Readers’ comments: May 23, 2025

Heroes Project story stirs memories
Dear editor:
Lisa Butterworth’s story, “Helping heal veterans, naturally: Heroes Project breaks ground at Mt. Baldy” [May 16], just tickles the cockles of my heart! My dad took me to lunch when we first moved to Claremont, in the Ice House Canyon Lodge. We had trout caught in the stream outside. I guess that was in the late ‘70s.  My dad is gone, and the lodge burned down.
My cousins had a cabin in the canyon. We took my girls once for an overnight there, playing Monopoly in French. The game box was tucked beside the chimney in the living, sleeping area of the two room cabin. The cabin burned down in the ‘90s. I still went and cleaned up the trash around the site.
Memories run deep, like the pools beneath the waterfalls, where our labs went swimming, drinking at the top of the falls from the water splashing into their mouths.
Marcyn Clements
Claremont

Rushdie coverage was refreshing
Dear editor:
Andrew Alonzo’s school news article, “Rushdie out, Heinzl in as CMC commencement speaker” [May 16], and Allison Lee’s viewpoint, “What was lost by silencing Rushdie” [May 16], was a refreshing exchange highlighting the challenge around defining free speech.
I venture that a majority of citizens would characterize free speech as the right to express ideas and beliefs without fear of censorship or punishment. And, that free speech is seen as essential to uphold the principle that a functioning democracy requires the ability to question norms, including religious or ideological ones.
Alonzo’s article quoted positions from Islamic representatives that basically seemed to say, “Yes, protecting free speech is vital but not when the speaker is given some kind of status through ‘platforming,’ which was defined as institutional endorsement and lack of immediate open dialogue.” The implication appeared to be that free speech isn’t appropriate if it might offend one’s beliefs and the opportunity to refute is not available in the moment.
Lee’s article took the position reflected in a Rushdie quote, “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” Basically, that free expression only becomes free when allowed to question what may be controversial. Lee portrayed Rushdie’s withdrawal as a lost opportunity for student reflection and possible insight, as well as illustrating the crippling trend of political correctness.
Should a book be banned because it doesn’t include a rebuttal to its ideas? Should a speaker be silenced if his or her views may be outside the norms of some group’s belief boundaries? The two Courier articles clearly illustrated the value of opposing dialogue, as well as the obvious danger of using the criteria of “being offended” as a litmus test for free speech.
John Roseman
Claremont

Hoping CMC learned from Rushdie kerfuffle
Dear editor:
I wonder if the kerfuffle over Claremont McKenna College’s invitation to Salman Rushdie to serve as the college’s commencement speaker [“Rushdie out, Heinzl in as CMC commencement speaker,” May 16] could have been avoided if CMC’s leadership had initially invited student input over its idea to invite Mr. Rushdie.
This is the students’ graduation after all, and if sizable numbers of CMC students object the commencement speaker choice at their graduation, it seems like CMC leadership would give that some consideration before making a decision to invite that person.
Hopefully the lesson CMC leadership has learned through this experience is to at least invite student input prior to sending an invite to a controversial commencement speaker. That might stave off national attention for what comes across as yet another incident where — at least on the surface — free speech is stifled on a college campus.
Christopher Davis
Glendale

Framing of Rushdie’s cancellation was wrong
Dear editor:
The opinion piece from PEN America [“What was lost by silencing Rushdie,” May 16], which claims Salman Rushdie canceled due to protests is incorrect and a smear of the 5C student Muslim groups who objected to his selection.
According to insiders he canceled due to family requests, and because his attacker will be sentenced this week. PEN should apologize to the 5C Muslim students and show some respect for others before launching into full Islamophobia.
And since when was protesting a controversial speaker against free speech? You just don’t want to hear Muslim and Arab voices.
Andrew Long
Claremont

Leo XIV is number one
Dear editor:
What luck to have the Weinbergers vacationing in Rome at this moment in history [“A moment of hope: witnessing Pope Leo XIV’s ascension,” May 16]. We’re treated to the great event through an American lens. With one wisp of white smoke, the president of the United States is no longer the most powerful American on the planet. President Trump has suddenly been reduced to number two. No matter how you measure it: number of constituents overseen, size of residence, or quality of architecture (not to mention infallibility or even outfits), Leo XIV is now number one!
James Manifold
Claremont

