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Prop. 50 is a fight
that’s worth having
Re: “Passing redistricting plan will be uphill battle for governor” (Page A16, Aug. 31).
This opinion piece lists the difficulty of getting voters to the polls for an off-year election, but this is one very special election. For one thing, voting for redistricting is almost as critical as voting for a president. It impacts the entire nation, not just Californians.
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Donald Trump’s control of Congress inflicts incredible horrors upon the values of rational citizens. It is not just any off-year election, but the difference between another two years of unfettered Trump rule and the hope of lessening his influence to protect our freedoms.
The most rational threat to the passage of redistricting is the moral question of supporting gerrymandering to achieve neutrality in the congressional districts after the Texas redistricting debacle.
Support the redistricting because it is a prime example of the ends justifying the means. Vote “yes” as a big step toward controlling Trump.
Joan Field
Danville
Minority representation
is a lie in this state
Re: “Political ads over map fight heating up” (Page A1, Aug. 29).
Those on the left in California who support Gov. Newsom’s gerrymander proposal in Proposition 50 apparently don’t care about minorities if the minority is Republican voters.
The left will oppose voter ID, claiming it suppresses minority voters, but it will support Proposition 50 even though it actually disenfranchises voters who are Republicans and in the minority. Hypocrisy.
Nick Waranoff
Orinda
Newsom’s theatrics
a sign of desperation
I think Gavin Newsom is acting desperate, seeing his lifelong dream of the presidency being vaporized by President Trump.
Being a Democrat politician in California is easy. Being a lifelong California Democrat politician running for president is much more difficult because the lifelong Democrat politician must now run on their record of accomplishments to lure the small percentage of swing and independent voters who will decide who will become our next president to vote for them. It seems to me that this is why Newsom is acting out with his arm-waving, ranting speeches and Trump-like tweets because he doesn’t have much in the way of accomplishments to sell.
It seems to me Newsom would be better served by keeping his hands in his pockets, keeping his mouth shut and spending the next 12 months actually building a résumé of real California accomplishments to sell to the rest of the country.
Bill Behan
Brentwood
Gender care for youth
needs further study
Re: “Handmade cards from classmates comfort a girl wounded in Minneapolis church shooting, aunt says” (Aug. 30).
I am really concerned about school shootings, especially after the latest one in Minneapolis. I am also concerned about the shooter identifying as trans and receiving gender-affirming care as a minor.
I have no problem with adults receiving gender-affirming care. In fact, I know transgender people, and some are my friends. However, I worry about underage people with developing bodies receiving hormone blockers and other gender-affirming drugs.
I feel we should study the effects of those drugs more before giving them to underage people.
Marianne Haas
Berkeley
Stop Trump’s attacks on
US Indigenous students
It is shameful when Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, threatens to strip the state of New York’s school funding over its ban on mascots that are degrading toward American Indian students. They make the students feel less than human.
I urge McMahon and her boss, President Trump, to stop defending school mascots that are degrading toward American Indian students.
Billy Trice Jr.
Oakland
Time to re-evaluate
Israel’s value as ally
Re: “Israel’s war in Gaza making it a pariah state” (Page A7, Aug. 28).
How much longer can we ignore women in Gaza watching their children starving to death while Israel bleeds our coffers dry?
Israel is not a poor country. It has subsidized education and health care while we have neither and are shouldering a debt of over $37 trillion. Yet, we continue to unquestionably fund its unrelenting slaughter of innocent women and children — a disgraceful crime against humanity. At the same time, we are stripping ourselves of our First Amendment rights at the behest of this rogue nation.
Israel is not a valuable ally; it is an albatross around our neck. We need more honest public discussion.
Forrest Cioppa
Benicia
