Letters to the editor | Sunday, May 22, 2022: Endorsing Stanislaus-area politicians

Condit will serve us

As a former mayor of Turlock, I know the issues and challenges our Stanislaus County faces. During these challenging times we need leaders in Sacramento who will fight for local municipalities and in our residents’ best interests. U.S. Navy veteran Chad Condit of Ceres is most qualified for the 22nd Assembly District, which includes Turlock and Stanislaus County.

Chad has a long history of public service. He served as special assistant to the governor in the 1990s and prior to that as a staff assistant to several state Assembly members. While in those roles Chad assisted in obtaining grant funding for the Turlock Community Auditorium, a Ceres fire station, and Stanislaus County regional park funding. Chad also helped organize and implement two economic summits in the Central Valley. He is the kind of leader we need now in Sacramento.

John Lazar, Turlock

Self can write better laws

Chad Condit blames Jessica Self for crime. Nonsense! Self has a family. She lives here. She wants a safe community with effective law enforcement. A public defender, she’s used to confronting bumbling, bamboozling bureaucrats. She has had to deal with badly written laws, so she knows how to write better ones.

Theresa Grieshaber, Modesto

Campos is passionate

I want an Assembly member who listens, understands the way government works, can hit the ground running on Day 1, and is smart enough to analyze, synthesize and apply information — someone who’s young, energetic, and passionate about serving us in the Valley. I want Joel Campos.

Endorsed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the California Coalition of Law Enforcement Associations, and the CA GOP, Joel also earned endorsements from several local Republican groups and current and former mayors and council members. Holding a masters degree in urban and regional planning, Joel serves as an associate regional planner for the San Joaquin Council of Governments where he deals with water, transportation, and distribution of our tax dollars. Joel also serves as a sergeant in the Army National Guard. Now, Joel wants to bring his knowledge and passion home.

Joel isn’t running on his family name, nor is he in the pocket of another politician. Joel is running on his experience, educational background, love for our Valley, and passion to serve as your representative. Let’s send Joel Campos to Sacramento as our voice for the Valley.

Truman Jensen, Turlock

Choose Madrigal, Self

Two Modesto Bee recommendations for public office have that stink of lingering conservative mildew.

The choice of Withrow over Madrigal seems to smack of ubiquitous conservative leaning. Withrow is the supervisor who couldn’t bring himself to wear a mask, or wore it at half mast, and who failed to fine food service businesses that openly broke with county ordinances during the height of the pandemic. His behavior smacked of indifference toward those who suffered the most during those dark days — our poorest and most alienated citizens.

And choosing Condit over Self, who exhibits “selfless devotion to protecting the rights of the most vulnerable among us,” is an attempt to strengthen the middle. In a county built on conservative racism and cruel working conditions, the last thing the underpaid, under-represented, under-educated need is more platitudes from the middle and its less-than-honest representation.

I encourage people to vote for honest change that will represent a wider, healthier community, instead of pandering to the same old narrow constituency. Jessica Self’s creative energy and devotion to a more inclusive base will benefit us all. Tony Madrigal’s bilingual understanding will represent many unrepresented.

Tim Buchanan, Modesto

Condit really listens

Here in the Central Valley we need leaders in Sacramento who will actually listen to our needs on issues like education, agriculture and crime. As a Stanislaus State student, I am proud to support Chad Condit for state Assembly in the newly created 22nd District.

Chad will be an advocate for higher educational opportunities for our valley students. He will fight for more water storage for our farmers and will keep violent criminals behind bars.

Trent Murphy, Turlock

Withrow reducing homelessness

Thanks in part to Supervisor Terry Withrow, progress has been made reducing homelessness in our community. However, there is still much more to do.

Too many individuals are in a perpetual cycle of admission to our hospitals, then transfer to the behavioral center and then shortly they are discharged back to the street, only to be readmitted a few days later into the ER. The proposed CARE Court for the mentally ill who are homeless, which Supervisor Withrow has advocated for personally with Governor Newsom, has a real opportunity to interrupt this cycle in our homeless population. We need to retain Terry Withrow on the Board of Supervisors so that he can continue this vital community work.

Alan Yates, Modesto

Don’t be Buffaloed

Ho-hum, another mass murder by a deranged gunman with an automatic rifle. What else is new? Are we becoming so desensitized to this type of news that we are willing to accept it as the new normal in our country? When will politicians and the public finally say enough? Our elected officials need to have the fortitude to take action and do what is right.

Automatic rifles with high capacity magazines have no place in our society and should not be available to buy. These weapons are not meant for hunting; their only purpose is to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. The NRA has contributed millions of dollars to campaigns of certain politicians. Most are from the Republican Party. Our country is suffering from far too many gun deaths.

What kind of society are we going to leave behind for our grandchildren? We can do better for them.

Thomas Tyler, Modesto

Freedom only for some

A GOP candidate has a sign that reads “Freedom Works.” Many Republican politicians say they are for freedom and liberty.

What is this form of freedom? Where women will no longer have access to abortion after 50 years of having this choice? Where books are banned and removed from schools and libraries? Where our history of genocide of indigenous people is no longer taught or discussed in schools? Where our history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching, and unequal incarceration of colored people is no longer taught or discussed? Where voters are denied access by state after state? Where LGBT children and adults are denied healthcare and rights?

This type of freedom brings to mind the Janis Joplin verse: “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Nora Jansen, Turlock

Progressivism is a religion

Re “Abortion is the first step in the fight against women, LGBTQ” (Page 1C, May 8): How can this opinion column claim with a straight face that “the fabric of our society will be ripped apart by evangelical political forces ... leveraging political power to upend bedrock reproductive rights ... based on radical religious beliefs”? The sick irony that this piece ran on Mother’s Day should not go unnoticed.

Make no mistake: Radical progressivism is just as much the religion of the atheistic left as Judaism, Christianity, or Islam are to other Americans. Just because God isn’t involved, doesn’t mean that progressives or the government (violating the Establishment Clause) have the right through political power to foist their belief system upon American society as law, as has been done for the last 50 years.

No honest or rational person believes the euphemism of “reproductive rights” anymore. There is nothing more radical than basing one’s view of freedom on the right to kill helpless and innocent preborn babies in the womb.

Ross W. Lee, Modesto

No right to pass judgment

Re “It’s for the lazy and stupid” (Letters, May 15): A letter used those adjectives when describing women who become pregnant and want an abortion. I find this letter to be insulting to women. The freedom to regulate one’s own reproduction should not be the territory of anyone but the woman herself. Is she stupid? No. Is she lazy? No. We cannot know what a woman is experiencing without walking in her shoes. Neither the letter writer nor anyone else has the right to pass judgment. You are either stupid or lazy if your life doesn’t fall within the parameters of her thinking.

I am well beyond being able to reproduce, but my five granddaughters are not. I want the world they grow up in to be free of closed-minded, authoritarian people who feel they have the right to decide what others do with their bodies.

Carole Swan, Turlock

This story was originally published May 22, 2022 at 4:00 AM.