Lauding the RTC for supporting rail option

We appreciated the March 26 article about the RTC continuing to pursue passenger rail service by aligning its concept report with the Californian State Rail Plan. This “… is significant because it will make the project more competitive for state and federal grand funding as well as technical support further down the line.”

We went to the celebration at Bay and California of the completion of section 7 a year ago. Representatives of the state Transportation Agency were there and they did not hold back on their praise of our local officials and their excellent work. We have received significant grants already from the state because we are pursuing multi-modal options. We laud the RTC and other officials for their hard work in continuing to pursue the rail option that a majority of the entire county supports.

— Mimi and Alan Edgar, Soquel

Why are advocacy groups opposing trail plans?

The Sentinel does a great service to the community by printing the opinions of our residents. It seems not a day goes by without an attack on the RTC for their decisions to plan for rail and trail. Folks write to bemoan the costs and deride the benefits while residents rely on our increasingly inadequate highway.

These same folks are inciting Capitola residents to reject a trail that actually costs less, is environmentally friendlier, fully funded, safer and more scenic and instead want to force it onto the rail corridor. Why would groups that portend to advocate for a needed trail wish to delay and possibly eliminate this section from ever being built?

A South County publication recently published that a law firm is willing to help nearby property interests secure substantial payouts for adjacent land that loses the rail right-of-way.

Could this be why we see railbanking efforts continuing in all forms of media and at meetings even after the trail-only ballot measure failed by a 74% to 26% margin? This needs investigating.

— Frank Rimicci Jr. , Corralitos

Educator: Why Addis’ Ethnic Studies bill flawed

I am a retired public high school teacher well versed in standards and Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s is a hierarchy of critical thinking that places recall and comprehension of information at the bottom of the ladder and analysis and evaluation of arguments at the higher rungs.

I oppose Assemblymember Dawn Addis’ Ethnic Studies bill (Guest Commentary, March 27) for a number of reasons, including its attempt to relegate students of color to the bottom of Bloom’s taxonomy. AB 1468 would dumb down the curriculum with wording that instructs teachers to focus only on “domestic” concerns and not explore the “causes” of ethnic marginalization.

How are educators to teach about proposed reparations for slavery without discussing the brutality of the transatlantic slave trade? How are they to discuss immigration without studying the policies that led to cross-border migration?

Addis argues Ethnic Studies needs safeguards against bias and bigotry, but those safeguards are already baked into California’s Education Code, which bars discrimination on the “basis of disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation ...”

— Marcy Winograd, Santa Barbara

Trump ‘doing exactly what we voted for’ so get over it

Every morning, prior to reading the Sentinel, I have to remind myself that I live in one of the most liberal areas of the country, thus preparing myself for all the negativity toward our President Donald Trump and his supporters.

Over 77 million voters across the nation put him into office again. Letters to the editor of the Sentinel repeatedly ask us “is this what you voted for,” suggesting that we should be ashamed or regret our vote.

Well guess what, he’s doing exactly what we voted for! And all the protests and hateful (yes, you are quite hateful) reactions that we observe just make us smile and realize that he’s succeeding in doing what we expect of him. You lost! Get over it! We endured eight years of Obama and four years of Biden, who we consider to be two of the worst presidents ever but we lived with it.

Other than Jan. 6th you didn’t see Republicans protesting every day and denouncing your choices. Geez, talk about sore losers. You should be embarrassed.

— Elwin Haddix, Ben Lomond