Readers comments: 12-3-21

CMS Athletes: Are their talents being overlooked?

Dear editor:

You hear the crowd roar as you step down the aisle to find a seat near the game. The CMS Women’s Basketball team is playing a home game in Roberts Pavilion. You can feel the excitement in the air as players make consecutive shots, followed by occasional drama of fouls and nerve wracking free throws. As you continue to watch the game, though, you notice that the crowd is mostly composed of parents and family members. Where are the students? You may think. This is a common sight for not only basketball but for many other CMS sports events, including golf, water polo, and football (with the exception of playing against our sports rival Pomona Pitzer!)

Although CMS hosts a series of sports events on and off campus, it’s not uncommon for these games to go unnoticed throughout the 5C colleges. Oftentimes, many people don’t know when and where the events are occurring! I think CMS Athletics has the responsibility to further promote and emphasize the presence of these sports events. Not only will this offer more support to the athletes who work hard to compete in the games but more importantly, it’s so much fun to watch with no entry cost! I believe CMS athletes have so much talent to show and our schools should not let their talents be overlooked.

Reina Tain

Claremont McKenna College sophomore

Response to “Sustainable Claremont ‘branches out’ to plant trees in Pomona;” published in the November 27 edition of the COURIER

Dear editor:

Sustainable Claremont’s recent tree-planting event in Pomona as part of its Plant-a-tree program is more beneficial to the community than most realize.

The prevalence of trees in Claremont not only provides aesthetic satisfaction for residents, but additionally serves as a barrier to noise pollution and air pollution, increases local property values, can decrease temperatures by up to 15 degrees, and help to conserve energy and reduce residents’ energy bills. These and a handful of other things are cited by the city of Claremont on their website as reasons for having so many trees throughout the city.

Operating on donations, Sustainable Claremont is working to bring these benefits to surrounding cities such as La Verne, Pomona, and Montclair, among others.

Considering the tangible benefits that the simple action of tree-planting can have, surrounding cities should take Sustainable Claremont as a blueprint for how to improve their community, or better yet subsidize Sustainable Claremont to continue their tree-planting operations and bring the benefits of trees to their cities.

Jarrett Korson

Claremont McKenna College junior

We need a return to law & order

Dear editor:

Stealing is a crime and will always be a crime.  Whether a candy bar or a car, a crime is a crime and ALL crimes need to be punished.  Regardless of a person’s social status, politics, income, religion, race, sexual orientation, age, or personal economic situation; a crime is a crime and all crime MUST be punished.

Whenever justice is thwarted or abandoned, crime will continue and generally increase.  Parents need to discipline their children early in life and teach them right from wrong at a young age with parental discipline in order to prevent more serious discipline by society as a juvenile or adult.

I’m extremely concerned with what is taking place in this country and the deterioration of our society.  Although I feel sorry for those juveniles or young adults who may have had a criminal role model as a parent or guardian or no role model at all, I refuse to accept society at any level accepting or allowing criminal behavior without punishment.  Lady Justice is supposed to be blind folded, but in present day society there seems to be different rules for different “classes” of people.

In a previous COURIER I read where beginning on January 1st the Claremont Police Department was required to “classify” people that they may stop or detain so that an analysis could be done by an outside agency to see if any class of people were getting discriminated against.  On the surface, this seems to be a “fair” policy, but I maintain it may lead to allowing illegal activity to go unchecked because of quota overages of a particular group.  It may also lead to further morale problems amongst our law enforcement officials for fear that they may become defendants in a discrimination suit for simply doing their job.  Let’s simply let our police do their job of maintaining law and order and let the criminal justice system determine innocence or guilt.  It pains me to no end to see our cities torn apart and its businesses looted because the city’s leaders have emasculated their law enforcement through a defunding process in an effort to become “woke”.

We have a judicial system that works if we the people insist upon it.  Lowering the bar of punishment for criminal behavior simply brings more criminal behavior.  I hope a return to enforced law and order is at the top of the list on the minds of voters next November.

Kris M. Meyer

Claremont