Letters to the editor

Editor,

California Attorney General Jerry Brown said he would uphold the will of the voters. He changed his position. He is saying to hell with the voters. I wouldn’t take issue with Brown if he were an honorable man. Brown said he would uphold Proposition 8. He lied. Now Brown says it’s not his job to defend the power of the voters.

Brown’s premise is wrong. He uses Proposition 14 (1963), which gave owners and landlords certain rights to rent or sell to whomever they chose. It was overturned in 1966 to avoid discrimination. Brown is now using that argument as a comparison of discrimination against blacks to discrimination against gays. He equates a civil rights issue (being black) and homosexual activism as being the same. Brown can only move forward by convincing the court to agree with him. This is absurd because there is no relevance between race and choosing one’s sexual origination and lifestyle.

Black, white, straight, gay, religious and non-religious voters voted in favor of Proposition 8. It has been decided! Brown thought pro-Obama supporters would automatically oppose Prop. 8. It’s clear that he is using words like ‘discrimination’ to put a guilt trip on civil rights supporters and demonize supporters of Proposition 8. Brown will urge the California Supreme Court to make being black and being gay one and the same in the eyes of the law. He has left the central issue and is attempting to twist it into a civil rights issue. Brown is actually attempting to nullify Proposition 8 and the voice of the voters.

Richard King

Palo Alto

Theater-goers will go elsewhere

Editor,

The Redwood City Council couldn’t wait to tear down the movie theater across the freeway to get more business into the downtown theater.

Well, they got their wish and the results are disastrous. For any first-run film that has been released, it’s generally confined to one screen causing massive lines at the most popular times and creating ill will with the movie-going public.

Instead of always thinking of the "almighty dollar,” may I suggest that two screens be available for popular openings during the first few weeks to accommodate paying customers? If not, I can assure the theater management from my own unofficial survey that many of their past loyal moviegoers will be renting movies or going elsewhere with their dollars reserved for entertainment.

Dwight L. Schwab

Belmont

Thirty dead at U.N. school in Gaza

Editor,

How myopic are we to fail to see the fatal double game being perpetrated by Hamas militants?

The thirty non-combatants killed at a UN-run school is the direct and unavoidable consequence of Hamas militants using the civilian population of Gaza as human shields in their diabolical machinations against Israel.

A closer examination of the facts indicates that mortars were fired from inside the school at Israeli forces and in response, Israel fired a number of mortar rounds into the area. Further proof can be seen in that the bodies of Hamas militants were found inside the school following the attack. Troops identified two of them as heads of the Hamas mortar units in Gaza.

It’s tragic that civilians have been killed. But, there is also no doubt that Israel is making maximum efforts to prevent the targeting of innocents, by placing their soldiers in harm’s way, fighting in close quarters in a densely populated urban area. For 7 years Hamas has fired 6000 rockets and mortars indiscriminately at Israeli civilians who simply wanted to live their lives in peace. Today a rocket from Gaza nearly reached Tel Aviv and another missile narrowly missed killing dozens of Israeli Kindergarten kids.

Steve Lipman

Foster City