Choose your news wisely
Dear editor:
John Pixley’s article, “Tuning in — in a Small Town,” [April 18], offered two points: that we maintain our awareness of national events even though the current administration wants us to “tune out” and, secondly, that we engage on a local level, working together to better our community.
Kelly Vanderlan’s letter, “Re-engaging with the news,” [May 16], as a response to Pixley misses his first point of staying tuned into the news. Instead, Vanderlan offers not following the TV news and, instead, replacing it with Instagram accounts.
I respectfully suggest a different approach. Use your computer search engine and enter “media bias chart.” Then, compare several of the charts and observe the categories used to evaluate the media. Observe that besides the categories of “left,” “center,” and “right” bias on the x-axis, many charts also rate media as to the quality, news value, and reliability of their content on the y axis. By choosing those media sites rated as middle/neutral and factual, one can keep clear of an echo chamber. That is, by choosing media sites ranked as in the center and reliably sourced, a person can avoid information or opinions that simply reflect and reinforce one’s own set of beliefs.
Furthermore, as print media is used less and less, television and other electronic sources have become necessary for immediate and in-depth information. The wise consumer understands and applies this knowledge of bias when selecting authoritative media sources.
Carolee Monroe
Claremont

Which king has no clothes?
Dear editor:
Want to absolutely squash the fascists and make them think they should be playing checkers in the park rather than go up against your written opinion(s) in the Courier? Want to make them squirm when, right before hitting “send,” they pause to think that the public might see their opinion as delusional, inadequate, and ignorant because none of it can be backed up by fact? Want to show them that your words of truth are louder than their artistic fantasies and laziness towards honest research?
One of the best parts of our Courier is the online comments section. Here you’ll find letters with embedded URL links that support the writer’s world view while exposing the worth of the opposition’s putrid Kool-Aid flavors.
To see how it works while reading the smoking-gun email that irrefutably proves that the President poo-pooed your civil rights and removed your Constitutional protections under the favorite fascist pretense of “it’s all for your safety,” go to the Courier’s website at claremont-courier.com/topics/readers-comment, and find this letter, “Which king has no clothes?” Now go to Director of National Intelligence’s website, odni.gov/index.php/newsroom/dig, click on “Declassified Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism from the Biden Administration,” and then, “Read more.” If you’re not fluent in bureaucrat-speak, enter in your browser tiny.cc/kmkk001 to understand the ramifications of his secret memo on your civil rights
When writing your own letter(s), be sure you don’t reference opinions from narrow-minded blowhards hoping their propaganda will be bought by their readers/listeners without thinking. If you do, you won’t be taken seriously, and you will only have added to the entertainment value of the low informed.
If your links go to reputable sites with facts easily checked, not only will you be known as the kid on the side of the road saying “Look, the king has no clothes!”,you’ll be ready to dance on the grave of failed political neophytes.
Leslie Watkins
Claremont

Trump’s ‘Let them eat cake’ moment
Dear editor:
Watching Trump trying to defend his stupid tariffs is laughable and exposes just how little he understands about economics and trade history. He takes every opportunity to be the bully on the global playground and this strokes his narcissism.
When he stated little girls don’t need 30 dolls, “two should be enough,” it was a “let them eat cake” moment. This from a man who has never been in a grocery store, never pushed a baby stroller, has never worried that he won’t have enough money for rent, etc.
Even after being told by every reputable economist that the tariffs will create a recession and devalue the dollar, like a spoiled child he won’t relent. He believes we have to “take our medicine,” that people losing their jobs is acceptable. An easy thing for him to say as he cannot be hurt himself. He states, “This is what the people voted for,” which is a lie of course.
The Republicans in the House and Senate are so focused on larger tax cuts for the wealthy that they will cut any and all vital services. I mean who needs Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, scholarships, grants for medical research, the Postal Service, accurate weather forecasts, counterterrorism, or due process? Why should the U.S. government do anything when instead Elon Musk and the other Trumpsters can privatize the service and sell it to the American taxpayer at twice the price?
Not to worry though my fellow Americans because Trump is getting a new jet from Qatar, his sons are selling hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of the family-owned crypto coin while he guts regulations, not to mention guitars, bibles, and shoes.
This is what an oligarchy looks like!
Sydney Pollard
Claremont