Letters: Emulate ex-workers | AI’s promise | No panacea | Total ban | Gaza blockade | Raising profile

Mercury News Letters to the Editor for April 14, 2024

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Caltrain engineers
should be emulated

Re: “Though some applaud ex-Caltrain officials who built secret apartments, prosecutors call it a crime” (Page B1, April 3).

Mayor Mahan might consider hiring Joe Navarro and Seth Worden to lead his shelter and low-cost housing efforts in San José. These two former Caltrain employees created two secret apartments inside an unused station for $50,000. Their entrepreneurship should be recognized and appreciated.

After being fired and awaiting trial on felony misuse of public funds, they should have ample time to apply their obvious talents to the expenditure of the millions of city funds allocated to shelter and affordable housing.

Creativity, chutzpa and closure … what more could we ask for?

Ty Greaves
San Jose

AI holds promise
of a bright future

Re: “San Jose taps into AI to ID homeless camps” (Page A1, April 7).

With the rise of AI, Silicon Valley is once again at the forefront of global transformation. English is the new programming language.

Transformationally, 20 years ago only the future-looking among us (like Adobe’s former CEO, Bruce Chizen) would talk about physical objects (such as flashlights) being replaced by applications. The idea at the time boggled the mind, and in hindsight is taken for granted. Just as we seamlessly download apps to our phones, we will all soon generate our own “GPTs” not by coding, but rather by writing advanced prompts (in English) with custom knowledge bases.

Art will soon merge with technology as a new breed of non-engineers ply their hand at application design. The future is bright.

Akeem Mostamandy
San Jose

EVs, other gimmicks
aren’t climate panacea

Re: “Carbon fee will incentivize EV sales” (Page A6, April 10).

Carlos Rodriguez Santiago thinks that so-called cybertrucks are “so pretty.” That is unfortunate when one considers that Tesla’s “cybertruck” is extremely heavy, requires enormous batteries, and poses a serious safety hazard on the road due to its weight.

Electric vehicles of any sort, along with photovoltaic cells as well as “cloud brightening,” are not at all panaceas for the climate crisis looming large. In fact, they are major distractions from what really needs to happen, which can be described as “radical conservation.” Maintaining the lifestyles of middle-class America (and elsewhere globally) is untenable. Dramatic changes in how we live our lives are required.

There will be no technological miracles coming to the rescue, no matter what the billionaires claim. To put it simply, we need to produce less and to consume less in total. And what we do produce needs to be distributed far more equitably.

Anthony Stegman
San Jose

California should have
total plastic-bag ban

Plastic pollution harms our oceans, wildlife and even us humans: plastic bags break down into microplastics, which end up in our drinking water and, consequently, in our blood. The single-use plastic bags distributed by grocery stores — which we only use for five minutes — take hundreds of years to break down and continue to harm us for hundreds of years beyond their usage.

As a leader in environmental protection globally, California has the opportunity to incite great change for a more sustainable future. That’s why SB 1053, which would ban single-use plastic bags in grocery stores, is such an important bill. With this measure, we can pave the way for phasing out single-use plastics and ensure their indubitable harm ends.

Avalon Kelly
Los Gatos

Continued Gaza blockade
should bring U.N. probe

It is outrageous that Israel continues to deny food, water and basic needs for anyone under its control. There are many trucks laden with food, tents and medical supplies just outside its borders, waiting to be unloaded.

The United Nations World Court must prosecute Israel for the crime of failing to protect vulnerable humans who live in its territory.

If Israel fails to ensure the safety of all who live within its territory, then a total boycott should be declared by the United Nations.

Gil Villagran
San Jose

Op-ed raises profile
of a few protesters

Re: “The appalling tactics of the “Free Palestine” movement” (Page A7, April 9).

Reading Bret Stephens’s opinion article reminded me of similar ones I read in reference to the Black Lives Matter protests. Some in the media wanted to throw out the entire message, which was to bring awareness of the structural inequities that still exist in our country, because some violence was committed by outliers.

There are people who don’t condemn the heinous actions of Hamas on Oct. 7 and their voices can be loud. However, the “Free Palestine” movement on a large scale is about demanding peace and diplomacy, because 33,000+ people have been killed in Gaza by bombs provided by the United States, much of the infrastructure of Gaza is destroyed and famine is widespread.

Protests bring needed change. It is not fair to condemn an entire movement because of the extreme messages of the few.

Danielle Mewes
Palo Alto