Letters to the editor | Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021: California recall sure is wacky

California recall sure is wacky...

What a wacky recall system we have in California! First, the bar for a recall election is set remarkably low — signatures of registered voters that exceed 12%, easily achieved with a well-funded campaign. Then, with a “no” vote of a simple majority on the recall, Gavin Newsom is out of office. Next, whoever gets the most votes of the laundry list of candidates becomes the next governor. This means Newsom could receive 49.9% of the votes and still lose, replaced by a challenger with a small sliver of voters. If this archaic recall procedure was applied federally, Donald Trump could have been recalled every day of his presidency.

Only 19 states have statutes allowing gubernatorial recall. Recall should only be considered in situations involving corruption or malfeasance, neither which apply in this case.

The LA Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and Sacramento Bee all endorse a “no” vote on the recall, calling it a waste of time and money. Keep in mind Newsom is up for election next year.

Legislators need to amend the current recall statute that is so easily misused.

Kent Mitchell, Riverbank

... and a waste of public money

The California secretary of state sent me a personal copy of the Recall Election Guide. Received in a timely fashion, because California, unlike Arizona, is not burdened with semi-weekly election re-audits, or like Texas, where the Republican legislature is working to limit ballots to those delivered by pony express.

The guide is an amazing read. You can see the programs of all the candidates. Many candidates do not have programs. They should be given serious consideration. At least they will not create any new problems.

Other candidates provide a laundry list of what is wrong with and in California. It is usually a long list. Now and then they provide real solutions to these situations. This list is much shorter and often seems built on some mystical combination of crossed fingers and prayer.

A common theme is restoring fiscal responsibility to our state. The candidates might begin by all chipping in and covering the multi-millions this recall event is costing the taxpayers they know and love.

Jack Heinsius, Modesto

Be smart. Get vaccinated

Re “Sports booster mom with ‘giving heart’ has life cut short by COVID” (Front Page, Aug. 30): I have never written a letter to the editor in 75 years because I was too busy with business. Now I have a lot of time, because business is on hold, due to my own COVID infection. And that after receiving the two vaccines in February and March. My journey would be extreme if not for those vaccines. But this is not about me. I read about a mom, Stephanie Longstreth, 40 years old, who died of COVID.

People, wake up. If you don’t want to get vaccinated because social media (the origin of fake news) advises you will not be able to procreate, guess what? If you’re dead, you will not be able to procreate. Or if the vaccine contains a “devil potion,” get over it — it does not. Or if your boyfriend or girlfriend thinks it is not “cool,” stand up and be your own person. Get vaccinated. It is your life.

The life of a mother, a wife, a sister, was cut short at age 40. That is young!

Modesto’s hospitals and ERs are overloaded and it is getting worse. This virus is death. What’s not to understand about that?

Be smart. Get vaccinated.

Daniel Leonard, Modesto

Previous vaccines saved us

Those who oppose vaccines should ask us old folks how many of our friends and relatives died or suffered lasting disabilities from childhood diseases that were once common in our country. I imagine most of us could name at least one. Diseases such as typhoid, rheumatic fever and polio once raged through the population, causing severe illness with lasting effects on health, loss of time at school and work and in many, many cases, death. This information should be taken into account when making the decision about receiving the COVID vaccination.

Ann Krabach, Modesto

California is broken

For shame.

California should be a robust economy. California needs to take a hard look at themselves. The system is broken.

California is not any different than any other state in the union in its responsibility of taking care of itself. California has runaway taxes, a runaway population, runaway border, runaway homelessness, and runaway cost of living, The coronavirus pandemic is not any excuse as California was having all of the existing problems before. This cannot continue to go on, running its citizens out of California by expecting people to shoulder the burden.

California has to address its problems, because not anyone else is going to do it for them. It is called being responsible for your state. It does not do any good to blame each other. Fix it.

Anna Bennett, Delhi

Abortion and free speech

So the U.S. Supreme Court has given the green light to any wannabe Republican governor to decide to eliminate free speech. Don’t you dare utter the word “abortion” or discuss abortion with anyone! Any witness can claim $10,000 from the speaker.

Ken Garst, Turlock

Standing up to bullies

Chivalry is not dead, nor are human instinct and true grit. Used to be, a handful of brave and determined children could stand up to a bully. They banded together. Even kindergarteners know instinctively to protect what’s vulnerable. When did adults forget this lesson?

Governors in Florida and Texas, scoffing at scientific reality, aren’t just beating up some kid for his lunch money; they are stealing the well-being of their own potential voters in a grab for power, while denying them proper health precautions during a pandemic.

Yet school administrators and local authorities, facing heavy sanctions, are courageously standing up for what’s right, safe and sane. These men and women of honor ask no reward in this fight against injustice, but get great satisfaction in the results of their efforts.

The mainstream GOP needs to distance itself from Trump and his reactionaries, or risk being eaten alive politically by the silent majority, and to relearn how great it feels to accomplish something worthwhile by standing up to bullies.

Chivalry is defined as succor to the weak and innocent. Human decency naturally follows, and ought to apply to everyone.

Cheryl Wolford, Oakdale

Afghanistan is a nightmare

Once the politicians and the military industrial complex decided to commit war on the Arab world, the American public was assured this would be no Vietnam. Twenty years later, lives and resources wasted, lies and ties broken, a Mayaguez-type incident within the next couple of months will make the nightmare complete.

Estimates at the time of our “bug out” claimed Vietnam became the sixth strongest nation in the world thanks to all the armament we left at Tan Son Nhat. It was fortunate the Vietnamese did not come calling on our then-leaders for an accounting.

With the amount of armament the U.S. left the Taliban and their propensity for retaliation (remember the CIA and a man named Kansi?), these people and their allies have the means, the training and the will to come knocking. I hope Joe and Nancy are up to the task, but I wouldn’t bet your life on it.

Rick Kimble, Riverbank