1 week Ago By Letters to the Editor
Re: “ ” (Page A1, Nov. 8). After the results of this election, many of my peers and I had to take a long look at our institutions and in the mirror.
Upon reading this article, however, I have gained more knowledge and confidence in our local systems. Donald Trump threatens California’s protections of a woman’s choice, immigration, the unhoused and LGBT+ rights. However, it seems that many of my peers do not know that California suing the federal government has resulted in success in protecting these rights.
It is my belief that we need to educate people that this is the case. We may then have a generation less pessimistic about the future — a future where everyone acts more locally to protect our rights no matter the federal election results. I suggest promoting more reports, studies and education so the public and students are educated on how local and state politics can protect our rights.
Re: “ ” (Page A1, Oct. 17). Cupertino Union School District parent Qina Sa said that because children under 5 are still developing fundamental language skills and cognitive abilities, teaching about gender identity could create confusion.
Yet research suggests that children up to age 5 can learn and process . They are little sponges, ready to absorb many more concepts than adults might think. And children in families with same-sex parents or parents in biracial marriages, or with siblings with various challenges and sexual orientations, or of various races, accept diversity.
For a more tolerant society, the time to introduce differences of all kinds, including sexuality, is the early years. Re: “ ” (Page B1, Oct. 4).
Seeing students using AI shocks me. Forbes reports that ChatGPT’s water usage for cooling down servers is is enough to supply . Students already use AI to write their essays, so teaching students to use it may encourage them to be lazier and become dependent on it, hindering their ability to think freely.
Instead, students should use AI in more productive and limited ways or abandon it altogether. When a student relies solely on AI, they start to forget how to write, let alone form coherent sentences. Is this the future we want, students not able to write without computer assistance? Will our children get through college without AI to guide them? This simply cannot be.
We must teach our children to look past AI and think with their brains more effectively, not how to use a computer’s brain. Re: “ ” (Page A6, Oct. 15).
Jane Gould and Sue Saunders say California should go all in on fully electric vehicles. I think this is a laudable goal but the charging issue looms large. Last year, Honda and Toyota, who make more vehicles than any other carmaker in the United States, testified in Congress that their research and dealers say yet.
So, the authors should consider plug-in hybrids as a reasonable interim step, while chargers move consumers to adapt to all-electric vehicles when more charging alternatives are available. Apartment dwellers cannot readily charge their vehicles when home. It is not practical for them to get their vehicles charged elsewhere while they work.
We may need to move faster, but wishing and legislation won’t make that happen. The time has come for private equity’s reckoning. It has penetrated every aspect of our lives — from housing to groceries, from hospitals to care homes, from preschools to funeral homes, from pet care to copper mines.
Originally, it had some legitimate use, but now it’s the unapologetic center of blatant greed, lousy service and lame excuses. Its upper reaches are the playground for obscene displays of wealth. Case in point, Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire impresario of Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, just hosted a 200-person housewarming party at his in Newport.
Before that, there was his in Palm Beach, and before that, his which cost a reported $3 million-$5 million and featured Venetian gondolas, Arabian camels, Mongolian acrobats and a giant cake in the shape of a Chinese temple. Enough is enough. Re: “ ” (Page A2, Oct.
11). Related Articles I wonder how many animals led a tortured life and then were needlessly killed to total 10 million pounds of meat? How much land was wasted growing their millions of pounds of feed? How much water and fuel was wasted, and air and water pollution created —- needlessly? A slap on the wrist for BrucePac does not serve justice for the four-month “lapse” that allowed such waste and disregard for public health and safety. Perhaps the only saving grace is that the announcement to the public was so delayed that many of those animals were actually eaten before consumers knew there was a problem and there were no reports of illness.
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