).
Caroline Lehman’s letter regarding Governor Newsom’s actions regarding California’s Home Act needs corrections.
She implies that “immigrants” released from state prisons are subject to cruel treatment by ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement). This is not true. ICE doesn’t target “immigrants.” ICE targets people in this country illegally who have committed serious crimes and represent a danger to American citizens as well as lawful immigrants and even other people here illegally.
For example, ICE is the top federal agency that combats child sex trafficking. The actions of ICE not only protect Americans but exploited little children as well.
I’m not a fan of Newsom but he was right to veto the Home Act. Let the heroic men and women of ICE do their jobs.
Brian Kennedy
Alameda
Columnist makes false
assumptions about GOP
Re: “Republican MAGAs push to undermine Ukraine aid” (Page A7, Oct. 4).
Writer Paul Krugman concludes his criticism of Republican hard-liners by accusing them of wanting Vladimir Putin to “win” in Ukraine, and that hard-liners also think Putin’s features are admirable and should be emulated.
I realize that Krugman harbors a deep-seated hatred of virtually anything Republican, and I usually find myself in disagreement with him. But I don’t simply find these particular facts inaccurate. In my experience, these conclusions are among the most shocking examples of how political biases can make an intelligent person lose complete control of their senses.
I think the lesson to be learned here is that in these politically charged times, Americans should realize the importance of reading the words of “experts” with particular care.
Daniel Mauthe
Livermore
Trump, DeSantis harbor
hatred of democracy
Having just returned from Amsterdam, after going through Anne Frank’s house and seeing the films of Hitler’s anti-Semitism and book burning, dictatorial power is “alive and well” in Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and MAGA Republicans.
