Views in brief

Celebrating Darby Tillis

IN RESPONSE to "Farewell to a fighter and a teacher": Thank you, Marlene Martin, for writing about Darby, a true hero--and a more appropriate Peace Prize nominee than so many who've been bestowed with this now-more-than-ever-dubiously celebrated, contrived "award." The radical left needs more celebrations of the likes of Darby. What a wonderful human being!

I appreciate learning a bit more about what life must really be like in this breadbasket of democracy and justice for those with a skin color that's not white. For so many years, I wanted, tried and almost believed that this nation had good intentions at heart. Yet my personal sense of betrayal is miniscule compared with the suffering of the multitude of unjustified victims of the American penal colony.
Peter Warner, Sebastopol, Calif.

How Boston steals from the poor

IN RESPONSE to "Pushing the homeless out in Boston": What was left out of the article was that the homeless were put into a community center mainly used by lower-income people, who have had to fight to keep it open.

This wasn't just some YMCA that college students and everyone in the city used. The members abruptly lost memberships they had paid for, and those who were employed there lost their employment immediately. I was so disgusted by this I even tweeted Mayor Martin Walsh, who I had been a huge supporter of up until that time.

I found out about this because of reading our local Boston paper. This community center was one I had thought about joining, instead of the local YMCA, which is more expensive and is designed for use by only a certain population in the city. I wanted to support my neighborhood community center.

I must admit, it never occurred to me that the move to close the homeless shelter was made so the area could be freed up for real estate. It wouldn't be the first time in Boston this had happened.

It's the disgusting and upsetting reality of not being wealthy in America. Your very home and livelihood could be stolen from you at the drop of a hat.

The U.S. may have a smaller gap between the rich and not so rich, but I can say, spending more than half my life in Boston proper (meaning the actual city of Boston, where the community center I speak of is located, and not one of the outer towns like Quincy or Dorchester), the neighborhood has become disturbingly gentrified--aka "rich and white." There is a difference in the actual "vibe" of the neighborhood. It's less and less an actual "neighborhood" with qualities one would expect. Again, this is very disturbing, unsettling and disappointing!
Corey Mondello, Boston

UTLA needs to fight for teachers

IN RESPONSE to "A comeback for the UTLA?": UTLA membership has gone from close to 45,000 to 31,000 because UTLA leadership--much of which is still the same--has stood by and watched teachers at the top of the salary scale targeted and removed from their jobs on fabricated charges and without due process of law.

For every teacher LAUSD has gotten rid of, it saves approximate $60,000 in combined salary and benefits savings, when compared to a tenured teacher at the top of the salary scale. Ninety-three percent of those targeted fulfill this definition, and yet UTLA, under the old and the new leadership, has stood by and done nothing to aid these teachers, and has either openly colluded or, through incompetence, has done nothing to stop it.

The LAUSD administration has been so successful in getting rid of expensive teachers, displacing others and stopping subs from getting 100 days of service so that they get medical benefits, that there is now a teacher shortage--which LAUSD is trying to fill with $35,000-a-year emergency credentialed teachers. Although UTLA has the power under state and federal law and their collective bargaining agreement with LAUSD, it has done absolutely nothing.
Lenny Isenberg, Los Angeles

A hero for helping women

IN RESPONSE to "Breaking the silence about abortion": My daughter is a hero--mine and her mother's hero. She works hard to make a difference, and she does.

Her job at Planned Parenthood serves so many needs for so many women and men, and it does this without nearly as much support or appreciation from the community as it deserves. I know my daughter has made a significant difference, she is my hero, and I love her so much.

Do I agree with breaking the silence about abortion? How could I not?
Mike Weston, Ventura, Calif.

Why the Democrats crashed

IN RESPONSE to "Looking past the myths about Election 2014": Your article neglected three other objective factors in this election: the unprecedented onslaught of "dark" money enabled by conservative Supreme Court's two decisions; disqualification of Latino, Asian and Black voters by laws requiring voter ID; and corporate-run voting computers, which can be jiggered.

Most Democrats stupidly followed the strategy of avoiding issues that really matter: jobs, climate change, raising the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, stopping foreclosures, forgiving all student debts, a wealth tax on millionaires, moving toward universal single-payer health care, more spending for public transportation, replacing punitive justice with restorative justice system, an end to domestic spying, an end to covert and overt wars and attacks which almost always create more hatred of the U.S. and divide the international working class, ending the privatized Federal Reserve Bank, requiring public financing of elections, establishing publicly owned city and state banks, militarized cops, the New Jim Crow caste system, etc.

Transformation will come from demonstrations, civil disobedience, long-term diverse coalition building, and grassroots organizing of unlikely allies. We must pressure politicians regardless of party. We can build a movement city by city, county by county, state by state.

Jess Spear of Socialist Alternative won 16 percent of the vote against a powerful Democrat, the Washington state speaker of the House. Long an activist for $15 an hour she also campaigned on climate change, jobs, rent control, and issues that MATTER. Getting arrested for blocking mile-long BNSF trains towing fossil fuels gave her additional street cred.
Mason Taylor, Seattle