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Replace Mayor Thao
with ethical leader
Re: “Thao: ‘I will not be bullied’” (Page A1, June 25).
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao showed a lack of character last year when her first impulse was to blast Oakland A’s ownership for its move to Las Vegas, rather than seeking first to understand the entirety of the decision. She managed the entire process with the Athletics like a petulant child rather than a clear-minded businessperson.
Mayor Thao is solving the city shortfall by selling assets rather than laying off employees. She lacks the insight to understand that layoffs are part of a healthy business cycle.
And now there is this raid on her home. On cue, she blames ulterior motives.
It’s not clear what will happen. What is clear is that Thao is another politician whom Stephen Covey describes as attracting voters with her Personality Ethic (emotions) rather than a (strong) Character Ethic. Let’s break the cycle and vote next time for someone who is boring and has high character.
Rich Patrick
San Ramon
The time is ripe
to reconsider RCV
With all the upheaval about the mayor and district attorney going on in Oakland and some nearby cities, it is time that “ranked-choice voting” should be revisited. Wherever it has been enacted, it seems to bring a lot of frustration, and the people put in office do not deserve to be there.
Taxpayers and voters with common sense should think long and hard about keeping ranked-choice voting.
Diane Winkel
San Leandro
Antioch should use
its natural resources
Instead of trying to bring tech companies to Antioch, the city, along with nearby cities such as Pittsburg, should use what they have naturally. They should create hydro-powered plants that run off of the water in the Delta to give the city energy; this would also create jobs.
Just like in the olden days, Antioch had the coal mines and people worked there. Then after that, there were the steel mills. It’s time to once again use what the city naturally has. Use those natural resources to create jobs, provide service and boost the economy.
Brandon Lawson
Antioch
Court applied reason
to bump stock decision
Re: “Bump stocks decision flouts common sense” (Page A6, June 20).
Erwin Chemerminsky claims the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the use of bump stocks should have been made on the basis of common sense, or in the alternative, the Court should have relied on the so-called deference principle that a law is whatever a federal agency says it is.
While common sense tells us that bump stocks should be prohibited, the purpose of the Court in this case was to determine whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ rule prohibiting bump stocks was consistent with the federal law banning machine guns. That determination requires the application of reason, not the whims of common sense. And we should never trust government bureaucrats with the power to decide the legality of their own rules, a power that has already been much abused.
The Court made a reasoned …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
