Readers’ comments: September 12, 2025

Vaccines save lives
Dear editor:
I began kindergarten in 1949 in a small town in the Midwest, before everyone got shots. That year, we had measles (the two-week kind), mumps, scarlet fever (luckily I missed that one), and pinkeye. I don’t know how our teachers or our parents managed to get through that year. And, of course, I brought those home to my little sister who was only a year old. Those were not exactly “the good old days” and there is no good reason to return to them.
Karen Lull
Claremont

On stupidity …
Dear editor:
Better to be ignorant than stupid. Ignorance can be cured. Stupidity is incurable.
Opanyi Nasiali 
Claremont

Elon, are you listening?
Dear editor:
A September 5 news item stated Tesla’s board is asking shareholders to sign off on a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk if he can stay focused (good luck with that) and achieve a series of aggressive goals.
This poor man has suffered so much since his career as a performance artist in a show called DOGE went off the rails and Tesla’s stock took a big hit. Given increasing prices for groceries and other things, I was tempted to set up a GoFundMe page for him, but have no idea how to do that. (I still have a flip phone. What do you expect?) If I can get his home address, though, I could send him a $100 check just to help him get back on track.
Tesla stock hit a 52-week high of $488 and low of $210 and is currently around $350 a share with a price/earnings ratio of 195. Lots of work to do, given the current average S&P 500 and DOW ratios are hovering around 28, to put some perspective on this metric. Plus Tesla’s market share fell in August.
I had arguments with friends before the dot.com bust some 25 years ago, when earnings didn’t seem to matter and it was all about pie-in-the-sky growth potential. Most had price/earnings ratios of zero, which means stock prices were based on faith, like our faith the president can lower grocery prices, end the war in Ukraine and bring lasting peace to the Middle East.
Words of advice, Elon: forget stand-up comedy. Stop with the performance art, already. It’s bad for your brand. Don’t ever pick up a chain saw again as you did in February to shout about destroying bureaucracy. Take the $100, buy a CD of calming meditation music, but please don’t cash the check until a week from Friday.
Don Linde
La Verne

Disregarding aspirations of Palestinians negates argument
Dear editor:
In response to Carol Oberg’s letter [“Hamas is committing genocide, Israel is the victim,” September 5]: first of all, my name is John, not “Jack.”
Secondly, the information I reference is corroborated by United Nations sources and Doctors Without Borders. These facts, in charging Israel with war crimes, are widely accepted by the civilized world. The International Association of Genocide Scholars has ruled that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the accepted standard for genocide. Netanyahu has an arrest warrant out for him by the International Criminal Court. In summation, I accept their findings over the excuses of blind apologists for these Israeli war crimes.
You disregard the casualty figures, saying they’re Hamas propaganda. If Israel would allow in journalists from the Associated Press, Reuters, and other credible news outlets, we would have all the confirmation necessary concerning the 80,000 deaths — mostly women, children and old people. You can’t have it both ways.
As for antisemitism, Netanyahu and Trump are among the most virulent antisemites in the public square; for the fact of the matter is that the Palestinians are also semites. I utterly reject the politization of this term to refer only to one party, the Jews. Their brothers and sisters now being exterminated in Gaza are also semites. To support their right to exist is not antisemitism. It is justice. And many of my Jewish friends concur.
Settler violence on the West Bank continues with impunity. The murder of Palestinians and destruction of their homes and olive groves goes on daily. Not a word on this mayhem from Netanyahu or his enabler Trump, who’s being played for a fool.
Carol, until you might have a heart for the legitimate aspirations for both peoples, you have absolutely nothing credible to say.
John C. Forney
Claremont