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County must do right
by its foster children
Re: “Social workers seek new leaders” (Page A1, Oct. 9).
When will Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors act to stop children dying in a wrongly conceived plan to keep families together – regardless of how unsafe those families might be for their children.
Only County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas has spoken out forcefully on behalf of the children who have died. The rest of the supervisors? Not a peep. Too scared to say something or do something?
What is going on?
Changes are needed: Changes for children endangered by misguided policies and changes for children who desperately need someone to care. Social workers are devoted public servants with the training to do the right thing. Too bad the same can’t be said for their supervisors.
For Pete’s sake, do the right thing.
Evelyn Vigil
San Jose
Reelect Owens, Grey
as college trustees
With great enthusiasm and confidence, I write to express my full support for Bob Owens (Area 2) and Adrienne Grey (Area 6), West Valley-Mission Community College District trustees in their reelection this Nov. 5.
Since my appointment to the Board of Trustees in March, I have been profoundly impressed with their unwavering commitment to ensuring our district is managed in a way that best serves the educational goals of our students while maintaining a fiscally responsible budget. Owens’ financial knowledge is encyclopedic while Grey’s commitment to our students’ success is superlative.
Both Owens and Grey exemplify the word “trust” through their ethical behavior, their steadfast dedication to the district and the community, their commitment to avoiding self-interest, and their adherence to the governing educational code.
Mary-Lynne Bernald
Saratoga
Vote no on Measure R
in San Jose Unified
Re: “School officials hope voters will dig deep and approve funding measures on ballot” (Page A1, Sept. 30).
Measure R is not needed so SJUSD can enter the real estate business.
San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) has not been transparent through the mail or local news outlets to inform me of all impacts. Impacts mean school closures, affordable housing costs by developers and accurate tax amount impacts. I support school repairs but not teacher-staff housing.
San Francisco and Alum Rock School Districts have already announced multiple school closures. SJUSD is silent. If school closures are trending, why is SJUSD wanting to offer affordable housing?
Measure R will cost residents $60 per $100K of assessed home value. This means $300 for a $500,000 home up to $1,200 for a $2 million home. As older people sell their homes and homes are reassessed to market rate this will be a windfall for SJUSD.
Vote no on Measure R.
John B. Hernandez
San Jose
Federal policy, union
demands killing Boeing
Re: “Boeing and workers dig in for a long fight” (Page C1, Oct.10).
In the article, Niraj Chokshi reports that the company risks having its rating downgraded to junk status. Bloomberg News calls Boeing the biggest fallen angel in U.S. history.
While Boeing carries much blame for its demise, notably careless quality control in aircraft maintenance that caused a number of accidents and near accidents, government policy and union demands assure there will be no recovery.
If Boeing had had a level playing field in the Airbus competition with European companies, their financial story might have been different. As long as our government continues its outdated altruistic trade policies there will be no recovery for Boeing or other troubled companies. The industrial job exodus will continue.
Fred Gutmann
Cupertino
Media is favoring
Trump in coverage
The media continues to give former President Trump millions of dollars worth of free publicity. The most recent example was in this paper, on Oct. 12. Covering our national politics, there were three headline articles pertaining to Trump and one covering Harris: former President Obama’s speech urging male support for Harris.
Did the media not learn its lesson from 2016? Why this fascination with a bigoted, prevaricating misogynist? It’s time for the media and all Americans to return to our core values wherein courage, honesty, equal opportunity, democracy and the Constitution are respected.
All media, including social media, can and must help forward this country’s return to its moral compass by providing equal coverage of both 2024 presidential candidates.
Marcia Fariss
Saratoga
Time for the nation
modernize elections
Among the many thorny questions debated by the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, one of the hardest to resolve was how to elect the president. The Founding Fathers debated for months, with some arguing that Congress should pick the president and others insistent on a democratic popular vote.
At the time of the Philadelphia convention, no other country in the world directly elected its chief executive, so the delegates were wading into uncharted territory. Further complicating the task was a deep-rooted distrust of executive power.
Since the current election process is still controlled by decisions made in 1787, I believe that it is time for the United States of America to move into the 21st century. With the systems in place today, I believe that the elections can occur with laws passed in 2024 and not 1787.
David Bunger
San Jose
