Letters 6/30/2025

• Trump In Fort Bragg
• Spoiler Alert
• Feds’ Immigration Raids And Detentions Have One Disturbing Similarity
• What About The Owners?
• What’s Scarier?
• A Hammer In His Hand
• It’s Kidnapping, Not Deportation
• Marines In L.A.
• Stand Up, Speak Out
• Don’t Wait
• Now The Consequences
• What, Exactly, Is This Crime?
• Here We Go Again

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TRUMP IN FORT BRAGG

Editor:

I want to know who handpicked the soldiers who sat and cheered behind Donald Trump’s disrespectful speech at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (“Trump declares he will liberate Los Angeles,” June 11). Soldiers took an oath to the Constitution of the United States of America, not to a wannabe dictator. Who were the officers and senior NCOs who vetted them, and what was the criteria they had to meet? Are these the same soldiers we will depend on to defend our constitutional rights when we express different opinions?

Larry Finigan

Arcata

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SPOILER ALERT

Editor:

Life these days appears to me as Season One of a mystery series that is well crafted, suspenseful and complex, yet one in which I have guessed the plot, and each episode confirms my suspicion. The daily news is like episodes in a familiar mystery plot of good vs. evil. Every day, we wonder with at least a touch of fear: “What’s going to happen now? Can’t someone do something about this?” We are mesmerized by the reality show produced courtesy of the White House. And when the director decides “this show needs more action,” that’s when we the people suffer.

We know, without acknowledging it, that Donald Trump is hitting many key pillars that support the rule of law. That moral, civil, constitutional and human rights are being denied. That we are being driven into poverty and ignorance for the benefit of the rich.

Spoiler alert: The endgame is to dictate what people should think and say or be punished for disobeying. Can’t wait for Season Two: People revolt against dictatorship.

Francisco H. Vázquez

Windsor

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FEDS’ IMMIGRATION RAIDS AND DETENTIONS HAVE ONE DISTURBING SIMILARITY

Editor,

Regarding “Feds detain two Palestinian visitors at SFO who arrived for humanitarian mission” (Bay Area, SFChronicle.com, June 12): The visit by two Palestinians was intended to foster understanding by sharing their lived experiences in the occupied West Bank with Bay Area faith communities.

Instead, they were detained and turned back, an injustice that raises troubling questions about the principles of openness and dialogue. Immigration attorney Phillip Weintraub, who sponsored the visit, confirmed their paperwork was in order.

The actions by federal immigration agencies highlight an alarming trend: detentions of those deemed “the other,” whether they are undocumented workers, who feed and clean up after us, or Palestinians here to bear witness about the unspeakable cruelty of the Israeli occupation.

These predatory detentions must stop.

Jim Marks

San Francisco

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WHAT ABOUT THE OWNERS?

Editor,

Regarding “Fear of ICE raids spreads among California’s farmworkers” (California, SFChronicle.com, June 13): I do not see Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting the owners of all the farms and ranches that hire undocumented immigrants.

Some owners probably like to hire undocumented immigrants so they can be worked harder with no breaks and not be paid a fair wage, and the workers have no recourse.

Punish the farmers and ranchers.

Mary Piowaty

Susanville, Lassen County

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WHAT’S SCARIER?

Editor:

It’s ironic to believe that the proposed “Golden Dome” is going to protect us from our enemies abroad launching missiles at us when, in fact, America’s greatest enemy is the guy living in a White House … under the dome.

S.R. Finnegan

Sebastopol

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A HAMMER IN HIS HAND

Editor,

As a child, the story or ballad or something about John Henry resonated deeply. He was my hero (perhaps my first). Today, as a writer, he visits me often. The dreaded AI (the steam-powered rock drill) versus the mere mortal wielding the pen or sledgehammer (how ironic that I spent a summer working for the Western Pacific Railroad as a gandy dancer in Lassen National Forest). John Henry won the contest. John Henry died. We all die. Each of us.

“A man is nothing but a man, but before I let your steam drill beat me down, I'd die with a hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord, I'd die with a hammer in my hand.”

Kent Wallace

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IT’S KIDNAPPING, NOT DEPORTATION

Editor:

What is happening to us? We wear hoodies and masks as we grab people off the streets, out of their homes, directly from their jobs. We’re even chasing them down in fields where they’ve worked for years. Then the people we scoop up and drag away are put into unmarked vehicles and sent off to where? Nobody knows for sure. We look and act no better than the gangs and criminals we say we need to deport. How can any of us be OK with this?

