Letters to the editor

Editor,

Richard King’s letter "Brown nullifies voters’ voice” from the Jan. 12 edition of the Daily Journal says that, in refusing to defend Proposition 8 before the California Supreme Court, Attorney General Jerry Brown compares Prop. 8 to 1963’s Prop. 14, which gave owners and landlords certain rights to rent or sell to whomever they chose. It was overturned in 1966 to avoid discrimination. King went on to say, "This is absurd because there is no relevance between race and choosing one’s sexual orientation and lifestyle.”

I am dismayed to read such tripe after all these years of dialog on this topic. Let me try again — celibacy, monogamy and promiscuity are lifestyle choices.

Sexual orientation, with very few exceptions, is not a lifestyle choice. And even if it were, why would my gay friends and relatives decide to be discriminated against and vilified in many places around the world if they could ‘choose’ to be straight like me?

The quest for full equality for gays and lesbians is precisely a civil rights issue. Asking gays to go back in the closet is as absurd and offensive as asking black people to don whiteface makeup to pass as white people so they can rent apartments.

Edward Syrett

Menlo Park

Who has the right to self-defense?

Editor,

I am compelled to write after reading so many letter writers justifying the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people in the name of "self-defense.” This notion of self-defense is widely supported by pundits and reported by mass media. The mainstream media have failed to report the facts and Israeli narrative is rampant, not surprisingly since the United States is pro-Israeli.

To set the record straight, Israel broke the ceasefire on Nov. 6. This has hardly been newsworthy and most people will only focus on the media reporting of Hamas rockets on Israel and the right of Israelis to defend their country. The facts are, while Hamas has launched 6,000 rockets in eight years, Israel has fired 14,600 artillery shells on the Palestinians since May of 2007. While 900 Palestinians have died, only 10 Israelis have died, and four from friendly fire.

So who has the right to self-defense? The Palestinians have the right to defend themselves against injustices placed upon them from inadequate food supply, water and medicine. The Israelis have physically left Gaza, but the economic blockade is nothing short of Palestinians being prisoners in their own country.

If we look hard enough, we’ll find the truth. We won’t find it in the mainstream media. I urge readers to look toward independent news media and especially from people who are actually in Gaza reporting the facts. I’m not pro-Palestinian, nor am I pro-Israeli. I am, however, pro-human rights.

Younga Shin-Chang

Antioch

Hamas charter is the only aspect unbiased

Editor,

For years now we’ve been reading articles critical of one side or the other of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both sides fight like cruel siblings, embarrassing their family and shaming all of humanity with its endless violence. Every new broken cease-fire brings the predictable one-sided facts and figures that can always be countered by equally biased interpretations. No one is credible, no fact unbiased except one: the Hamas charter: "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” That’s article 7 of the Hamas charter. I didn’t make it up. Israel didn’t make it up. Palestinians made it up and voted yes. That’s a fact. Until article 7 of the Hamas charter leaves in exactly the same way it came in, it’s the only fact that matters.

Damien Castaneda

San Mateo