Another successful year for Modesto’s Community Christmas Tree | Opinion
It takes a village
“Huge community Christmas celebrations set for this weekend in the Modesto region,” (modbee.com, Dec. 3)
Over 41 years, we have helped over 102,000 children through Modesto’s Community Christmas Tree. We love hearing stories from adults who were on our tree as a child. They thank us again as they fondly remember the hope and joy they received that December.
It does, indeed, “take a village.” We are always working to find volunteers, and hope you’ll find time to join us next year.
Each child is meant to receive the gift of hope, so they can believe there is good in this world and people who care, and we hope this gives them faith — which, for some, may be rare!
JoAnn Found
Soroptimist International of Modesto
Modesto Sunrise Rotary
A reason for hope
“Newsom announces new public health initiative led by ousted CDC officials,” (modbee.com, Dec. 15)
With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leading the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, our country’s international supremacy in medical science and public health has been destroyed. Funding for scientific research has been withdrawn, and science is supplanted by conspiracy theories.
But Gov. Gavin Newsom is hiring respected former leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An emerging 15-state “Governors’ Public Health Alliance” will provide guidance from actual scientific research on vaccines, medications, testing for dangerous new diseases and response coordination to health threats.
Becoming the first U.S. state to join the World Health Organization, California’s Health Alliances may rescue our country from becoming a second-rate scientific has-been.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont
Costs will rise
“California to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses issued to immigrants,” (modbee.com, Dec. 15)
The vast majority of everything made, grown or sold in California moves by truck at some stage of the production and distribution process. Imagine the supply chain disruptions when thousands of truck drivers lose their licenses all at once as the state meekly complies with the Trump administration’s demand.
Get ready for the cost of everything to jump — if you can find it for sale at all.
Greg deGiere
Sacramento
Protect our wolves
“California curtails effort to find young wolves whose parents were euthanized,” (modbee.com, Dec. 16)
California exterminated its wolves once before. Now, after celebrating their hard-won return, the state has killed members of a fragile pack and is retreating from efforts to locate their orphaned pups. That is not wildlife stewardship — it is abandonment.
When conflict arises, the burden should not fall on animals still clawing their way back from extinction. Killing wolves and then scaling back searches for their young ignores both science and ethics. Wolves are a keystone species, not expendable nuisances, and California has a responsibility to manage coexistence proactively.
The solution is prevention: mandatory nonlethal deterrents, better land-use planning and full compensation programs funded before conflicts occur. Conservation requires resolve, especially when it is inconvenient. California must stop repeating the mistakes that erased wolves from our landscape once already.
Judie Mancuso
Founder, Social Compassion in Legislation
Every effort to find cubs
“California curtails effort to find young wolves whose parents were euthanized,” (modbee.com, Dec. 16)
I am very distressed by the news that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife “broke” this wolf pack in a careless, sloppy manner. They must make every effort to find these cubs, who may still be alive.
The department needs to take full responsibility for the mismanagement of this situation.
Kim Hanks
Sacramento