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State should redirect
federal taxes to projects
Re: “Billions cut from Bay Area programs” (Page A1, Oct. 21).
This article lists many of the grants already earmarked for Bay Area projects, such as clean energy, higher education, infrastructure and job training, that have been cut by the Republicans’ government under the leadership of our petulant, thin-skinned president.
If he decides you’re his enemy for whatever imagined or perceived offense, he will do whatever he can to hurt you. As Rep. Lateefah Simon said, “Political retribution against Democratic districts is the point.” How petty and juvenile.
However, if the federal government is going to withhold already promised funds, then I say California should respond by withholding taxes or monies that we are supposed to pay to the federal government. They can go instead to the projects that Donald Trump has tried to jeopardize, and we could get on with making progress.
Sydney Stull
Clayton
‘No Kings’ is part
of an older fight
Re: “‘No Kings’ rallies galvanize region” (Page A1, Oct. 19).
Thank you for covering the “No Kings” demonstration on Oct. 18.
I was pleased and proud to join about 2,000 people at Pleasant Hill’s City Hall and feel the spirit of America. I was also happy to have my wife and a granddaughter with me, doing what Americans do best: protecting our rights and protesting fascism.
My uncle and cousin served this country in World War II to fight Nazis, and the demonstrators are doing the same now.
Daniel Safran
Pleasant Hill
Proposition 50 is a way to
strike against cruel cuts
As a family child care provider in Contra Costa County for over 25 years, I’ve cared for dozens of children — feeding them healthy, home-cooked meals so they can focus on learning. Many of these kids come from families who rely on CalFresh to put food on their table. And even then, rising grocery prices make it hard for parents to afford nutritious meals.
Now, some of California’s members of Congress have voted to cut $186 billion from the program that funds CalFresh, threatening to take food out of the mouths of 5 million Californians. I know how devastating this will be for some of the kids I care for. For some of them, the food I provide is the only full meal they get all day.
That’s why I’m voting yes on Proposition 50 — to hold politicians accountable for these cruel cuts and to elect leaders who stand with working families — not billionaires.
Yolanda Thomas
Pittsburg
Nobel Peace Prize was
out of Trump’s grasp
Donald Trump as a Nobel Peace Prize winner? Nope.
Certainly not one who despises his opponents. Certainly not one who calls his opponents childish and demeaning names. Certainly not one who renames our Department of Defense as a Department of War. And certainly not one who vengefully kills projects that offer investment in America.
Please, delirious narcissists need not apply.
George Doddington
Walnut Creek
Nixon-era policy could
help families today
During Richard Nixon’s presidency, my father was a butcher at Safeway. They helped people with food prices by selling hamburger mixed with ground soybeans, called hamburger plus.
It saved money, was healthy … and today, it could help soybean farmers.
Alan Johnson
Fremont
US leadership must
persist in Gaza
Re: “Firsthand knowledge could blunt antisemitism” (Page A6, Oct. 21).
Writer Ethan Fusilero is concerned about preventing a humanitarian catastrophe. Would that be Hamas operatives intimidating Gazans by riding around Gaza in pickup trucks, brandishing rifles? The implied threat became actualized by Hamas’ public executions of those who oppose it.
Hamas will continue violating the ceasefire and pushing the bounds of the peace treaty until it falls apart, because Hamas lives by a code few in the West understand or are willing to acknowledge. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad stated the Oct. 7 attack was “just the beginning” and Hamas intends to repeat such attacks until Israel is annihilated.
Change could take generations in the absence of strong U.S. leadership. Failure of the United States to insist its Arab and Muslim partners apply the strongest possible pressure against Hamas will likely result in the humanitarian catastrophe about which Fusilero is concerned, as are we all.
Julia Lutch
Davis