Letters from our Readers: Election Day fails to get the older folks riled up
November 6, 2009
I voted at about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. I asked the precinct official how many people voted so far. She said I was the 20th person. My own apartment complex, a block away, has about 250 apartments, many full of retirees with nothing but time on their hands. That’s one of the reasons I write letters to the editor. It’s my morning prayers.
Al Ujcic, San Francisco
GOP won nothing of import
It was weird seeing the news media declaring the Republicans the winner in the Nov. 3 elections and calling it some sort of referendum on Obama. The Republicans won the governor races in two states, while the Democrats won all the federal elections and increased their majority in Congress, where it counts. In one race the Republican candidate dropped out of the race and endorsed the Democrat.
It seems to me if you can’t even get your own candidate to vote Republican, then it’s the Republicans that should be worried about the next election.
Marc Perkel, Gilroy
Muni wastes more money
What a bargain! Only $55,000 apiece to buy a new radio for each Muni vehicle, as reported Nov. 3 in The Examiner’s “Under the Dome.” Will these overpriced radios guarantee fewer pedestrians will be run over? Fewer millions paid to settle victims’ claims? Less crowded buses?
Couldn’t walkie-talkies or a preprogrammed $29 cell phone serve the same purpose for a lot less? Or would that upset someone’s secret deal?
Robert Prentiss, San Francisco
Truth in insurance pricing
Right now a fierce war of marketing is being waged in our country. Every big insurance company — including Allstate, State Farm, GEICO, Progressive and others — claims they are the lowest priced. But only one insurer could really be the lowest priced, so the others are either lying or using different sets of criteria.
To end the confusion, I propose that each major auto insurance company be required by law to use the same criteria for determining truthfully which insurer is actually offering the lowest prices.
Kenneth L. Zimmerman, Huntington Beach
Burying critical news
So City College of San Francisco cancels its entire summer term, some 900 classes, as we learn in a Nov. 4 Examiner article that was not on the main local news page. Of all the stories in Thursday’s Examiner, the CCSF closure deserved the most prominent place.
We seem to be slowly moving on a path to destroy American public education. What does this tell us about our priorities as a community, a society, a state or a nation? What time does that TV show start again?
Russell Bratburd, Pleasant Hill
Disturbed by SF voters
Note to the 84.96 percent of eligible San Francisco voters who were too lazy to cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election: You make me sick. You’re lazy and irresponsible and you deserve the lousy government we get here.
Jim Duncan, San Francisco
