Mail delays are real
Please count me as someone whose prescriptions have been delayed by the turmoil at the U.S. Postal Service. I ordered my prescriptions online from Kaiser a week ago for delivery here in Noe Valley. I usually get them within three days. It is now a week later after I got notice they were delivered to the USPS and they have not arrived, the first time ever it has taken this long.
If like me, your home or office is suffering mail delays, please let your representative and senators in Congress know, as they are documenting delays to back up the bill the House just passed and the Senate may not ever take up. (Thanks to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco particularly.) What an unnecessary problem when we have unavoidable problems that we could fight together.
Charlie Spiegel
San Francisco
No on Prop 16
Your editorial in favor of Proposition 16, which would overturn Proposition 209, the ban on racial preferences by the State of California, states that the passage of Proposition 209 by 55% of the state's voters in 1996 had made the University of California and the California State University system "more white." ["B.A.R. ballot measure recommendations," Editorial, August 13]. That would come as news to the members of the entering class of UC Berkeley, of whom only 20% are identified as Caucasian, according to the Berkeley admissions office. The effect of the passage of Proposition 16 would be to reduce the numbers of Asian Americans, a minority group that now composes 45% of the entering class at UC Berkeley, throughout the UC system.
I am voting against Proposition 16, as it is wrong to tell any individual applying to a UC campus that, simply based upon their race or ethnicity, that person should have a higher GPA and standardized test scores to get in. Should Proposition 16 pass UC admissions officers will be empowered to tell otherwise qualified Asian American applicants that they are not "well-rounded" enough to warrant admission, even if their grades and test scores are higher than similar applicants of other ethnic backgrounds. This is the kind of discrimination that the Ivy League universities used to deny admission to qualified Jewish Americans a century ago. It was wrong then and it is wrong now. It is disappointing that the Democratic Party would seek to divide Californians by relitigating Proposition 209 rather than making substantive improvements to our state university system, which is becoming unaffordable to almost all residents.
Colin Gallagher
San Francisco
Appreciates Hadley Hall's service
As I read your obituary about my friend Hadley Hall, I was very sad and broken-hearted ["Gay SF aging services pioneer Hadley Hall dies," August 20]. He was my friend for over 40 years and one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. Mr. Hall spent his life helping others, especially seniors. I have never met a better person in my life. He was the one that after getting his hair cut and me telling my stories that insisted, with his help, I write a book. We did it and I can never thank him enough. He was the best. Rest in peace, my friend.
James "Robbie" Robinson
San Francisco
Racism comes from within
In reading the article on racism and safety in LGBTQ bars I frankly was sad ["Coalition aims to address racism, safety in LGBTQ bars," August 6]. Throughout my 26 years in San Francisco and working at Pride for nearly 20 years, I have observed racism, and experienced it in standing between my youth and volunteers at Pride and the Castro to protect them from racist remarks and actions.
Racism comes from within ourselves, and we need to look at that and change our hearts. A coalition is just another committee that will make recommendations. We need sensitivity training in our community. There is a reason we do not see many people of color in the Castro and at Pride. We need to look at it, and approach it like we have approached the queer discrimination through the years. A revolution only comes with a change of heart and being made aware.
Fr. Christian River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
San Francisco
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