Readers’ comments: August 11, 2023

Thanks to Courier for covering CVMG meeting
Dear editor:
On behalf of the Claremont Village Marketing Group, I’d like to thank the Claremont Courier for covering the public meeting on homelessness on July 27.
We are grateful that Claremont Police Department Lt. David DeMetz, Cprl. Garrett Earl and Michelle Castillo from the City of Claremont came with helpful advice and suggestions for our membership of Village business owners.
Please visit www.claremontvillage.com under the “news” section for a write-up that details actions people can take to help police and city staff provide the critical services homeless individuals need.
On a personal note, although I am a CUSD board member, I was not representing the school district at this meeting. My professional title is director of communications for the CVMG, and it was only in this capacity that I moderated the public meeting.
Thank you again.
Kathryn Dunn
Claremont

Kudos to Rhodes on school board column
Dear editor:
I think Mick Rhodes’s August 4 column [“School board takeovers are a symptom of a deeper divide”] on school board takeovers was stupendous. I so appreciate his carefully articulated stance on this issue. It was superbly written. I am grateful to be a Courier supporter!
Clyde Derrick
Claremont

Kudos for coverage of Ackerman’s HOF induction
Dear editor:
I wanted to follow up and say thank you so much for the article on my dad in the July 7 edition of the Courier [“Ackerman to be inducted into CALB Hall of Fame”]. It was great and well placed in the paper, with the Claremont Little League All-Stars (now SoCal champs!) on the cover.
July 20 was a great day for my dad as about 40 people traveled to UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium to attend a ceremony as he was inducted into 2023 California American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame.
We had family members, friends, former players, coaches, and members of the American Legion (including Claremont’s Keith Powell Post 78) in attendance. My dad would have been thrilled that he was being honored for something he did 50-plus years ago.
And the Courier helped us get the word out. Please say thank you to your staff, and for arranging for 30 copies we gave out as souvenirs of this special day.
And finally, congratulations to the Claremont All-Stars for becoming SoCal champions. I have to tell you a story: in 1963 and ’64 my dad was a manager of Claremont Little League All-Star team, and in ‘63 they came within one game of playing for the SoCal championship. Had they won they would have played Granada Hills, who went on to win The Little League World Series that year. Then 10 years later, in 1973-’74, when my younger brother was playing, he was president of then Claremont American Little League. So, my dad had quite the history in Claremont. I feel he was up there rooting for Claremont to win it!
Thanks again for making this special. On behalf of the Ackerman family, the best always to you and the Claremont Courier.
Dennis Ackerman
San Diego

Thanks AgingNext
Dear editor:
Congratulations to AgingNext on a well-organized and presented drive well seminar. Giving older adults a comprehensive view of the mobility resources available for them in the area was really helpful and effective. Hopefully most of the participants came away with a better understanding of the resources available to them and communicated that information to their close family supporters who help with decisions on mobility needs. It also served to clarify where, in the spectrum of transportation resources, the AgingNext Ride & Go program fits
Having Keck Graduate Institute participate allowed a deeper dive into the driving challenges seniors face as our cognitive skills decline with age. I thought this was a really nice touch.
The police officer’s discussion was very relevant and painted a really clear picture of the dynamics (and dangers) seniors face in everyday driving situations. Hopefully he “scared” enough people into taking action.
Charles Edwards
Claremont

City should consider ranked choice voting
Dear editor:
Now that some of the dust has settled from the recent local school board race, I suggest it is time to reevaluate districting for both the Claremont Unified School District and the City of Claremont.
I’m not sure that districting is helping us meet our goals.
As stated by the ACLU, the point of districting is to ensure that the drawn lines “do not dilute the vote of historically disenfranchised communities, ensuring that communities of interest and neighborhoods are kept together.”
In recent years, even though citizens, staff and elected officials have made great efforts to make the shift from voting-at-large to districting, the question remains: has districting brought us closer to the very worthy goal of empowering our historically disenfranchised communities?
I would suggest the opposite was true with the recent CUSD election. Just 102 voters from one of the school district’s trustee areas — the least dense, highest income district — were able to petition for a special election that ended up costing our school district, and Claremont taxpayers, $273,000.
There is an alternative out there to districting — ranked choice voting — and I think we need to consider it.
Ranked choice voting sounds complicated, but it’s really not. Instead of filling in a bubble for just one candidate, voters are free to rank all candidates from most to least favorite. The candidate with more than half the first-place votes wins. If no candidate has more than 50 percent, the ballots for the candidate in last place are reallocated to voters’ second choices. The process continues until a candidate secures a majority and is declared the winner.
Not all of Claremont’s historically disenfranchised voters come from one geographical area. Ranked choice provides more opportunity for those who have previously felt left out by the electoral process.
Pamela Casey Nagler
Claremont

Trump must be held accountable for his crimes
Dear editor:
The evidence contained in the most recent indictment against Donald Trump should disturb every American. Trump threatened the very bedrock of American democracy.
Knowing he lost the 2020 presidential election, Trump cooked up numerous illegal schemes to stay in power, including pressuring state officials to overturn the will of voters and counterfeiting electoral certificates that declared him the winner. He and his cronies leaned on everyone they could to carry out their plans, including former Vice President Pence, who refused.
When they couldn’t steal the presidency through phony paperwork or throwing out votes, they rioted on our nation’s Capitol in an attempt to stop the election from being certified.
These crimes are too serious to be ignored. That’s exactly why a grand jury of everyday Americans decided that Trump should be indicted on four criminal counts, including conspiracy against the right to vote.
We the American people choose our leaders, not the other way around. When we go to cast our ballots, we should be confident that our vote will be counted, no matter our political party. We shouldn’t have to worry about power-hungry officials throwing out votes that they don’t like to try and keep control.
Trump must be held accountable for his crimes, just like anyone else would be, and our elected officials must allow a trial to proceed without political interference.
John Wetzork
Claremont