Letters to the editor | Friday, Oct. 15, 2021: Don’t kill Riverbank’s charm
Don’t kill Riverbank’s charm
To the mayor and city council members of Riverbank: Had I wanted to measure my commute time in feet per hour instead of miles per hour I would have stayed in the Bay Area 30 years ago. Had I wanted to see my favorite green spaces cemented over I would have stayed in the Bay Area. Had I wanted my next door neighbor knowing my toilet habits I would have stayed in the Bay Area. Had I wanted higher property taxes I would have stayed in the Bay Area. Had I wanted crooked politicians whose self-interest trumps the public interest I would have stayed in the Bay Area.
But I moved here for the promise of peace and quiet, the tranquility of a small town and the safety of my family. Boy did I get (fooled).
Rick Kimble, Riverbank
Information is power
Re “Stanislaus County doesn’t track homeless death, causes” (Front Page, Sept. 26): The article about how Stanislaus does not keep track of the fatalities of the homeless population because they believe it doesn’t necessarily matter made me quite upset. If we were able to know the causes of these deaths we can put a stop to both the number of deaths recorded for the homeless population and even figure out what to do about the homelessness issue. The article states that the main causes of homeless deaths were heart-related issues, pneumonia, liver failure and sometimes drug overdose. If the main issue is heart failure maybe we can set up a routine health screening, if it’s drugs maybe we can get them to seek out help to end their addiction.
Roxanne Vasquez, Turlock
Dodging COVID responsibility
Religious exemptions for COVID vaccinations? What cat-scratch! There are even online sites offering handbooks on how to draft a letter to defend your right to exemption, thereby defying science and common sense.
Interested parties are the same folks that keep avoiding dental appointments like grade-schoolers playing dodgeball. Y’know, fraidy-cats. And not unlike cats, they are very smug about their misbehavior, as if they are entitled to do harm and lasting damage in some pretzel-logic realm of their own imagining.
In their self-fulfilling defense, COVID cases are declining and we dodged a bullet. This is just what was said last time, when preventions were relaxed. But when Stanislaus County gets cold, events move indoors. In confined spaces, the vaxxed and un-vaxxed alike will wreak havoc on a finite amount of recirculated air.
Whatever your beliefs, however religious or just plain contrived for your own selfish ends, what if God is watching and judging you for your motivations to dodge responsibility? Praying for forgiveness would be a smart move. While you’re at it, that litter box could use some attention, ‘cause this stinks out loud.
Cheryl Wolford, Oakdale
Cut U.S. military budget
It’s too late for this year, but I maintain that we need to reduce our military budget substantially. We spend more ($748 billion a year, $7 trillion over 10 years) than the next 13 countries combined. It makes Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion over 10 years look like chump change.
Why does Congress ask “How are we going to pay for it” when it comes to things like health and human services, but just rubber stamps a much, much larger military budget? As a veteran, and with experience with defense contractors, it is my opinion that much of that money is just (frittered) away. Let’s look at a 20% reduction in the military budget.
Andrew Ogilvie, Modesto