California’s costly death penalty; shredding America’s safety net; race and President Obama

Easing the pain

Re “Sacred and mundane,” Column One, June 21

I am a minister who has the honor to officiate at funerals and internments throughout Southern California. At every cemetery, I am deeply aware of the level of respect and dignity the gentlemen bring to the internment. I use “gentlemen” out of respect for these “workers” who do the “mundane” work of preparing for the service and being the last people to attend the grave.

I have made it a practice to thank them for the respect they bring to their work. When I reach out to shake their hands, they are often reluctant due to the dirt on their hands, thinking that I would not want to take the chance of getting my robe dirty. I believe that this is truly “holy ground” made that way by their sincerity.

How often we miss the blessing of that almost invisible person who makes our lives and our passing sacred.

Rev. Kristina Collins

Covina

Groundskeeper Sammy Treto said there was no happiness in his workplace at Altadena’s Mountain View Cemetery. But to his credit, Treto overlooked himself. I refer to the solace he brought all readers to know how deeply he cares about his work.

Some say the respect we accord our dead is a measure of civilization. Others say it’s the respect we accord the living. Treto does both.

Randal Orton

Calabasas

Executions and their costs

Re “Death penalty in state comes with a high price,” June 20

U.S. 9th Circuit Court Judge Arthur L. Alarcon and Loyola Law School professor Paula M. Mitchell have shown us the extraordinary price of our death penalty system. Their report requires us to ask whether we are willing to pay this price.

The death penalty makes us no safer and diverts precious money from our budget. We need to ask whether we would rather pay for lawyers in the courtrooms or teachers in the classrooms; more prison cells on death row or more police officers on our streets; and more execution drugs or more staff to solve our crimes.

The pain of victims’ families is enormous. But death is not the answer.

Ellen Kreitzberg

Palo Alto

As someone who has worked in death penalty litigation for many years, I would be amazed if there were another area of government where the expenses were so artificially inflated. That a federal judge has taken five years to try to find a humane way to execute people, when the Supreme Court has ruled that it need not be painless, may be one of the most outrageous examples of judicial imperialism.

The report has three recommendations. Tellingly, none involves making the system more efficient.

Laws can be changed at the ballot box or because of obstructionism. When the latter occurs, it causes nothing but contempt and anger among the majority, who think their vote no longer matters.

Barry Nichols

Los Angeles

Some groups feel that a life sentence without the possibility of parole is inhumane.

If we eliminate the death penalty, what’s to keep this crowd from trying to abolish life sentences?

Len Wood

Rancho Palos Verdes

Shredding the safety net

Re “Payroll tax cuts hurt the needy,” Business, June 19

Michael Hiltzik has the courage to point out what is happening to our country: the decimation of the working middle class by the corporate elite and their Republican puppets.

The latest attacks on Social Security, which our citizens rely on to help them through their declining years, are unthinkable. Who could have believed that this country could fall to such depths of greed?

When did it become acceptable to shred the safety nets of Social Security and Medicare that protect us when we retire?

Dianne Herring

Altadena

I fail to see how the recent payroll tax cut hurt the needy or benefitted the rich. Everyone was cut by the same percentage, and all of the money went back into the economy. Where was the hurt, other than to the long-term health of Social Security?

I believe it is true that it would have been better to keep the Making Work Pay tax credit, but that was not to be. Don’t ask why.

The Congressional Budget Office does not take any side effects into consideration, as it is required to score on a static, not dynamic, basis. Don’t ask why.

We have known for a long time that demographics alone will force the reform of Social Security and Medicare. Kudos to the American Assn. of Retired Persons for finally realizing this. As it said, when change comes, it would rather be driving the bus than be a passenger.

Kevin Minihan

Los Angeles

The president’s racial makeup

Re “Obama: Pursuing a white agenda?,” Opinion, June 19

Erin Aubry Kaplan refers repeatedly to President Obama’s blackness in her essay on the divided opinions of Princeton professors Cornel West and Melissa Harris-Perry over their takes on the president’s agenda.

Neither the professors nor Kaplan seem to recognize that Obama is not just black or, for that matter, just white. Obama is the offspring of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya.

Coming from a mixed family, Obama is probably more fair from a racial standpoint than most leaders in setting agendas and developing programs. It may be as important, or more so, that the nation has a president who is a product of an interracial marriage rather than of one race. That is the wave of the future.

William A. Harper

San Diego

As a successful African American man approaching my 100th birthday, I find the rantings of West and other self-proclaimed black leaders to be divisive. Obama, by nature of his unique heritage, is not your average black man; he is neither black, white nor Hawaiian.

His objectives are for the common good. He is truly the people’s president, but the people have yet to come together as one, so he is trying hard to govern a nation that doesn’t yet exist.

Diatribes by West and others will only backfire by turning people who need help against those who can help.

Still, I have hope as I watch people worldwide who are awakening, protesting and hopefully realizing that they must band together.

John Levy

Altadena

Budget cuts in Costa Mesa

Re “Costa Mesa chief quits, blasts cuts,” June 21, and “Chief fears rise in crime if Costa Mesa cuts police,” June 20

I do not live in Costa Mesa, but I would like to thank ex-police Chief Steve Staveley for his honest remarks about what is happening in his city.

As we continue our march toward becoming a plutocracy, fewer voices are emerging to push back against the blatant power grab going on throughout parts of the country. Having the ringleader of this power grab label Staveley’s memo as “bizarre” is telling in itself.

Councilman Jim Richeimer, you are un-professional and bizarre for thinking the municipal government is yours to sell to the highest bidder.

Jocelyn DeVault

Newbury Park

Staveley claims the proposed reduction to his budget would mean more officers doing generalized police work and having

less time for specialist work in traffic, gangs and narcotics.

Perhaps Staveley, as well as other policing authorities, should consider getting back to basics and devoting the energies of their agencies to generalized police work. In my 32-year policing career, the creation of “specialist work” has done little to better ensure the actual safety of local communities.

Narcotics and gang details are exciting and dramatic, but basic, generalized police work is what really gets the job done.

Jim Weyant

Big Bear, Calif.

Rules of the road

Re “Cyclists voice concerns after crash,” June 20

The Times ought to print the rules of the road for cyclists. It seems that no one knows that almost all of the rules for driving a car also apply to cyclists.

I almost hit a cyclist the other day at a four-way stop sign. When I started to drive through, a bike came speeding by without stopping. I followed him and spoke with him. He was insulted and said that I didn’t know the law: that people on bicycles don’t have to obey stop signs. He was serious!

Francis Williams

Venice