What are we doing to our country? What did my dad, a military veteran, fight for? | Opinion
Thank a caregiver
“Modesto caregiver fights for better system in California,” (modbee.com, April 9)
This November, National Family Caregivers Month, let us all remember our caregivers.
I am a caregiver for my mother and have been since 2012. My mother suffers from Alzheimer’s, the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. and fifth leading cause of death among the elderly. Caregiving for a loved one usually falls on family and sometimes friends. Unpaid care that was provided in 2022 for someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia by over 11 million family members and friends is valued at $339.5 billion.
Oftentimes, we, as caregivers, not only give our time to our loved one, but we literally give up a big part of our life. Sometimes this care takes a toll on our health as well as our mental health, as it is put on the back burner. More than one in six caregivers for those with Alzheimer’s or dementia that worked outside the home had to quit their jobs to focus on their loved one.
Reach out to your local congressperson and ask that they support the National Alzheimer’s Project Act and the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act as well as the Comprehensive Care for Alzheimer’s Act, which addresses unpaid caregivers.
Melissa Shook
Modesto
Worth fighting for?
“You can support our democracy, or you can support the party of Donald J. Trump | Opinion,” (modbee.com, Sept. 10)
I can’t help but think of my mother and father during these troubling times. My dad was overseas fighting for our country during World War II, and I was 18 months old before I ever saw him. My mom and I lived on my grandparents’ ranch, and my mom taught school while he was gone. We lived off the land. My grandfather had some cattle, chickens and gardens. I never dreamed that the fighting would now be in our own country.
My husband and I now have our own family — our sons, their families and our grandchildren. What are we doing to our country? Why and what did my father fight for?
Linda Elliott Pedego
Modesto
No handicapped spot?
“Modesto’s historic A&W restaurant to close after ADA lawsuit,” (modbee.com, Nov. 20)
Rise up in anger that some guy would sue the owner of our A&W at 14th and G just because he didn’t have a handicapped parking place. Oh, wait! He didn’t have a handicapped parking spot?
Steve Ringhoff
Modesto
Love conquers all
“Palestinians have endured abuse for decades,” (fresnobee.com, Nov. 12)
Oh, Yahweh and Allah, touch the hearts of your people. Your Torah teaches, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Your Quran teaches, “You will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I inform you of something which, If you do, you will love one another? Give (peace) amongst yourselves.”
I have seen Israeli people that have been killed or kidnapped during a peaceful, joyous festival. I have seen innocent Palestinian babies in body bags. I mourn for both Jewish and Muslim families who have lost loved ones through the horrors and tragedy of war.
All of us, regardless of our religious beliefs, must send our deepest love to all in the hopes that the people in the Middle East reach into the best in their hearts and are able to make the very hard choice — in the middle of their pain — to find ways to reach out to one another in peace.
Carol Fleisig
Coarsegold
Nature thrives without us
“Park Service shouldn’t plant sequoia seedlings post-fire,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 9)
I’ve also been to a burned forest a couple of years post-fire and it is far from a desert-scape.
Much like the mosaic of living and dead trees left by the fire, there are patches of profusely blooming wildflowers, patches thick with thousands of seedlings making it difficult to traverse across without stepping on one. There are trees regenerating from their roots scattered amid those living and dead trees with charred fragments scattered all over, enriching the soil. Insects, birds and animals are all there going about their lives.
Forests were here on Earth for hundreds of millions of years before man ever evolved, even changing the atmosphere and thus allowing life as we know it to exist. The modern trees we’re familiar with, like sequoias, ponderosa pines and douglas firs, have existed for tens of millions of years without our help. They don’t need it now.
Frank Toriello
Montague
Let nature do its job
“Park Service shouldn’t plant sequoia seedlings post-fire,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 9)
I, too, recently toured post-fire Sierra forests and saw incredible natural regeneration. I also toured the results of post-fire salvage logging followed by replanting of tiny conifers. Most were dead or dying, and that landscape looked like a surrealistic tree cemetery.
We should trust nature and let it restore itself. The ultimate result may look somewhat different due to the impacts of climate change, but it will likely still be superior to human attempts. If we want exact replication of what is lost, we need to reverse the impacts of climate change. That does not appear to be happening with the needed urgency. Until then, both natural and human attempts are doomed to fall short.
Jennifer Normoyle
Hillsborough
Shame on CPUC
“California regulators approve PG&E rate hike for next year,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 16)
I was not shocked to read the recent article detailing the California Public Utility Commission’s approval of the proposed rate hike for 2023, but I was angered and disgusted. I worry about how the increase will soon impact my wife and I. Shame on the Commission; Californians already struggle with costs here.
To our hypocritical governor: How do you expect us all to keep up with your cost hikes? Our current state government and leaders watch as food, gas, housing and home energy costs skyrocket. Citizens across the country in the other 49 states wonder what the heck is going on here.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s tenure cannot end soon enough for all of us that actually have to live on a budget. To the CPUC commissioners: Please explain yourselves to PG&E energy users and then resign.
Kevin Shaffer
Davis