Readers’ Comments: November 29, 2024

November 29. 2024

Re: California’s self-serving critics

Dear editor:

It’s become a favorite sport of conservatives and many red state politicians (Texas and Florida come to mind), to bash California and paint us as some kind of hellhole.

Before we buy into their self-serving rhetoric, let’s consider some facts. If California were a country (and I often wish it were!) we would be the fifth largest economy (since 2017) in the world: 1. United States, 2. China, 3. Germany, 4. Japan, and 5, California. Our population is about two million under that of Canada, which has around 24 times the land size of California. Our tourism, entertainment and tech economies are among the largest and most robust in the country. We have challenges, but what states or countries don’t?

Sadly, some Californians seem unable to find anything good to say about this state based on, I imagine, their politics. If you look at various sources of per capita crime, California doesn’t stand out anywhere near the top of the heap and many red states are ahead of us in those metrics. And companies moving elsewhere? No surprise! Many are looking for corporate welfare from other states and have no qualms offshoring production and operations to get cheaper labor and fewer regulations. But speaking of relocations, the work-wear clothing brand Dickies (founded in 1922 in Texas) is relocating its corporate headquarters from Fort Worth to Costa Mesa. Yes, relocations do go both ways.

In the meantime, I’m proud to live with the diversity and progressiveness of the great state of California.

Don Linde

La Verne

Pomona College was right to suspend protesters

Dear editor:

So, the saga of the suspended Pomona College students continues.

As reported in the Courier [“Suspended Pomona students defiant, call for reinstatement,” November 22] Rita Cano Alcalá, a professor no less, opined, “Our students should not have to give up their constitutional rights when they step on our campuses.” And they don’t, Ms. Alcala. But it will no doubt come as a surprise to the “professor” that other people also have Constitutional rights, such as the right to the use of their own property. For example, Carnegie Hall.

As much as it pains me to side with Pomona College, I have to admit, the college is right in suspending them. These Jew-hating students, and their Jew-hating accomplices in the faculty, the ACLU and Palestine Legal, have no business at the Claremont Colleges, or in Claremont.

I only wonder why they weren’t permanently expelled.

Douglas Lyon

Claremont