No one argues against getting rid of criminals and terrible gang members, but that’s not what is happening. Now we have even attacked our U.S. senator, Alex Padilla, for the “offense” of trying to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem an immigration question at her press conference in a federal building in L.A. He clearly stated his name and said he is a U.S. senator, but to no avail. I am appalled, disgusted and angered. He was handcuffed for simply doing his job as our senator. And the gaslighting that’s going on about what I actually saw happen only deepens my concern and anger. I am not OK with any of this, and you shouldn’t be either.

Janet Collins

Cloverdale

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MARINES IN L.A.

Editor:

Famous Marine engagements include the defeat of the British in the Battle of New Orleans; the defeat of the Japanese at Okinawa and Iwo Jima; the defeat of the North Vietnamese at Khe Sanh; the defeat of the Iraqis at Fallujah … and the defeat of the protesters in L.A., including American citizens and hapless immigrants seeking low-paying work and sanctuary from violence. Perhaps the Marines will update the lyrics of their fight song to “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Venice Beach.” The patriotic Marines are sworn to obey the commands of our fearless leader, even though he thinks of them as suckers and losers. It should be unconstitutional for a draft dodger to head America’s proud and respected armed forces.

John Hoy

Petaluma

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STAND UP, SPEAK OUT

Editor:

I can say as a veteran I did not join the U.S. Navy to stand by and watch our Armed Forces attack America. All members of Congress, the judiciary and every other American should not stand by and watch this happen either. Stand up, speak out and be counted — now!

Joe Clendenin

Santa Rosa

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DON’T WAIT

Editor,

I’m not a green card holder nor an undocumented immigrant. I’m not attending a university on a student visa.

I’m not a corporate executive fearing my political views will bar me from federal contracts.

I’m not a lawyer who’s been coerced into performing pro bono work to undo diversity, equity and inclusion.

I’m not connected to any university, museum or nonprofit organization that had its tax-exempt status and/or funding canceled for promoting policies inimical to government ones.

I’m not employed by any federal, state or local government.

I’m not a scientist working on life-saving research at a government-funded lab.

I’m not a university professor, teacher or student.

I’m not personally affected by rising consumer prices.

I don’t live near oil or gas drilling.

I’m not worried about the financial stability of Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and the Veterans Affairs Department.

I’m not affected by dictates issued on and after Jan. 20.

In 1946, German Pastor Martin Niemöller berated himself for failing to oppose Nazi attacks on Communists, Socialists, trade unionists and Jews, until he, too, was attacked and no one remained to speak on his behalf.

I’m not waiting.

Paul L. Newman

Merion Station, Pennsylvania

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NOW THE CONSEQUENCES

To the Editor:

By crossing the line and attacking Iran, the United States should not be under the misconception that it has made a step toward peace. Instead it has created a new array of unexpected consequences that can only increase hostility and U.S. involvement in yet another protracted war. One thing that it has accomplished is to have united the Iranian people, including the opposition, against the United States’ decision.

Tom Miller

Oakland

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WHAT, EXACTLY, IS THIS CRIME?

A reader inquires:

From today’s Catch of the Day: HAROLD CASEBOLT III, 63, Ukiah. Failure to register as transient.

I am always bemused by this charge. A person drives down to Ukiah from Garberville, checks into a motel, and stays a few days for no particular reason. Or more likely, a person drives or hitchhikes down to Ukiah and sleeps on some side street or under a bridge. Were they supposed to “register” somewhere?

According to Oxford Languages online, “transient” used as a noun means, “a person who is staying or working in a place for only a short time.”

Where is such a person supposed to register? Does registering at a motel count? Is there some time span that triggers the requirement?

Or is this what it looks like? A random requirement that close to no one knows is a crime, but can be used to arrest an otherwise non-criminal person to get them off the street?

I’m with the Editor that some people need to be gotten off the street. But I am, nevertheless, curious about how this particular mechanism is used. Seems like it would require a whole lot of trust in local law enforcement to make it feel OK.

Name Withheld

Ukiah

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HERE WE GO AGAIN

To the Editor:

Once again our government has launched a war against a nation that has not attacked the United States.

Nowadays we use the euphemism “war of choice” for this kind of attack to obscure the fact that under international law, when one nation attacks another except in self-defense it constitutes the crime of aggression.

How will this latest war of aggression end? Our feckless president evidently envisions a quick victory and perhaps even the collapse of the Iranian regime, weakened as it is by decades of sanctions.

President George W. Bush indulged the same fantasies when he decided to invade Iraq in 2003 on the basis of falsehoods. President Bush’s declaration of “Mission Accomplished” weeks later was only a precursor to a decade of chaos and death for American soldiers as well as Iraqi civilians.

How many America soldiers and civilians may die as a result of President Trump’s desire to become a war president? No one knows. But only a fool would believe this can have a happy ending for America, the people of Iran or the larger Middle East.

Mitchell Zimmerman

Palo Alto