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60 years later, still
protecting contraception
When I graduated from high school in 1960, some girls “had to get married.” When I graduated from college in 1964, birth control pills were available. In 1965, planning my wedding, I got a prescription for them. We planned to work for a few years, then start a family. And we did. It was a gigantic change to plan how many children to have.
Today, you can get birth control pills over the counter. “Trust Women” has been the motto of Planned Parenthood, and I volunteered with them for more than 20 years. But today, women are still fighting to retain contraceptive rights.
A friend said, “Stay out of my bedroom.” I thought by now I wouldn’t have to stand up, speak out or go to rallies with a sign. I am concerned that I have to do so 60 years after I got a prescription for birth control. But I will do it.
Jean Ricket
Saratoga
Zhao has leadership
skills for assessor
I support Yan Zhao for Santa Clara County assessor.
I’ve known Yan for years and watched her serve our community with unwavering professionalism and integrity. As a City Council member and two-term mayor, she consistently demonstrated these qualities. She listens carefully, makes thoughtful decisions and always puts residents first.
Yan has prepared extensively for the assessor’s office, earning her professional appraiser’s license and completing hundreds of hours in the field. She has the best training of anyone in the race. She is dedicated to making the assessor’s office functional in the 21st Century.
When anti-Asian violence hit a troubling spike some years ago, Yan courageously stood up and spoke out to protect our community. That’s bravery, when it matters most.
The assessor’s office needs leadership with technical competence and genuine commitment to serving the public. Yan Zhao embodies those abilities.
Ann Waltonsmith
Saratoga
Is Trump driving toward
future without elections?
Thirteen months before the midterms, Americans should be seeing leadership. Instead, we’re witnessing a president steering the nation toward crisis. His approval ratings are at record lows, and for good reason. He sends troops instead of lowering gas prices, raises grocery bills with tariffs, and guts health care funding — driving premiums skyward.
Why? Because he may not intend to hold the midterms at all. His actions point to a deliberate strategy: manufacture chaos, provoke confrontation, then invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to declare martial law and suspend elections — echoing his January 6, 2021, attempt to overturn the vote by pressuring his vice president before a violent mob.
This time, the scheme is more calculated and dangerous. If we look away now, we may find the next election has quietly disappeared.
Mark Grzan
Morgan Hill
Anger at Comey’s
prosecutor is misplaced
Re: “Comey prosecutor should be disbarred” (Page A6, Oct. 2).
Targeting a Justice Department lawyer for improperly indicting former FBI Director James Comey is misplaced, since a federal grand jury indicted him, not a Justice Department lawyer who will prosecute the case.
Whether Comey’s indictment on federal charges was justified is another question, likely to be decided at trial.
Dan Casas
Saratoga
World shows distaste
for slaughter in Gaza
Re: “Netanyahu: Israel ‘must finish the job’ against Hamas” (Page A3, Sept. 27).
No surprise that dozens of United Nations delegates walked out of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech. They know that he is doing to the Palestinians what the Nazis tried to do to the Jews, minus the gas chambers.
You cannot exterminate a people and call it anything but genocide. Getting rid of Hamas is like getting rid of rats. They always come back. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are being ruthlessly tortured by this monster, his right-wing cabinet, the settlers and the army.
Americans should be appalled that our money is being used to kill innocents. The few Hamas members eliminated are not worth the price. This is a power grab by Netanyahu to satisfy the right wing. The Israeli majority is not in favor of what he is doing. This is not how the hostages will be freed.
If we withdrew our support, Netanyahu would withdraw, knowing that he stood alone. This is no longer about Hamas.
Angela Boles King
Los Gatos
UN leaders offset
Trump’s dim worldview
Re: “Trump scolds NATO leaders” (Page A1, Sept. 24).
The world according to Caligula. We have recently been treated to our president’s latest worldview. The U.N. isn’t living up to its potential.
Never mind that he is leading the way in ignoring the existing and well-established international body of laws that would go a long way in actually fulfilling that potential. Blowing up boats for whatever reason is OK with him. Supporting the murders of people simply trying to get food and water seems acceptable as well. Hey, they are occupying valuable real estate. Changing his mind on the policies towards Ukraine is fine. Warning that the “double-tailed monster” of allowing people you have nothing in common with into your land and continuing to work toward green energy will cause your country to fail.
I think we saw at the U.N. a good number of world representatives make a more rational appraisal of the world.
Mike Caggiano
San Mateo