Time for Confederate monuments to come down
To the Editor,
Regarding Trump’s statement that it’s “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments” to the Confederacy. Imagine that you’re taking a river cruise down the Danube and numerous German towns you visit have statues of Hitler in their town squares and monuments to the Third Reich. What would you think of present-day Germany? Someone who occupies the White House should realize that’s what people think of the cities that have monuments to slavery and the Confederacy in this country. Long past time for all of them to come down.
Amy Newell
Watsonville
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Floyd Mayweather – Conor McGregor bout a ripoff
To the Editor,
After rediscovering a San Francisco Chronicle clipping, “Ex-boxing champ Pryor dies at 60,” from Oct. 10, 2016, I began thinking how Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor would have done against Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Conor McGregor, who will battle Saturday in a contrived boxing match between a boxer and a mixed martial artist. The answer to my own question went like this: “I paid $50 to watch Pryor box, and have never spent a dime to ever watch Mayweather or McGregor. And will not pay to watch Saturday’s circus.”
Yes, $50 was the ticket price to watch Pryor battle Alexis Arguello live in Las Vegas for their Sept. 9, 1983 rematch of 1982’s fight of the year, won by Pryor by 14th round knockout. Compare that to the average $3,600 ticket price for Mayweather-McGregor. Also compare that Pryor made a little over a million dollars for each of his bouts with Arguello, while Mayweather and McGregor stand to make over $100 million each for one single bout. None of it seems fair, but it is what it is.
I believe Aaron Pryor could have defeated Floyd Mayweather Jr., and certainly Conor McGregor. I believe Alexis Arguello, the boxer Pryor twice defeated in his two biggest bouts, could have defeated Floyd Mayweather Jr., and certainly Conor McGregor. Yet, none of this matters to the people who will pay the prices to pay Mayweather and McGregor their obscene purses for Saturday’s bout.
It’s a free country, and you can do with your money what you will. I’d rather keep the little I have in my wallet and crank up, for free, two “real” boxing legends Aaron Pryor versus Alexis Arguello on YouTube. And I urge any “real” boxing fans left out there to do the same and boycott Saturday’s travesty.
Charles Birimisa
Watsonville
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Granite’s departure from airport a loss for Pajaro Valley
To the Editor,
I was dismayed to learn that Granite Construction’s flight department has left Watsonville Airport. This closes an illustrious chapter in not only airport history but in corporate aviation in the Pajaro Valley as a whole.
Granite Construction utilized a number of aircraft including Cessna Citation jets which were instrumental in extending the business reach of this renowned corporation far and wide.
Gary V. Plomp
Gilroy
