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Military serves the
people, not the president

As a veteran of the Marines, I took an oath to defend the Constitution. Today, I see that oath under threat — not from foreign enemies, but from rising authoritarianism at home.

Peaceful protesters are being met with force. Marines are being treated as tools of political intimidation. Meanwhile, the same leaders who are cutting Veterans Affairs dare to call themselves pro-veteran.

I didn’t serve for a president. I served for the people, and I’m speaking out to defend democracy before it’s too late.

Samantha Ibarra
Concord

Intimidation tactics
should get fair reporting

Re: “Padilla taken down, out of news briefing” (Page A1, June 13).

Your article June 13 left me extremely disappointed with my subscription to your paper. You seem to be treating MAGA with kid gloves. Donald Trump is tearing apart our democracy, treating U.S. senators with violence.

As Sen. Alex Padilla said, “If I am treated this way, imagine how hard-working, farmworkers, day laborers … are treated” by this regime.

Catherine Egelhoff
Alameda

With EPA neutered,
cities must step up

Re: “City fined $336K for release of sewage into bay” (Page B1, June 8).

Richmond’s fine for inadequate water treatment is not an isolated instance; instead, water districts have been negligent for years. Take EBMUD, for example; it has been fined multiple times over the past fifteen years.

As this article rightly mentions, I worry about how state and federal agencies will enforce provisions and settlements to discourage similar plant negligence in the future. However, even that is ambiguous. From an initial reading of the settlement document, there are no guidelines for how the district will avoid contamination in the future. Moreover, federal enforcement seems unlikely — the EPA has undergone considerable layoffs and budget cuts, limiting the resources it can devote to enforcement.

If our agencies can’t regulate, then we, as a public, need to push for more concrete action to address this problem.

Aayush Gandhi
Dublin

EPA is choosing profit
over the environment

Re: “EPA leader is seeking to repeal climate regulations” (Page A4, June 12).

As a progressive faith leader, I write with concern about the EPA’s proposed rollback of environmental protections announced June 11. This represents a moral failure, abandoning our sacred duty to protect the vulnerable.

Our faith calls us to be stewards of creation and guardians of our neighbors’ well-being. The EPA’s proposal to eliminate greenhouse gas limits and weaken mercury controls will cause premature deaths and increased cancer, brain damage and birth defects. Mercury particularly harms developing fetuses and children. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin presents a false choice between economy and environment. True prosperity cannot be built on others’ suffering or creation’s degradation. Calling climate action a “cult” while implementing harmful policies abandons scientific evidence.

We betray future generations by removing protections when we should accelerate climate action. What will we tell our children when they ask why we chose profits over clean air?

Laurie Manning
San Leandro

Column obscures
Trump’s malfeasance

Re: “Trump-Newsom clash over protests feeds their interests” (Page A6, June 11).

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In Dan Walter’s opinion piece June 11, he suggests that Donald Trump’s escalation of violence in search of dictatorial powers through intimidation and fear, and Gavin Newsom’s calling this out in a defense of democracy, is simply a tit-for-tat play for the attention of an uninformed public.

It is becoming more and more obvious that Trump is trying to tear down the guardrails of civil society, trash the Constitution and eliminate all opposition. If Newsom were not to have expressed his strong, powerful and articulate opposition to this despicable behavior, he would not be doing his job.

The East Bay Times must not be afraid to illuminate the fact that Trump is a mortal danger to our democratic way of life.

Kanda Alahan
Concord