Letters to the editor | Sunday, April 10, 2022: How not to keep schools safe

How not to keep schools safe

I am amazed at the stupidity of the Stanislaus Board of Supervisors’ opposition to mandated COVID vaccines for all California school children. Our vaccine levels are way less than the state average. This puts us all in danger of another COVID outbreak that will negatively affect our schools and kids, on top of two years of pandemic schooling which most parents agree took its toll on school performance.

We have all the teachers and staff vaccinated. It is common sense to vaccinate children so our schools will be safe. I can only hope the remainder of state representatives will see the advantage of COVID vaccines for all school children.

Dorothy Pettijohn, Modesto

When facts don’t matter

A retraction is a beautiful thing. It demonstrates accountability. Print media is required to fact-check, and when they get something wrong, however trivial, they are obliged to correct the error in print.

Meanwhile, Fox News (or Faux News, as it’s known to one side of this family), is not news. It’s a 24-hour talk show bashing anything that’s deemed centrist, but saves most of its venom for the left, while they define what left is. Fox’s analysts depend on constant repetition, selective memory, borrowing from outside sources, lying their fannies off, and doing little, if any, fieldwork of their own. Likewise, they depend for ratings on the short attention span of viewers. Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, who’ve never met a conspiracy theory or outright falsehood they didn’t like, make it abundantly clear who the network, always leaning to the right, is against, but what are they for?

We need to expose the talking heads and manufactured issues before nothing is left.

Cheryl Wolford, Oakdale

Take a cue from Nixon’s GOP

How do Americans respond to the seven-hour gap of missing phone calls and texts during the insurrection? Americans should be asking the leaders of the GOP party to review how their own party dealt with a corrupt crook. Nixon was fighting to stay in the White House. Finally, his own party decided that enough was enough. The nine-minute gap in Nixon’s tapes sealed the deal. The leaders of the GOP told Richard his time had come. It was tough but they knew they had to do it. Historians would be retelling these events.

Wouldn’t it be a breath of fresh air if more than three Republicans were willing to confront Trump and hold him responsible about his illegal activities? It is a full-time job keeping Trump safe and out of harm’s way.

If GOP leaders honor their oath of office, history will portray them as dedicated public servants who did the right thing, not as traitors aboard Trump’s trawler of treasonous treachery.

Brooks Judd, Turlock

Biden, a complete failure

Thanks to all of you who voted for Biden. It’s been a year and we have:

•Runaway inflation.

•Cost of gas is at a highest raise in history, almost $6 a gallon, driving all prices sharply up due to cost of transportation.

•A complete failure as commander and chief of the armed forces. As a vet I know that you do not close your air base before you get everyone out. But no, he left thousands behind and begged the Taliban to let our people come to the airport. We tell them when we will be out — they don’t tell us. He totally forgot our No. 1 rule: We do not leave anyone behind. How do you get your troops to go into battle when you know your leader does not have your back and has no problem leaving you behind?

Putin knew he had a “go ahead” when Biden was elected. He has picked bad advisors and will not listen to his generals. He uses our oil reserves rather than increase production. Producers are ready to go and could provide our allies with needed oil also. He is one step behind, playing catch up.

Mike Simpson, Modesto

Losing moral compass

An interesting moment in the hearing for Judge Jackson recently came in a remark by Senator Booker, as he responded to the RINO senators’ attempt to humble the nominee. He said that he was not questioning the senators’ possible racism, but rather their decency.

One of the damaging trends emerging from the Trump years has been the absence of moral compass. Commentators on internet sites seem to feel they can say anything, however insulting, about the person in question. That used to be called character assassination, untethered to any factual evidence.

Some people supported Trump because they said he “told it like it is.” In fact, he was a liar who publicly disparaged women, war heroes, the disabled. Decent Republicans in Congress were privately ashamed of him, but only a few had the moral decency to call him out.

Now we see too many ambitious creatures valuing their political future over what used to be called “doing the right thing.”

Paul Neumann, Modesto

Deeply hidden Russian wisdom

This week I have been sorting through my shelves of books, and I discovered a little gem that I had forgotten about titled “Russian Proverbs” (Chris Skillen, Appletree Press 1994). What a lovely time I had rereading it. Some of the proverbs seem so appropriate right now considering how Russia is behaving.

•Don’t open wide your mouth at the loaf of your neighbor.

•Pity the man who pulls his nose out of the muck only to find his tail is stuck, and rescues his tail only to find his nose in the muck.

•You can’t chop down a forest without splinters flying.

•Do not judge a house by its appearance but by the warmth of the welcome.

•Chase two hares and you’ll catch neither.

•Don’t dig a hole for somebody else lest you fall in it yourself.

Marilyn Rowland, Modesto

We didn’t step up

If the United States would have only given the Ukrainians their request of military aid from the beginning, the world would not be subject to these horrific massacres and threatening genocide.

Arlene M. Avila, Turlock