Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

Election is a rejection
of corporate influence

Re: “Tordillos elected to seat in District 3” (Page A1, June 27).

Thank you, District 3 voters, for standing up for what’s right. Your voices were loud and clear: We will not allow PG&E to buy influence on our City Council.

After San Jose Spotlight revealed that PG&E executive Teresa Alvarado helped run the campaign of candidate Gabby Chavez-Lopez while on PG&E’s payroll, voters made the ethical choice. We’re thrilled to support Anthony Tordillos, whose landslide victory shows that honesty and independence still matter in San Jose.

Let this be a lesson to PG&E and any other corporate actor: Our democracy is not for sale. District 3 will not stand for campaign meddling designed to benefit corporate interests over our communities.

We’re excited to see what Councilmember-elect Tordillos will do — and we’ll continue holding all candidates and corporations accountable.

Jeff Williams
San Jose

State should completely
ban bee-killing pesticide

I am a college student and lifelong California resident. I have seen firsthand the decline of the bee population in my area.

Gov. Newsom has branded himself as a strong environmental advocate but has not yet taken a stand on the unregulated agricultural use of neonic seed coatings. While the retail sale of these pesticides was banned in 2023, and took effect Jan. 1, bees are still dying at a critical rate. We must stand up to the chemical industry before it is too late to save the bees.

New York and Vermont have already taken steps to ban this pesticide. The state EPA is voting on this issue in February, and considering California’s large agricultural presence and historical commitment to leading the country in environmental legislation, we should be the next state to ban the use of these bee-killing pesticides.

Niamh Regan
San Jose

Trump’s politics of hate
are a losing strategy

A short 70 years after the United States defeated Germany’s campaign of hate against the Jews in WW II, Donald Trump came down the escalator. Stirring up a cauldron of hatred against Mexican immigrants, he used this animosity to create a unifying political force of hate, propelling him to the presidency twice.

History teaches us how hate destroyed Germany and its people. Today, we are watching in real time how hate is destroying America.

Trump’s campaign of hate is reinforced by a background of Christianity. Remember, Germany in the 1930s was a Christian nation. It was the German Christians who tortured and murdered their Jewish citizens.

Does America want to emulate Germany’s level of hatred? The answer is no. The solution: Remove the hate and anger, which is the hallmark of the Trump administration, and substitute compassion in solving our difficult problems.

Bill Wallace
San Jose

End of Iran deal set
us on path to bombings

In the Orwellian upside-down world of Donald Trump, where factual reporting is “fake news”, global warming is “weather”, Ukraine is “the aggressor” and an unstable buffoon is “a stable genius,” our current Mideast crisis comes as no surprise.

After two years of negotiations, the Iranian nuclear deal was signed in 2015 by China, France, Russia, the UK and the U.S. — as well as Germany and the European Union. It “significantly reduced its nuclear program and accepted strict monitoring and verification safeguards to ensure its program is solely for peaceful purposes,” the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation said.

In 2018, Trump withdrew from Obama’s hard-won agreement due to petty jealousy, labeling the best deal ever “the worst deal ever,” and now we’re paying the price. Iran began refining its uranium stockpile to near-weapons-grade levels, and here we are — “bombs away.”

Irv Brenner
Palo Alto

U.S. system trumps
China’s despite flaws

Re: “China is unleashing a new export shock on the world” (Page C7, June 19).

China is quietly going about its business, amassing a $600 billion trade surplus — quietly, but aggressively with laser focus. Meanwhile, the Middle East is on fire and threatening to get worse, and Russia is bombarding Ukraine. The U.S. is bouncing aimlessly amid a culture war, polarization and the incoherent Donald Trump foreign and economic policy.

Related Articles

Letters: California is a national model. There’s no going back.

Letters: San Jose airport is travelers’ best option

Letters: Donald Trump’s rash war demands we protest

Letters: Congress must reclaim its constitutional power to declare war

Letters: Trump’s attack on Iran makes Mideast less safe

Gavin Newsom was enamored with the Chinese bullet train, which prompted him to double down on that wasteful project. He ignores the fact that China’s central government control facilitates building a project like that in a heartbeat. China is unencumbered by property rights, lawsuits, environmental reports and a slow-moving bureaucracy. China does what it puts its mind to quickly and efficiently.

I prefer our system, despite its flaws. Liberty and freedom trump authoritarianism any day. But we had better get our act together or this will, in fact, be the century of China.

Dave Riggs
Aptos