High gas prices

The answer from the Southern California Gas Company to my complaint letter was a seven-page response.

A letter that is way over my understanding.

One thing that I did read was three contributing factors.

•Reduced natural gas demand

•Reduced natural gas supplies

•Reduced interstate pipeline capacity.

All this reducing and the price still increasing the last two invoices have increased by 110%.

Unbelievable.

— Lewis Ricker, La Puente

Death at the track

Re: “2 more horses die after injuries at Santa Anita” (Feb. 14 news article)

I am appalled whenever I read about, or hear, someone say that racehorses are “athletes.” Why don’t they just say what those ill-fated animals really are: living investments whose death is caused by greed.

Thousands of athletes have died during their careers in the sport of their choice. But it was their choice to participate in a dangerous sport and to risk death as a result.

Can anyone even suppose that a horse “chooses” to race? Or basks in glory after winning a race? Or is ecstatic that it added more wealth to its owners?

I grieve for racehorses who die in the course of entertaining some and making others rich. And I grieve for the many bulls who die for the same reasons.

How I wish I could help them live, and not just grieve.

— David Quintero, Monrovia

State reparations

Our state government meddling in this matter of reparations after slavery is humorous and mysterious at a time of divisiveness and budget shortfall with a pension fund gap.

Enormous cash handouts are also the least effective and riskiest means. Remember the EDD fraud? This can’t end well.

— Mark Zavala, Glendora

Both sides now

Unfortunately Richard French’s amusing “Down with MAGA” letter on Feb. 12 perfectly illustrates the current state of political discourse. It is pointed out how inappropriate Rep. Greene’s behavior was as she showed disrespect toward the president during his speech. But how was it acceptable when Speaker Pelosi dramatically shredded President Trump’s SOTU address at the conclusion of his speech? If you want respect for your opinion, you must show respect to others. The common presumption of moral and intellectual superiority assumed while taking one-sided political positions is leading us down a non-productive and dangerous path.

— Tim Woodington, Glendora

Race and the theory

One of the conclusions drawn from critical race theory is that a true and honest history of America would demonstrate that racism has been and still is inherently systematic in America. To block the use of CRT in schools and hide the history of America’s racism from parent-indoctrinated conservative parents, conservatives mislabe CRT using the Communist-sounding term “indoctrination,” and then, like new Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, deliberately twist the expert evidence to draw a false conclusion narrative claiming that critical race theory teaches children to “hate America.” What teaching CRT is more likely to do is use reality to free students to think critically for themselves, and to teach students to hate injustice. And racism includes anti-Asian, anti-Muslim, anti-semitic, anti-immigrant and anti-Native Americans, all, either as people of color, or grouped solely for the purposes of discrimination.

— Richard Dorsey, Hacienda Heights

One big party

Re “Corruption thrives in a one-party state” (Feb. 12): Columnist Susan Shelley reminds me of the boy who cried wolf so many times that when a real wolf appeared, the townspeople would not respond and the wolf ate the boy and the sheep. She forgets corruption does not rest with Democrats alone but is manifested across the nation in both parties. She puts her foot in her mouth when she writes that “None of this is illegal in California.” In the Trump administration, corruption ran rampant.

— Larry Naritomi, Monterey Park