Seventy-five years since largest ever civil rights violation
To the Editor,
Seventy-five years have passed since the largest ever wholesale violation of civil rights took place. But those who try to rewrite history tend to focus on what sounds best, sometimes overlooking the truth. Anyone that was around in 1942 easily remembers how unpopular it was being Japanese.
The Pearl Harbor attack enraged Americans and they wanted an element of revenge. The vitriolic hatred directed at the Japanese was totally irrational, so much so that many were afraid to go outdoors.
Nasty poems and songs about the Japanese could be heard on the radio any time.
Though some Issei Japanese were naturally dedicated to their homeland, there was never any evidence of espionage or sabotage. However, rumors flew like seagulls before a storm.
As ridiculous as it may sound in 2017, an assault on the Pacific Coast was a possibility (so the military thought) as evidenced by the artillery batteries on the beaches and the enforced nightly blackouts.
Nick Faitos
Santa Cruz
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A way to stop DUI, thefts
To the Editor,
If you have been arrested for a DUI or involved in an accident while DUI, your vehicle will be impounded for three months. That will make a person think twice about drinking and driving. Remember the 4-year-old kid with the brain injury caused by a drunk driver?
I am sending this to Gov. Brown and Mr. Trump.
The first sticky fingers got my checkbook and brand new flat screen TV. He was caught later on. The second was close by. I paid him to help me get out of bed after I got home from the rest home. Whoa, I think he had 10 fingers on each hand. He will be facing a judge.
In Iran, if you are caught stealing they chop your hands off. Here they should at least chop off one finger and show it on TV. The do-gooders will say we can’t do that, we are civilized country. Sure we are.
I said to grandsons Max, Royce and brother Jim, “I need a pistol to protect myself.” They said, “no, you might shoot somebody.” Armed Forces basic training I was the head of my class, firing a .45-caliber pistol and carbine. I would shoot somebody all right, I’d take out some knee caps.
They got me a BB gun. I needed a good laugh.
I have two pet mice in the kitchen. They have been eating more of my cheese than they are supposed to, not leaving me much. If they have knee caps they are in for a world of hurt.
Anthony Ivelich
Freedom
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Orwellian solution to highway gridlock
To the Editor,
Frustrated and sitting in Highway 1 gridlock recently, I mused, “why aren’t all us idiots getting a ticket for driving too slow and clogging traffic up like we’ve all so efficiently been doing for years?” It is us, mostly single passenger drivers that is the problem. No matter, come hell or high water, we have to drive our cars, around the same time every day — generally between 3-6 p.m., get on the same road and clog the freeway — where we should be going up to 65 miles per hour at all times.
Well I’ve got a solution (our politico’s sure as heck don’t). Drivers going under 25 miles per hour between 3-6 p.m. on southbound Highway 1, or in other consistent gridlock areas such as northbound 1 in the mornings, would be ticketed with the price of the ticket being an amount that would make the motorist at that time think twice about being on the freeway at that time. The tickets would be administered through cameras placed every quarter mile on the stretch of freeway that is most gridlocked and stop and go.
Of course, emergency, official vehicles, buses and carpoolers would be excluded as well as out-of-county drivers. The goal is to eliminate the frivolous single motorist Highway 1 driver during those peak problem hours. Now some may say there are no frivolous drivers. Everybody who is driving has some good reason for doing it at that time, even if that means being stuck in a traffic jam. Maybe. But I believe it would be interesting to find out.
If cameras were in place, the prospective Highway 1 motorist at peak hours would have to weigh his or her chances. Will the cameras dissuade enough motorists so that traffic will at least be moving at a 25 mile per hour pace? Will I get a ticket for going too slow? A ticket with a price that hits the pocketbook hard. That punishes you contributing to the gridlock nightmare.
I realize this proposal may seem Orwellian, Big Brother-like. Maybe, rather than in being fear of cameras recording our every move, cameras can be used in a good way. How about a trial run — six months a year? See what happens.
Let’s keep mindless drivers off the road at one specific gap of time and see if the flow of traffic will return to the pace it was supposed to be in the first place — up to 65 miles per hour.
Charles Birimisa
Watsonville
