Mercury News Letters to the Editor for July 10, 2024
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Re: “Sizable immunity awarded to Trump” (Page A1, July 2).
I am almost 80 years old. I have been a registered independent for most of my voting life.
I’ve lived through the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King as well as the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon and Watergate, ’70s inflation, the pandemic and other challenges to our country. Yet, I never questioned the survivability of our democratic way of life.
With the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity and the would-be tyrant, Donald Trump, poised to win reelection, I truly fear for the future of the country and what my grandchildren are likely to experience.
Martin Schwartz
Cupertino
Re: “Sizable immunity awarded to Trump” (Page A1, July 2).
After the Supreme Court decision to grant a president immunity, a potential disaster is in the making if Donald Trump is elected. It will give him unlimited power without accountability and the ability to rain retribution and vengeance on those he perceives as his enemies. There will be no restraints to his actions that will undermine our civil rights and the rule of law.
Our only recourse is to elect someone we can trust who will not abuse this extraordinary power. He must be a person of good moral character, one who puts the interest of the country above personal agendas. It’s imperative that we reelect President Biden if we want to save the republic as defined by our forefathers.
Claudia Parker
San Jose
The choice of Bechtel as BART’s construction manager for the downtown San Jose subway might explain the otherwise inexplicable choice by the VTA to suddenly go with an untested single-bore design.
Back in the ’60s, Bechtel was the original construction manager for the core BART system, and Bechtel essentially learned from its mistakes in order to build Washington, D.C.’s far superior Metro.
Similarly, the most critical mass transit project in California is Los Angeles’ future Sepulveda Line, which faces local opposition because a traditional twin-bore design would create a need for ventilation shafts and local access roads in the affluent and politically powerful neighborhood of Bel Aire. Bechtel proposed a single-bore alternative; however, it does not have any experience in building such a project.
By claiming “experience” in building single-bore BART, Bechtel can learn from its mistakes, pass the cost on to the Bay Area, and get ready for L.A.
Thomas Busse
San Francisco
It is long past time for Joe Biden to step aside. I’m 65 and taking care of two elders. Their skills have diminished, slowly in the 70s, rapidly in the 80s. Biden clearly no longer has the mental acuity to be president. Democrats need to accept this hard fact.
If Biden insists on running, he will lose, and the House and Senate will go down with him. The Democratic Party must choose one new candidate at the convention. If the Democratic Party really cares about America, and I think they do, they will do the right thing: get Biden to step aside.
Maggie DeLoach
Sunnyvale
Re: “Rare white buffalo sacred to Native Americans is missing” (Page A2, June 29).
For far too long, fossil fuel, mining, and timber interests have been given license to run roughshod over the planet.
Animals have too often been mistreated, and their primary value determined by their ability to provide services to humans. As a result, Earth is on the brink of becoming uninhabitable and is in the throes of a biodiversity crisis.
As a symbol of hope, we should pray both for Wakan Gli’s well-being and for the fulfillment of the Lakota prophecy tied to the calf’s birth. But if this rare creature doesn’t survive, we must still commit to becoming better custodians of the land as well as to show more respect for and provide better protection to all of God’s creatures.
Ensuring a brighter future demands a shift away from our extractive, exploitative mindset, the cause of so much harm.
Jennifer Normoyle
Hillsborough
