Letters: Fire-safe landscaping | Cheaper solution | Pushing religion | Using fear | Poor picture | Close Guantanamo

Mercury News Letters to the Editor for June 26, 2024

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Learn to landscape
for fire safety

Re: “Temperatures soar as several fires smolder across the Bay Area, state” (June 22).

Just about three years ago, the sky above my house turned a haunting shade of orange, shrouded by the dust and debris from a roaring wildfire. This surreal and alarming experience sparked my curiosity, prompting me to research how every Californian can contribute to containing such overgrown flames.

In my search, the concept of fire-smart landscaping caught my eye. It suggests that homeowners can significantly enhance their garden’s resistance to wildfires by choosing the right plants and caring for them properly. However, if we step beyond individual efforts, our collective planting of fire-resistant vegetation, such as yucca and lavender, can create a powerful, large-scale defense against wildfire devastation.

This united approach can transform our community, making it more resilient and better protected against the relentless threat of wildfires.

Marco Li
Palo Alto

PUC ignores cheaper
means of connecting

Re: “Utilities commission falling behind on broadband for all” (Page A8, June 23).

Memo to CPUC Commissioner Tasha Boerner: Why are you laying fiber-optic cable to the far reaches of Modoc County?

You have $6 billion. Today you can buy a satellite Starlink terminal from the company for $299. You could buy 20,066,889 terminals. That should be enough.

Tony Lima
Los Altos

Religion doesn’t need
government’s help

Regarding the recent Louisiana law requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms, it is not the responsibility of government to market religion.

Looked at objectively, to do so is an offense to religion. Religion is a private matter, providing guidelines for private living that, yes, can and frequently do eventually affect societies. Traditional religions are predicated on the idea that the individual is responsible for their own choices and behaviors, which, if abdicated, are followed by spiritual consequences.

If those who practice such religions are concerned about the lack of civil and compassionate behavior in society, then by religion’s moral standard it’s about looking to one’s own home and behavior for the source of, and solution to the trouble.

It’s worth asking what is afoot if Louisiana legislators are insisting that their government step in to raise their state’s children for them.

Jill Zahner
Campbell

Liberals should use
right’s weapon: Fear

It’s shocking that someone with 34 felony convictions has a 50/50 chance to become president. When considering the two major candidates objectively, based on policy, morality, statesmanship and competency, the race shouldn’t be close. So why is it?

Nightly I listened to MSNBC to find an answer to no luck. Then I listened to Fox News and formed this hypothesis. While MSNBC’s well-reasoned logic appeals to a more educated audience, right-wing media excel at and constantly use two tools that the left shies away from — anger and fear. These emotions appeal to a broad electorate.

I believe the liberal media need to elevate the public’s fear of what a Trump presidency would mean to them. I do not advocate stoking anger, but fear, used properly as shown by Fox News, can be a strong motivator.

Daniel Castellano
Cupertino

Trump candidacy offers
a humiliating picture

The fact that Donald Trump’s recent conviction has generated millions of dollars in campaign donations from millionaires and billionaires should tell you who he favors and will take care of if reelected as president.

He has spoken of retribution and who he will pardon if he wins, and even has predicted how his supporters will react if he isn’t elected. He has already declared the election fraudulent if he should lose.

Is this really the man 74 million people voted for four years ago and will vote for again? It’s a shameful, humiliating image of our country to the rest of the world.

Lynda Martinez
San Jose

Biden should seize
chance to close Gitmo

June is Torture Awareness Month and it is a good time to consider again the closing of Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp where torture has been used since opening in 2002.

Built to hold suspected terrorists, there are 30 men still held at the prison, most of whom have never been charged with a crime, and they are interned on indefinite detention without trial. It costs over a half-billion dollars per year to hold the prisoners, despite the fact that President Bush and President Obama both agreed that the prison should be closed.

President Biden can close Guantanamo and try the prisoners in federal court or transfer them abroad while ending the waste of taxpayer dollars. As a practicing Catholic, I join with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture in calling for the closure of this symbol of torture.

Kevin Plunkett
Mountain View