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How can our nation
increase kindness?

Re: “Activist fatally shot at college event” (Page A1, Sept. 11).

During rush hour on Wednesday afternoon, while the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk was fresh news, anti-Trump protesters along El Camino felt a new, palpable anger from passing traffic.

Usually, among the honks and waves of support, we receive a few thumbs-down and even fingers-up. But on Wednesday, our critics were mad. I was puzzled at first when a scowling young man pulled over to the curb and pointed to the words “Due Process” on my sign, sneering, “Due process with a gun, you mean.” The next man to vent clarified, shouting across traffic at a red light, “You’re destroying the country! A good man died today because of you and your violence!” And more.

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I wish I knew how to inspire not more anger but, as my sign also says, more “Kindness.”

Sue Luttner
Palo Alto

Open debate also
a victim of shooting

Re: “Activist fatally shot at college event” (Page A1, Sept. 11).

The assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University represents more than the loss of a prominent activist. It signals a terrifying erosion of our most fundamental freedoms. When a person with their rights under the First Amendment can be shot on a college campus, we need to know: How secure are we?

Campus debates and open dialogues were the foundation of his career. Kirk created an environment where opposing points of view could collide but not by bloodshed. His death leaves questions about the future of free speech in America. When the danger of assassination is introduced into political speech, how many voices will merely prefer to remain silent?

Democracy itself is killed when debate platforms are turned into battlefields. What comes next? It is up to us to preserve these rights if we are brave enough to make it.

Bryan Aguiar Morfin
San Jose

President has power
to calm political tension

An open letter to the President of the United States: Mr. President, extreme partisan division and political violence certainly did not begin with you. It predates Julius Caesar and is probably as old as mankind. It’s worth noting, however, that given your political style of denigrating, demonizing and blaming your political opposition, more than 80% of Americans feel that partisan division has increased significantly since 2016.

While you are not directly responsible for the recent rise in political violence, you are in a unique position to bring the partisan temperature down. In fact, you are probably the only person in the country who can do that.

By reaching out to all Americans, by encouraging bipartisan cooperation on the Hill, you could significantly change the political climate.

Please, Mr. President, take this moment to be a real leader for America.

Raymond Jones
San Jose

Make sure we pick
the right women to lead

Re: “Time to give women reins of the country” (Page A6, Sept. 11).

While I agree with Mr. Cormode that having more women in government is a very good idea, women do not walk the moral high road. It depends on the woman — do you want more Marjorie Taylor Greens? Sarah Palins? Laura Loomers? Karoline Leavitts?

Men are not the problem. Ignorant, narcissistic, agenda-oriented grifters and con artists are the problem. People who don’t cooperate and who are in it for the money are the problem. That’s not gender-based. So, yes, let’s get more women involved along with more people of all races, all genders and all viewpoints, but let’s make sure they are community-oriented, team-spirited and willing to work for the good of all.

We’ve got some real serious problems that desperately need committed, caring and knowledgeable people of all types to solve them. If all women were as smart as Hillary Clinton or as decent as Kamala Harris, then yes.

Rosalie Arntzen
Sunnyvale

War on ‘woke’ has
borne poisonous fruit

All you haters of empathy, caring and compassion (i.e., “Woke”), you’ve gotten the alternative in spades.

How’s that working out for you? Okay with arresting people of color and non-English speakers indiscriminately and without justification? Okay with masked gangs who refuse to identify themselves whisking people off the streets and onto planes for destinations unknown? How about gutting agencies designed to protect your health and quality of life? How about turning our backs on years of alliances designed to maintain global peace and prosperity? Dismantling funding for higher education and scientific research? All good?

SCOTUS has trashed the Constitution for their fair-haired boy, and you won’t have a leg to stand on when it’s your turn in Donald Trump’s crosshairs. The day will come, I guarantee it.

Eugene Ely
San Jose

Housing crisis is really
a supportive care crisis

Not a day goes by that I don’t read about the homelessness crisis and the housing crisis. All the while, hundreds of high-rise housing units are going up all around me — in metro areas, in rural neighborhoods …  wherever a developer can get a good deal on the land.

I have written to Mercury News journalists to ask if they could do a vacancy study for Santa Clara County. I have only seen one article admitting that the vacancy rate is higher than presented.

We need mental health housing and treatment centers. No more million-dollar-plus “prison cells.” We are reducing the quality of life for everyone with no attention to the need for supportive infrastructure (water supply, transit, police and fire services).

Stop the madness and the money grab, or we will be like China with thousands of empty units no one can afford.

MaryLou Snowden
Saratoga