Letters for Aug. 8, 2019

Re: “Who will lead the Hmong?” by Stephen Magagnini (Feature, July 25):

The one Hmong leader model will not exist again. The community is too complex and will require multiple leaders in different capacities to carry and unite the community.

Lar Yang

via Facebook

Lots of blame

Re: “Dispossessed in Sacramento” by Jeff vonKaenel (Greenlight, July 25):

Author Noelle Stout asks: “Why isn’t there more outrage at the banks and the federal government’s willingness to help the banks, at the expense of the average person?”

Because it all happened so long ago. Because few of the people whose outrage would be at all effective wanted to seriously criticize then-President Obama, despite the fact that he allowed Wall Streeters such as Timothy Geithner to craft legislation that bailed out the banks without making sure they bailed out underwater home mortgages before the banks got the money. And then Congress passed that legislation and never went back and fixed the problem.

We could also ask why our local government, unlike Richmond, Calif., failed to notice or do anything about the fact that many of those repossessed homes were hoovered up by national real estate corporations who have been raising rents as much as possible, contributing to Sacramento’s ongoing affordable housing crisis.

Muriel Strand

Sacramento / via email

Do-nothing politicians

Re: “‘I was sickened by what I saw’” by Doris Matsui (Essay, July 18):

Rep. Doris Matsui is just one of 100 freeloading, do nothing but complain, do nothing but raise contributions, worthless demagogue lawmakers. They buy their way into a lifetime job of milking taxpayers. They instill policies that create problems, complain about the problems and say they can fix them if we just spend some more of your money. Nothing gets fixed, and it’s move on to the next “crisis.”

I’ve watched it for 60 years and nothing has changed, except when a politician passes and the next in line takes over.

Curtis Fry

Citrus Heights / via email

Pay to play

I read your publication every week, so I appreciate what you do for Sacramento. Regarding your “Best of Sacramento” contest for 2019, I frequent The Coconut on T restaurant and noticed that at most of their tables, they have promotions for a “Free Thai Iced Tea” attached to the “Best of” voting information. I noticed this last year as well, and they are a consistent winner of this contest.

I think that offering customers a free Thai iced tea is a shameless bribe to persuade the public to vote in the restaurant’s interest. If you are aware of this and are allowing this to continue, then the credibility of the contest and your publication will diminish in my eyes.

Jennifer Falcone

Carmichael / via email

Correction

Re: “Who will lead the Hmong?” by Stephen Magagnini (Feature, July 25):

The caption for a photo of dancers gave an incorrect location. They performed at a Project HMONG gala at Sacramento State University on June 7. SN&R regrets the error.