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SJSU, San Jose must bring back Speed City

Re: “Youths compete on track, in field” (Page B1).

I found the feature thought-provoking. This youth track meet was held at UC Berkeley’s Edwards Stadium rather than at the track and field and civil rights icons Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ training and competition venue, San Jose State’s historic Bud Winter Field.

Oh, that’s right, San Jose State University covered over Winter Field with a parking garage and did not replace the facility on the campus or anywhere. The current SJSU Track and Field team practices and competes on other institutions’ facilities.

Here’s a novel idea. Why not combine SJSU and city of San Jose resources to remodel PAL Stadium into a facility for the youth of our city and the SJSU Track and Field program? Then the Tommie Smith Youth Track Meet could be held in Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ backyard.

Monty SteadmanSan Jose

Cutting CalFresh rolls hurts families, farmers

Re: “CalFresh changes bringing concern” (Page A1, May 26).

CalFresh provides low-income citizens with an average of $189 per month in food assistance. The new rule requires recipients to spend 86.9 hours each month working, going to school, or volunteering, to receive benefits that amount to $2.20 an hour.

While I endorse subsidizing students, the rest of these families are already on the edge. Imposing half-time work at any wage, down to zero, is not going to help people get back on track. These are real people facing difficult times, and we are making their lives harder. Where is the humanity?

At a time when college graduates can’t find entry-level jobs, this policy also drives down wages for workers at the bottom of the pay scale. Pushing people off the CalFresh rolls, meanwhile, only hurts our already beleaguered farmers.

Sue LuttnerPalo Alto

Safe gun storage is crucial for kids’ safety

Re: “Family of teen behind California mosque rampage breaks silence. ‘We condemn these hateful and violent actions.’” (May 22).

The tragedy at the Islamic Center of San Diego shows how hate and unsecured firearms can become deadly. This tragedy is more disturbing because warning signs reportedly existed: Court documents describe one teen’s interest in Nazis and mass shooters, and another teen allegedly used guns from his home.

Instances like these aren’t rare. Seventy-six percent of underage shooters obtain guns from the home. Locking guns unloaded and away from ammunition is therefore vital, reducing the odds of firearm injury or death by 80%. Fewer than 50% of American firearm-owning families follow this practice, leaving roughly 4.6 million children in homes with easily-accessible loaded guns.

Firearms should be secured before danger becomes a tragedy, especially when signs of violent radicalization or mental instability exist, and even when they don’t. Pushing for stronger safe storage policies and awareness is a concrete, lifesaving step toward preventing future tragedies.

Hannah LiSan Jose

As AI grows rapidly, who is in charge?

“Pope Leo takes issue with AI’s rampant ascent” (Page A1, May 26).

Suddenly, there is a truly mad rush among major corporations to spend mountains of money in the race to become the dominant player in the AI revolution: investment in R&D, plans for the construction of vast numbers of data centers, commitment of unheard-of amounts of power to run them and even filling the skies with data centers in orbit.

In this headlong arms race, corners will inevitably be cut and products will be rushed to market to be the first and reap the untold billions in profit. What does the public get when a new universe of hastily-developed, flawed in untested ways superior intelligence systems are turned loose on us? When your personal AI is smarter than you are, can acquire more information in one second than you can in a thousand years, and thinks at a million miles per hour 24/7, which of you is in charge?

Robert MitchellMorgan Hill

Lessons of past costly wars are lost on US

Re: “Putin’s costly war fuels distress at home” (Page A9, May 24).

The referenced article should be required reading for all Americans.

The parallels between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. war on Iran are amazing and frightening. The following quote from the article is the most significant to me: “The war in Ukraine, Putin’s pet project, is the genesis for most of the trouble. A conflict Putin and the Russian security services thought would be over in days has instead dragged on for more than four years”.

Wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq weren’t that long ago. The presumed lessons learned from them should be top of mind today.

George LicinaSanta Rosa