Pictures didn’t tell whole story

I usually enjoy the special section The Star publishes of the national year in photos, but when I turned to the second page in this year’s edition, I was dismayed, and then appalled that every one of the photos showed distressed Palestinians, but not one showed a devastated Jewish family after the horrific attack on Oct. 7. I looked at the rest of the pages in hopes of finding something about the suffering Israelis and I found nothing.

Isn’t the job of a newspaper to be unbiased and balanced? The pictures you published were one-sided. What about a picture of a Jewish family after the initial attack? What about a picture of a Jewish mother sending her son off to war, not knowing whether she will ever see him again? People on both sides of this terrible conflict are suffering. Half of these pictures should have depicted the suffering of the other side.

Rita Zaretsky, Thousand Oaks

More concerns over parking plan

Re: Vickie Klatt’s Dec. 19 letter, “Problems with parking plan”:

I would like to add my voice in agreement with Ms. Klatt’s letter regarding the Ventura City Council’s decision to remove the free parking downtown.

I would add to her concerns with a few more. Volunteers at the library and museum may stop doing so if parking becomes an issue. Access to the library has already been made more difficult with the closure of Main Street.

As we have already seen, long time restaurants are leaving downtown because of lack of patrons. This is due, in no small part, to accessibility and the loss of the uniqueness of our downtown.

I would urge the council to reconsider this plan.

Lisa Lauterbach, Ventura

Stores being unfair with phones

My head is about to explode. Why should we have to use a cellphone to go grocery shopping? Now in order to shop for food you must have a cellphone that’s updated to take advantage of store sales. Why punish us if we can’t afford to upgrade or don’t own a phone, as many seniors don’t. Come on big box stores, make it fair for all instead of a fortunate few.

Ron Laufer, Ventura

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Letters: Pictures omission; parking concerns; phones and store sales