Health care

I'M WONDERING why the United States Congress doesn't simply pass legislation to provide each eligible person the same health care coverage that they have.

Ha!

Robert Latin

Fremont

Parents' reaction wrong

DURING THE lockdown at Newark Memorial High School on Sept. 30, students were instructed to not use their cell phones. However, most ignored this request and called and texted friends and family.

Students called to tell their parents about the situation and that they were OK.

For some reason, that got a majority of the parents to crowd around the parking lot gate, despite the fact that police officers and SWAT team members were working hard enough already.

As seen briefly during a news report on KTVU Channel 2 later that day, parents were not taking the waiting well. They were demanding that police officers play journalists and "give them the whole story" and also to see their children.

As one of nearly 2,200 victims of the lockdown, I feel that the parents' reaction to the situation was wrong.

What were they doing by crowding around the gate? They were only making the situation more difficult by having the police direct their attention to the parents rather than the kids.

If they wanted information so badly, they should have stayed home and watched the news.

I understand their worry, but the situation was being handled well. Things would have gone more smoothly if the parents stayed away during the police action and waited to come to campus when they were ready to release students.

Lauren Lola

Newark

Serving honorably

DRAG DUTINA'S letter of Sept. 18, giving me a bad time for being American, contained a factual error.

Two, not four, Kennedy brothers served honorably. Joe Jr. was killed during World War II while piloting a flying bomb, a B-24 loaded with 10.5 tons of Torpex, a forerunner of today's cruise missiles. The plane exploded before he could complete the arming sequence and bail out.

John Kennedy, despite Kennedy moral flaws, served honorably during World War II, was president of the United States and was a life member of our nation's oldest nonsectarian public service organization, the National Rifle Association.

The other two Kennedy brothers dishonored Joe Jr. and John by committing perjury, that is, violating their oath of office, "to "... preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States," by their rabid support of unconstitutional gun controls.

Some 47 years ago, I also took the oath. Mine, like Joe Jr. and John, also included —... against all enemies, foreign and domestic." When I left the Army, I never rescinded this oath, consider it still in effect, and when I write these opinion pieces and letters, consider it an exercise of this oath.

Andy Breglia

Fremont

Concern for animals

THIS LETTER is to express my concern and dismay at the closing of the For Paws low-cost spay and neuter program in Fremont at the end of this month.

This clinic provides a valuable service to the community, offering affordable spay and neuter and vaccines to cats and dogs. I know several people who would not have been able to get their animals fixed, due to finances, if it had not been for this program.

Right now, all the shelters and rescue services are overloaded with cats. If we are able to spay and neuter all the stray cats and dogs out there, we wouldn't have the high numbers of animals that have to be euthanized due to lack of a home — one animal dies every 63 seconds in California, according to a member of the Ohlone Humane Society.

I encourage the city to support the low-cost spay and neuter programs. In the long run, it will save the city money on the holding costs, medical fees and euthanasia costs. And it would be the humane thing to do.

I urge all those who care for animals to contact the city representatives and ask them to please support a low-cost spay and neuter program. The animals out there need you.

Jacqueline Willetts

Newark