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Data won’t help us
solve homelessness
Re: “Billions spent, but no data on effectiveness” (Page A9, Sept. 8).
Homelessness cannot, as a “thing,” be solved. It is a multifaceted state of living and is not fixed by simply finding cots and lockable doors for everybody who meets some definition of being “homeless.”
If we look at all the factors that lead to a person being disconnected from society, the core state of being homeless, there are many contributing factors but there is no simple cause. There’s no way to “attack” this “problem” when it’s not really a problem, it’s a symptom.
“Homeless” will only be reduced by our making structural changes in schooling, families, employment markets, financial markets, business models, health care and communities.
Chris Brown
Oakland
Prop. 36 will drain funds
from useful programs
Re: “Prop. 36’s smart response to crime, addiction” (Page A8, Sept. 8).
The newspaper’s Sept. 6 editorial leads with the claim that Proposition 36 is a “smart response to crime, addiction and homelessness.” That claim is insulting to those who suffer from addiction or housing insecurity.
By increasing the jail and prison populations, resources would be redirected from substance abuse programs and housing services to the courts, jails and prisons. Whether the costs of Proposition 36 are in the “low hundreds of millions” as estimated by the LAO or over $4 billion per year, as estimated by Californians for Safety and Justice, it is indisputable that resources for support and rehabilitation will be reduced if Proposition 36 passes.
Proposition supporters apparently believe that more punishment is needed to address real social problems. For those of us who disagree, the answer is no on Proposition 36 and continued, expanded funding of successful efforts to reduce the social problems of addiction and homelessness.
Jean Moses
Oakland
Reelect Karla Brown
mayor of Pleasanton
I have been a proud and happy resident of Pleasanton now for over 33 years.
Mayor Karla Brown is a diplomatic listener and balances multiple competing interests in a true executive manner.
She really cares, which matters the most. She is also kind and benevolent with disadvantaged populations and does her best to further those groups within our society.
Please join me and support her reelection as the mayor of Pleasanton.
Neil Kripalani
Pleasanton
Second Amendment’s
misreading costs lives
We have slowly become acclimated to insanity. The latest school shooting, four dead, nine wounded, will pass with hardly a notice. No surprise, only threadbare repetitions of empty outrage.
Students no longer feel safe at school, not in our misunderstood era of bogus interpretations of the Second Amendment. When the founders wrote the Second Amendment was this what they had in mind?
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” Why do defenders of this amendment always leave out the first half? It’s about well-regulated, state-run militias ready to be called on to defend the republic, written by patriots who feared national armies being used to crush the people. Does anybody think about what that means? It’s not about private gangs of gun owners.
Please, read your Constitution.
Michael Steinberg
Berkeley
We shouldn’t fear GOP,
Dems cooperating
My current political heroes are Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Liz Cheney and her father, Dick Cheney, who has surprisingly joined this elite group with dedication and spunk.
This is the last chance to bring back the original Republican Party that I voted for about as much as I voted for my party, which is Democratic. In those days we looked at the pluses and minuses of both sides and decided who to vote for, which was sometimes a difficult choice. For example, Reagan and Gorbachev worked together to ensure no nuclear war.
In the future, I hope that the two opposing sides in a similar situation will forget their egos and self-interests and accomplish this type of cooperation again. As Einstein once said, he isn’t sure what the next world war will be fought with, but the following war will be fought with sticks and stones.
Gerald Bohm
Concord
Modern tech makes
it hard to make friends
Re: “America’s loneliness epidemic has a cure” (Page A9. Sept. 8).
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The writer’s cure for America’s loneliness epidemic is, simply, for people to make a new friend. In his world, the best way to deal with loneliness is to put a Band-Aid on it, not to understand its cause.
We’re lonely because we’ve allowed those old-fashioned things like schools and families to become much less important because of cell phones and social media. But schools usually required learning as a result of interaction with others — not just looking something up on Wikipedia. Families teach children how to love and trust, and how they can apply those abilities as they grow up.
Cell phones and social media are certainly here to stay. However, unless we recognize that personal interactions are also very important, it will become more and more difficult to simply “make a new friend.”
Daniel Mauthe
Livermore