Letters to the editor | Sunday, April 3, 2022: Hypocrisy in government
Hypocrisy in government
As Californians we are asked to take “staycations” instead of vacations to support our state but Newsom, our own governor, vacations in Mexico and South America. The governor and his legislature won’t touch the gas tax revenue but want to send token checks to car owners. Wonder how much money will go to San Quentin? Arrogance and a desire to waste whatever we have stored up seems to be a prerequisite for being a politician. These people tell us to “Do as I say, not as I do.” Very much like the Academy Awards.
Jeffrey S. Diehl, Modesto
Don’t put Turlock depot downtown
Re “Turlock debates moving planned ACE rail depot to downtown” (Front Page, Apr. 1-2): City Councilwoman Pam Franco is wrong. The proposed ACE platform near Golden State Boulevard would be within easy walking distance of the Turlock Transit Hub. This is a growing mass transit hub for Turlock city bus service, Stanislaus County bus service, Dial-a-Ride, Amtrak Shuttle service to the Denair platform and the Merced “The Bus” commuter.
ACE, a commuter service, is the acronym for Altamont Commuter Express. It goes one way in the morning and the opposite direction in the afternoon. It doesn’t run on major holidays, when non-commuters would be off work and might want to come to downtown Turlock. ACE train riders wouldn’t be the people going to downtown Turlock to shop or eat. Many commuters would need parking or transfers from other commuter services.
A downtown commuter train station doesn’t make sense. A station at a commuter bus and shuttle hub makes a lot of sense. Mass transit should be easy. That way people will actually use it.
Randy Little, Turlock
Watch your back, Russia
Putin bombed homes and businesses indiscriminately, causing great loss of life. The Bible says in Genesis: Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.
Gerald J. Avila, Turlock
Let them learn
Lots of talk about parental rights in education these days. Often these rights have little to do with acquiring knowledge and learning to think critically and more to do with a parent’s bible or political blog of choice.
If parents honestly think that exposure to different people or ideas poses an existential threat to the student soul or his-her democratic ideals, then by all means drag them out of class. However, in an increasingly knowledge-diverse and interdependent world, building that moat around kids may not serve them well in the future.
Additionally, if parents desire to make their children’s religious or political beliefs strong, wouldn’t they be made all the stronger by being exposed to differing ideas and learning to question those views and defend their own beliefs?
Jack Heinsius, Modesto
Who were those buffoons?
The three stooges — Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley — were at their ignorant best during the Supreme Court hearing. Nothing beats watching politicians make fools of themselves.
Alan Seliger, Turlock
It’s about freedom
We can phrase it however we want but the primary sociological battleground today in the U.S. pits individual freedom against governmental control. This country’s founding documents make it patently clear that the tyranny of unbridled governmental power was the death of individual freedom, which is a fundamental right granted not by the state, but guaranteed by our creator.
No governmental entity, no matter how insidious and forceful, could ever control the minds and hearts of its people unless it was actually proclaiming and implementing truth. The exaltation of law in this country, promulgated by whoever is in power, does not improve it. Governing solely by law means that the government has lost the minds and hearts of its people. Shoving ideological truisms and dogma down the people’s throats does not make the world a better place.
This is not to say that laws are not needed, but to legislate any debatable morality or belief in the furtherance of ideology is simply a lie. Ask anyone in a communist or strictly socialist country. Read a history book. Because what you allow to be done to you today, whatever you believe, is something you are going to live with forever.
Gary Nelson, Modesto