Letters to the Editor
Editor:
The GRF Board is proposing a new transit service to replace the Minibuses with fixed routes for all-electric GEM cars as a cost-savings service.
First, GRF just spent considerable sums to replace obsolete buses with new ones.
Second, ridership has decreased due to COVID and other factors such as unreliable vehicles that didn’t make it out of maintenance, routes being cut back or even eliminated, etc. Now that has been corrected. Also, with the change in the phone system, contacting on-call, on-demand service after scheduled hours changed; people should call Security/ Dispatch at 562-594-4754 to arrange pickup.
Finally, it isn’t clear if the stated 10-fold increase in insurance rates is from a year or so ago or since the inception of the Minibus service, which would reflect decades of inflation.
The all-electric GEM vehicles are similar to electric carts. According to a reliable source that professionally drove one of these for a year, all the electric energy is required for propulsion and operating the headlights; consequently, there is no air conditioning in summer and no heat in the winter. The driver needs to park in a shady place while he waits for the next call, as it can become overwhelming in the heat.
Further, the electric charge can drain quickly, and the driver has to be sure he or she is near a charging station before it is exhausted.
I truly believe this is not the answer to replacing our transportation fleet, and the contract should not be finalized at this time.
Mitzi Winks Mutual 5 Editor:
With great empathy, I read a letter (April 25) in the LW Weekly lamenting the publication of letters that seem only designed to incite anger and divide people. I do understand that this approach to politics is counterproductive and really helps to solve nothing.
When I am having those distressing thoughts, I have to remind myself that we live in a country in which the right to speak one’s opinion is perhaps the most significant part of our foundation of freedom. I am also aware that, with that freedom comes responsibility. For example, we aren’t free to yell “fire” in a crowded movie theater, etc.
To protect our freedom of expression, we sometimes have to allow others to have their say also. No matter how inflammatory, baseless or even borderline psychotic it might seem.
On another note. Thank you Jon Michaels for your wonderful Ode to Leisure World. It was refreshing, funny and so spot on. I really needed that.
Mike Maher Mutual 3 Editor:
It is crucial for the future of this country that we recognize the stakes of the upcoming election. No longer do we have the luxury of two well-intentioned statesmen arguing over policies. We now have our precious democracy and all of its institutions in grave peril.
We need to educate ourselves as to what is actually going on. Then we must vote as if the future of our children, and our children’s children, depend on it—because it does.
Jana Rogers Mutual 7 Editor:
In the past 60 years, the U.S. population has doubled. That means more than half of our adult population has no direct experience in the pain and waste of war. Regrettably, the nations of the world (ourselves included) continue to be fiercely “tribal.” Tribal aggressions are mostly fueled by the self-interest of short-sighted leaders (if not misguided; perhaps evil).
Power and wealth can be overwhelming stimulants. Broadly based, socially beneficial solutions are developing, but they evolve slowly and we are an impatient species. Until we transition into a massive tribal merging (inter tribal marriages and children with a compelling sense of camaraderie and tolerance), it would appear we are destined to repeatedly create dangerously competitive episodes.
Hopefully, for the next three or four generations, the nations of the world will remain sufficiently sensible to avoid really gross turmoil.
If not “sufficiently sensible,” at least insufficiently efficient to instigate really gross turmoil. Cross your fingers. Our grandchildren are in for a rough ride.
Stan Verdi Mutual 2
