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Drought demands
pause in new housing
Your Aug. 22 headline on the front page (“Can area’s drought, housing cohabitate?”) showcases the question of whether the drought or housing is the priority.
After years of perennial drought, the answer would appear to be obvious. The developers and the politicians believe both can be addressed. In retrospect, a housing and building moratorium should have been mandated years ago.
This is not a NIMBY issue but a common sense way to prevent further water shortages which we are currently experiencing. The increased building will also cause more power outages throughout the entire region. Let’s hope reason overrides greed and political interests.
Mark Sever
Concord
Addicts need treatment,
not safe injection sites
Re. “Newsom shoots down Bay Area drug injection sites,” Page A1, Aug. 23:
Thank you, Gov. Newsom, for being the voice of reason and common sense with your veto on the disaster that was Senate Bill 57. The last thing any city needs is sanctioned drug abuse on its streets.
Sadly, some elected officials think that allowing for more drug use in a safe setting is the answer. People with addictions need real solutions to help with fighting and overcoming their substance abuse, not more drugs to feed it.
Besides, health care providers take an oath to do no harm. I’m pretty sure sanctioning drug abuse is a clear violation of that vow.
Sharon Dixon
San Leandro
Housing rule puts
shoe on other foot
I’ve been waiting for this: In his Aug. 28 letter to the editor, Robert Drury decried the existence of off-campus student housing in Berkeley, which welcomes all manner of people other than us White folk.
Given that marginalized people have been excluded and worse for decades, centuries, eons, from places and opportunities overtly or “understood” to be for Whites only, maybe it’s high time we experience what it feels like to be rejected on the basis of our skin color alone. I’m sure it’s uncomfortable, Mr. Drury, having that shoe on your foot for a change.
Louise Gray
Danville
Tips to beat rising
cost of staying cool
We understand no one likes energy bills that are higher than expected. Heat waves are causing customers to crank up their air conditioning, which can lead to higher summer energy bills.
PG&E does not add any markup on the energy we buy for our customers’ use, neither gas nor electric. What we pay, you pay. Yet, the market prices for energy supply costs, which account for about half of a customer’s monthly electric bill, are expected to be about 75% higher this summer compared to last year.
Customers can take simple steps to improve energy efficiency in their homes:
• Pre-cool the home: use the air conditioning in the morning or overnight.
• Set thermostat at 78 degrees or higher, health permitting, when home.
• Change air filters regularly.
• Close window coverings.
• Enroll in free programs including Bill Forecast Alerts and Budget Billing.
For more tips, visit www.pge.com/summer.
Aaron Johnson
Vice President of PG&E’s Bay Area Region
Oakland
Conservative Christians
believe in pluralism
I am a Christian and a nationalist. But I’m not a Christian nationalist. Thomas Higgins (“The idea of Christian nationalism is a malignant falsehood,” Page A6, Aug. 23 guest column) and Bill McGrath (“Christianity has no place in our politics,” Page A6, Aug. 25 letter) fail to understand the difference.
Most Christian conservatives today strenuously reject the idea that America should be a Christian nation, in which Christian views and values should dominate. Rather, we believe in pluralism. That is, that all people, whether they are religious of any form or non-religious, should have an equal right (as much as is possible) not only to believe what you want to believe, but to be able to express it openly, and, even, to try to influence society accordingly.
To believe that religion must be kept out of politics and government is actually the ideal of Marxism, not American democracy. And everywhere Marxism and its exclusive secularism prevails it leads to the enslavement and impoverishment of all but the 1% or so in power.
Christopher Andrus
Dublin
Biden is fast and loose
with COVID emergency
“It’s the economy, stupid” was the phrase Bill Clinton used for his 1992 presidential run. Thirty years later “It’s the hypocrisy, stupid” that will be associated with Joe Biden.
He constantly preaches “the rule of law” but conveniently forgets in July 2021 Speaker Pelosi said he lacks executive authority to grant debt forgiveness, that such action would be illegal, and that loan cancellation requires an act of Congress. His legal justification for debt forgiveness is the post-9/11 HEROES Act, which allows student loan relief due to war or “national emergency,” which the Department of Education now says is the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2022, Biden tried to end Title 42 restrictions, which allowed the expulsion of asylum seekers because of the COVID pandemic. So in May we no longer had a COVID emergency on the border but in August we have a COVID pandemic student loan emergency. Oh, the hypocrisy.
Martin Wilmington
Hayward
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