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Guard deployment
threatens rights of all

Re: “Trump says he will send National Guard troops into L.A. to put down protests” (Page A1, June 8).

The president deployed 2,000 National Guard troops against U.S. civilians in the Los Angeles area to assist ICE raids and against people protesting the entrapment and rounding up of hard-working migrant families. Creating scapegoats based on race and ethnicity, dehumanizing them, creating false narratives that accuse all migrants (and all Latinos in general) of being disgusting criminals, rounding them up, kidnapping them and disappearing them is fascist.

The president is using the government as an apparatus for depriving people of their democratic and constitutional rights, civil rights, and the right to freedom of speech and protest. He has increasingly polarized this nation into people who support his fascist and racist policies on one side versus those who believe in an inclusive democratic society and who support economic and social justice on the other. Everyone can choose to vote, protest, march and voice their opinions to advocate for democracy and justice.

Joe Navarro
Hayward

E-bikes a disservice
to young riders

I recently returned from a visit with my elderly parents in Walnut Creek, where I grew up. I love riding my mountain bike in the Shell Ridge Open Space. However, with my bike out of commission, I borrowed my brother’s old touring bike and enjoyed getting reacquainted with the many dedicated bike trails. This infrastructure for biking was not available when I was a kid. What a gift to have this trail system for so many user groups.

I am, however, dismayed by all the kids riding electric bikes on relatively flat trails. Kids are in their physical prime, but instead of enjoying the exhilaration of using their own strength, they are simply pulling back on a throttle with no effort expended or skills developed. Many of the kids were riding without helmets and in sandals. This is a health and safety issue I hope parents will take into consideration.

Douglas White
Anchorage, Alaska

Time for all of us to say
no to assault on republic

Are you aware that Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, has set a quota of 3,000 deportations per day?

In America, the government does not get to grab people off the streets, skip due process and the courtroom, and send them to prisons far and wide. The government does not get to use unidentified agents in balaclava hoods, with guns and without warrants to snatch family members at work or immigration meetings. These practices are totally against our rights defined in the 14th Amendment.

Many people thought this could not happen here. Well, it is. Time to exercise your First Amendment rights to say loudly and clearly, “Not now, not ever.”

Michele Brynjulson
Pleasanton

Walters has predicted
state’s end for 50 years

Re: “Democrats explode size of government” (Page A8, June 8).

Yet another article by Dan Walters portends the ultimate demise of California.

Poor Dan, for 50 years, he has been singing the same song, gleaning random statistics from state bureaucrats to document the state’s decline. As a Sacramento-area resident, I often chuckled at the columns he offered through the Sacramento Bee. Citing the same factors ad nauseam, Walters ceaselessly slams Democratic leadership in California, yet he continues to live here. As he predicts fiscal and population collapse, both grow. He hand-wrings over issues that not only plague California but the rest of the nation as well.

It’s California, Dan … and it’s still a dream.

Jon James
Pleasanton

Congress must excise
worst of Trump’s bill

Donald Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill is dangerously misnamed. It will remove many environmental and health protections and negatively impact people and our environment.

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Here are just a few examples of what this dangerous bill will do:

• Require new fossil fuel and mining development across tens of millions of acres of land and waters in Alaska and require offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

• End virtually all federal clean energy and efficiency programs, tax credits, and incentives that have produced hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy investments.

• Roll back clean air and water protections, exposing us all to toxic and hazardous pollution.

Contact your representatives and senators. Encourage them to do everything they can to remove the most alarming and dangerous pieces of this bill.

Ellen Beans
Moraga