Letters: Turkey Trot | Despite dysfunction | Fire insurance | Not a war

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

Turkey Trot continueslegacy of community

It’s often said, “A letter is worth 1,000 words.” Thanks, Mercury News, for your three photos about last Thursday’s 19th Annual Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot in downtown San Jose (Page B1, Nov. 24).

With 21,000 participants, the Turkey Trot continues to capture the three goals my wife, Leslee, and I envisioned in creating the race in 2005: build community, serve needy families and start the holiday season in a healthy way. With $11 million now raised for charity, the SVLG Foundation has kept that vision alive.

Thanks to the nonprofit partners at The Health Trust, Healthier Kids Foundation and the Silicon Valley & Santa Cruz County Food Banks. We truly are better together.

Carl GuardinoMonte Sereno

Child should have liveddespite dysfunction

The death of Baby Phoenix was a preventable tragedy that should not have happened. Child safety is the prime directive of the child welfare system. Social workers are trained to assess the safety of each child, as well as the ability of each parent or caretaker in the home to provide the care necessary for the children to be safe from harm.

County counsel are lawyers available for consultation, but should not be the final decision-makers on the safety plan, especially for vulnerable babies.

Baby Phoenix should have survived her parents’ dysfunction.

Gil Villagran, MSWSan Jose

Fire insurance crisisis burning homeowners

What can we do about California insurance?

The fire insurance on my retirement home was just dropped. It will now cost me over $8,500 a year for the California FAIR plan. I’m a teacher; my income is limited. I don’t have an extra $8,500 a year for fire insurance. I will now have to try to sell my home and move to a state where I can afford the insurance.

My family have been in California since the Gold Rush. For generations, we have paid for our homeowner/fire insurance. Then suddenly, our fire insurance is dropped. What a crime that the government is allowing this to happen. I’m not alone. Every day I hear of more and more residents forced to join the FAIR plan. There is nothing FAIR about this.

Elise TchelepiLos Gatos

One-sided conflictis not a true war

Re: “The ‘Cease-Fire Now’ mirage ignores culpability of Hamas” (Page A13, Nov. 26).

I have no familial connections to or personal interest tied to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, but we need to stop calling it a “war.” There is no doubt that Israel has the right to defend itself, but so do the Palestinians.

Calling this a war would mean there were military jets dropping thousand-pound high-explosive bombs on Tel Aviv and battle tanks firing with impunity on Israeli civilian targets.

It is not antisemitic to point out the obvious. This is not a war; it is the wholesale slaughter of Palestinians.

Jerry GudemanSanta Clara