- Contemporary Echoes Of The ‘Boston Massacre’
- Newsom’s Vetoes And Hypocrisy Reveal Clues To His Moral Character
- What Will It Take?
- Porter Not Ready
- Brazil Does It Right
- No On Clippies (Hippies With Clipboards)
- Mayor Is On Track
- McKinley Redux
- Turning Point
CONTEMPORARY ECHOES OF THE ‘BOSTON MASSACRE’
Editor:
First, the government announced decrees (OK, enacted laws) leveling punishment on the civilian population. Second, the government sent troops to enforce those laws. Next, numbers of civilians stood up against those punitive laws. Some resisters threw objects (stones, snowballs) at the military. Then, the soldiers shot and killed some of the citizen “mob.” A revolution was on its way. No, not yet in 2025, but in 1770. It was labeled the “Boston Massacre.” Today, patriotic Americans take pride in the resistance of 250 years ago. Will the next military-on-civilian violence bring out yesterday’s patriots, or will they become the new Tories?
Phil Weil
Santa Rosa
NEWSOM’S VETOES AND HYPOCRISY REVEAL CLUES TO HIS MORAL CHARACTER
Editor,
The Chronicle has overlooked that Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed pro-consumer energy bills this month that could have saved Californians $550 million per year. His moral compass seems to point toward PG&E, one of his biggest campaign donors and a big donor to his wife’s nonprofit media company.
Newsom even threatened to withhold state funding from California universities willing to consider policies proposed by President Donald Trump.
The hypocrisy is striking. Newsom built his brand by condemning Trump for using federal funds as a political weapon. Now he’s doing the same thing, undermining the consistency and credibility he once claimed to embody.
As a former CEO who teaches corporate leadership, I know that a moral compass aimed at voters, not donors, is the cornerstone of effective governance. Newsom’s two-faced approach erodes confidence in his judgment and his capacity to lead.
My next vote will go to a Democratic eagle, not a peacock strutting across the political landscape.
Curtis Panasuk
San Francisco
WHAT WILL IT TAKE?
To the Editor:
Sitting here in tears watching the morning news: the violent abduction of a young Hispanic woman right next to an elementary school in Chicago. Venezuelan boats being blown out of the water without a semblance of evidence, not to mention due process or justice for the people killed on them. All just part of the lawless, violent, terrifying Trump regime.
What will it take to get even a semblance of democracy back?
Hester Eisenstein
New York
PORTER NOT READY
Editor,
Anyone viewing the video of gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter yelling at her hapless staffer to get out of her shot during a staged Zoom interview with then Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm would not identify Porter as either “fierce” or a “fighter.”
This isn’t really an issue of former Rep. Porter’s “temperament with colleagues and co-workers.” Anyone who has worked for a terrible boss would recognize an office bully in the video, someone predisposed to lash out at those working under her for essentially trivial reasons.
It’s not a good look for an aspiring governor of either gender.
Porter’s non-apology apology sounds as contrived as her position on Gaza during her failed Senate campaign, when she called for a ceasefire yet chose not to break with the Biden administration by voting to cut off military aid to Israel.
Is Porter really the best person to administer and enforce state laws protecting workers from abusive employers?
Colin Gallagher
San Francisco
BRAZIL DOES IT RIGHT
Editor,
After losing Brazil’s presidential race in 2022, Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup, undermining democratic institutions and planning violence to overthrow the results of an election. Last month, Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison.
n the U.S., our Supreme Court invented a new doctrine of presidential immunity, which is not in the Constitution. This non-originalist and non-textulist decision gave Donald Trump a get-out-of-jail-free card to escape potential prosecution for attempting to overthrow a free election in 2020.
Now, Trump is using his immunity to expand his powers and to use the U.S. Department of Justice to go after those who tried to hold him accountable.
It’s an embarrassment to have a president in power who has no regard for the rule of law, a Supreme Court that allows him to disregard the law and an electorate with many people who don’t care if their president follows the law.
Adam Michels
San Francisco
NO ON CLIPPIES (HIPPIES WITH CLIPBOARDS)
Editor,
At the Nostalgia Days event in Novato earlier this month, I was approached six separate times by people collecting signatures for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit sales-tax initiative that is expected to be on the ballot in 2026. Each of them told me the petition was simply to “keep the SMART train running.” I think the truth is more nuanced: It is about extending a sales tax that funds a significant portion of SMART’s operating budget.
By using the citizen-initiative process and paying signature gatherers to qualify it for the ballot, state election rules state it can go before voters needing no more than a simple majority for approval. If SMART itself placed the measure on the ballot, it would require a two-thirds approval.
Based on what I saw, these signature gatherers weren’t local volunteers passionate about the issue; they appeared to be paid professionals. According to a report on KPBS, “In California, always a hotbed for voter initiatives, sponsors are paying up to $5.50 per signature.” That’s a lot of money. I think it explains why I was asked six times for mine at one local event.
We need to go back to the days when voters volunteered their time, set up card tables at the farmers market and engaged their neighbors in genuine conversations about local issues. When democracy starts looking more like a business transaction, it’s worth asking who really benefits.
Mary Stompe
Novato
MAYOR IS ON TRACK
Editor,
Many San Francisco residents believe that crime and homelessness are getting better in the city.
How do I know? I was called to jury duty this month and listened for two days as 18 potential jurors (representing a wide cross-section of the city) were asked what they thought of crime and homelessness in San Francisco.
To a person, they stated that things were getting better; some commented that they were much better. Mayor Daniel Lurie has done an amazing job in a short time.
National guard troops are not needed, nor are they welcome.
Jenna Olsen
San Francisco
MCKINLEY REDUX
Editor:
When candidate Donald Trump declared “make America great again,” I wondered what age or century he was talking about. Today it looks like the Gilded Age presidency of William McKinley (1896-1901), which was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. A champion of tariffs to protect American industry against European imports, McKinley launched a new wave of imperialism, seizing Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines. Although Filipinos fought for their independence, 200,000 “insurgents” were killed in the Philippines-American War before it became a colony. In Central America and the West Indies, U.S. Marines and gunboat diplomacy protected American interests.
It was an age of xenophobia, nativism and racism: California excluded immigrants from China, ethnic restrictions were placed on immigration, and Jim Crow enforced white supremacy in the South. Robber barons dominated industry and finance, controlled state and national legislatures and accumulated huge fortunes, while the National Guard shot and killed striking workers. It’s déjà vu all over again: Corruption reigns, oligarchs rule, tariffs jumped prices, troops occupy cities, justice is denied, friendly neighbors are threatened, gunboats are sent to the Caribbean, and white South Africans are welcomed.
Tony White
Santa Rosa
TURNING POINT
Editor,
On Saturday, millions of Americans demonstrated their disgust with President Donald Trump, with his attempt to turn our democracy into a dictatorship, with his disregard of the rule of law and with his pathetic attempt to play the king.
Not one protester was arrested during No Kings demonstrations in hundreds of American cities. This was a perfect example of a peaceful protest, as sanctioned by the First Amendment.
How did Trump respond on Sunday? By posting a vile artificial-intelligence-generated video showing a smirking Trump at the controls of a jet fighter, wearing a crown and dropping what appears to be feces on the demonstrators below.
This is incredibly vulgar. This is the kind of turning-point moment that leads to regime change, mass protests, uprisings by thousands in the street. These turning points have happened before: storming the Bastille, Pearl Harbor, the Boston Tea Party.
Where are the brave people in our government who will stand up for democracy, for rule of law, for human decency?
Bill Parks
Palo Alto
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