In reference to Ron Avila’s misguided comments on the upcoming Supreme Court decision, it is a shame that he, like most Bay Area leftists, doesn’t let facts get in the way of his feelings (“D.C. court case key to gun violence,” letters, March 18).

Washington, D.C., has more than 50 percent more gun deaths than the next state listed — Alaska — at 31.2 deaths per 100,000, versus, say, New Hampshire, which has no gun control, at 5.8. The criminals will always have guns; the question is whether normal people such as me will have the ability to defend ourselves. Florida was supposed to be the Wild West when it allowed concealed permits. Guess what? Crime went down.

Criminals are not stupid. If they think you might be able to defend yourself, they will think twice before committing a robbery. We can only pray that the Supreme Court holds up the Second Amendment and does not allow out-of-control political correctness to influence their decision. The illegal San Francisco gun ban already went down; let’s keep the progress going.

Greg Blake

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San Francisco

Ignorance has its costs

Matt Mitguard is fortunate that Taoism is a nonviolent and vegetarian tradition, or he might be facing a “fatwa” for falsifying the words of Lao Tzu, who said nothing whatsoever about giving a man a fish, or teaching him to fish (“Chinese sage, public schools,” letters, March 18).

However, Lao Tzu — though probably a mythical figure anyway — is reported in the “Tao Te Ching” (Chapter LXX) as saying, “It is because people are ignorant that they fail to understand me.” More to the immediate point, probably, is the National Education Association bumper-sticker slogan that says, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

Eric Park

San Francisco

Pothole panacea

San Francisco and California can easily solve their pothole problems and simultaneously save taxpayers and car/truck owners millions of dollars. (“Potholes digging into cars, wallets, The Examiner, March 13).

In 1998, Leo Mara, a bright, innovative employee of Sandia National Labs in Livermore, invented and patented the Rapid Road Repair Vehicle. This amazing, high-tech vehicle, equipped with computerized lasers will detect and measure potholes and cracks and then automatically fill them with precise and exact amounts of special fillers, leaving the spot perfectly fixed and ready for traffic use as the machine moves on; all with only one person manning the operation, at a speed of up to 40 mph.

Besides the millions of dollars that would be saved, this machine would repair our roads and freeways more efficiently, effectively and faster without putting road repair workers at risk, and it will reduce traffic jams and accidents from traffic slowing down, which in turn would reduce pollution, etc. It would cost less than $5 million to build a workable prototype. The hard part is getting government to do what is sensible and truly progressive. This is spending that should make sense to both liberals and conservatives for a change.

Aaron Seruya

San Francisco

Opposed peoples at peace?

Shamar Theus’ letter (March 18) making Israel out to be an evil empire is a prime example of why we have a divided nation today. Theus presents a distorted and one-sided perspective of things and expects people to take note.

One could say Israel freed the Palestinians from Egyptian and Jordanian occupation in 1967. Israel put in place sewers, clean drinking water and stable electricity, something they never had under Arab occupation.

The truth of the matter is that Palestinians and other Arabs have been terrorizing Israeli citizens since 1948. Israel has been in a state of emergency since its inception.

This is about terrorism and Israel’s survival, because anyone with sense knows that if the Palestinians stop attacking Jews there would be peace.

The late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said it best: “We can forgive them when they kill our children, but we can never forgive them when we have to kill theirs.”

Israelis celebrate life, Palestinians death. Can such diametrically opposed cultures co-exist?

Howard Roth

South San Francisco

Obama and the truth

As a black man, I have to admit that it was strange watching and listening to Sen. Barack Obama trying to assure white folk that he is not a racist and does not intend to hold them accountable for the plight of the black community.

It is indeed ironic that a black man has to convince white folk that the blame for the damage that 300 years of slavery, segregation and oppression has done will not be laid at their door.

Well, Obama is a politician, and we all know that politicians and truth are very often strangers to one another, but to many of us in the black community, Rev. Jeremiah Wright got it right.

Vernon S. Burton

San Leandro