Voting is your voice

Dear Editor:

The League of Women Voters of the Claremont Area has begun a campaign to increase turnout for the November 6 election. We plan to use social media and community support to engage voters.

We sponsored two contests last school year. The first was a slogan contest. Carlo Rufo, a student at Chaparral School, submitted the winning slogan, “Voting is your Voice.”

The second was a contest to create a video using the slogan. The winning video was created by Andrew Patterson, a student at Claremont High School.

The official kick-off event will be held at the Memorial Park Garner House, 840 N. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont on Thursday, August 23 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Everyone is invited and there is no admission cost. We hope that the public and other community organizations will join us in “Making Democracy Work.”

Voting is your voice! Let it be heard.

Tressa Kentner

President, League of Women

Voters of the Claremont Area

Village South plan

Dear Editor:

Thank you to the COURIER for covering Chris Veirs’ July 23 Sustainability Dialog on the Village South Specific Plan, and for the informative report on the dialogue published in the August 3 edition. 

Community-wide discussions on this potentially trend-setting plan have been underway for at least a year.

The presentation by Mr. Veirs and the discussion that followed was very helpful in informing and updating us on what this plan involves and its present status.

For anyone who could not attend, or who would like to review what was presented and discussed, the session has been videotaped, edited for clarity, and posted for viewing at sustainableclaremont.org under “Dialogs.”

Freeman Allen

Claremont

Military budget

Dear Editor:

I was dismayed to learn that one of our California senators, Dianne Feinstein voted to approve a $717 billion National Defense Authorization Act for 2019.

Senator Kamala Harris on the other hand deserves our praise for resisting the pressure to cater again to our vast military-industrial complex.

This bill will increase the already incredibly high military spending by another $82 billion. There are so many much more worthwhile and non-lethal ways we could spend our money.

National health insurance, college tuition for all who qualify, and adequate housing for everyone are only a few of the positive actions that our national government could take if our wealth was not being diverted to needless spending on the military. Such redirection of our tax dollars is in fact what would really make America great again.

Wesley Mason

Claremont