Month: November 2017

Taking the knee

Hank Moonjean (As You See It Nov.24,2017) just doesn’t get it. Hank mentions… “The idiots on the pro sports teams who, with no real regard for our history, show their ignorance and disrespect for America.” He is wrong. What the athletes are doing (for which the rest of us should be grateful) is calling attention to a situation that has bedeviled America for far too long with little or no attention, that is: the appalling condition of racial injustice that exists throughout the country. We have ignored it and tolerated, even encouraged, some of its worst examples. But, thanks to one guy named Colin Kaepernick, with a lot more intestinal fortitude than most of us possess, that situation is changing, and the country will be the better for it.

Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

We do not need a vote

The idea of a referendum on the future of modern rail is a terrible idea. In the first place, the Sentinel has published so much misinformation on the subject, it is unlikely the voting public would have any idea or understanding of exactly what that they were voting on. “Rail banking” is a shiny new term being waved around enthusiastically by trail-only advocates because it involves tearing out the tracks. (It is important that we never, ever forget what Los Angeles did in the 1950s when they tore out the streetcar tracks of a superb public rail system which blanketed the metropolitan area and even reached out to the far suburbs. They are now spending millions to try to replace parts of what they had. If they had simply abandoned the tracks and left them in place, they could now reactivate that system without spending a dime!) Trail advocates should also acknowledge that trolley cars are completely compatible with bicycle and pedestrian traffic and coexist on the same right-of-ways all over the world. Now, if the SCCRTC officially adopted trolley cars as the chosen mode of passenger rail, (rejecting, once and for all the notion of a passenger train), then the trail people could proceed with planning, design, and construction without concern for future safety or conflict with the dreaded TRAIN!

Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

Black lives matter

Minority athletes have shown tremendous courage by “taking the knee” at the beginning of sporting events. Right-wing pundits do what they can to denigrate both the knee action, itself, as unpatriotic flag disrespect, etc., and the various other demonstrations that have sprung up as a result of the courageous moves by Colin Kaepernick and others before him, such as Tommy Smith and Juan Carlos. We white folks should be grateful to those NFL players and others who have been joining in, calling attention to the appalling conditions of racial injustice in the United States of America.