Letters for July 18, 2019
Re: “Coming to America” by Foon Rhee (Editor’s note, July 4):
I am deeply disturbed that in your “What it Means to Be an American in 2019” issue, your editor portrays respect for the rule of law, as it relates to this country’s immigration law, as hatred. Can SN&R honestly portray itself as a supporter of diversity while wantonly vilifying those whose views differ from the views expressed within its pages?
While I’ve never shared all of the views expressed in the SN&R, I once valued it for its objective presentation of views that I disagreed with because it provided intelligent information that challenged my views. Sadly, that time is long past. Like some love-struck suitor unwilling to abandon belief in romance, I continued to read SN&R hoping it might return to those glory days. The editor’s note cited above makes it clear that that has been a fool’s errand.
Ted Ternes
Sacramento / via email
Iran history lesson
“In the shadow of tyrants” by Raheem F. Hosseini (Feature, July 11):
The idea that absent the 1953 coup the Palavi “dynasty” would have likely become a real constitutional monarchy is laughable. Secularism (the Turkish/French kind) is something only the elite educated in Reza Shah’s government schools and their predecessors in the Qajr elite wanted. The present system has flaws, but to imply it has no popular support is misleading.
Paul Wick
Sacramento / via SN&R Extra
A close call with pedicab
Re: “A roadblock for Sac pedicabs?” by Foon Rhee (Editor’s note, June 27):
Thank you for featuring this important issue. A pedicab owner and operator claimed she hasn’t had any close calls with pedestrians, but if the unicorn motif of her pedicab is unique, she may have been the one I yelled at a couple months ago at Capitol Park for riding past on a narrow path without slowing as I walked with my 2- and 5-year-old sons. That’s troubling behavior with an extra-wide, 700-pound vehicle on a path with multiple painted “no biking” symbols. Over the years, I’ve seen a number of similar incidents.
I am 100% on board with addressing a core societal need for active and personal transportation, and for an urban fabric that makes it safe and irresistible. At the same time, riders and operators of all types of active transportation must obey clearly-posted rules and exercise basic interpersonal politeness to avoid poisoning public opinion and halting progress.
Kiel Pratt
Sacramento / via email
