Readers’ Comments: October 3, 2025

Readers’ Comments: October 3, 2025

Truth is self-evident

Dear editor:

Truth is self-evident. No need to defend it.

Opanyi Nasiali

Claremont

Agreed: slurs get us nowhere, but …

Dear editor:

I agree with Mr. Schroeder’s September 26 letter “Slurs get us nowhere,” with the exception that I was not targeting Mr. Nasiali personally, but I was aiming at his written contributions.

Furthermore, perhaps Mr. Schroeder should look to his colleague’s remarks for slurs before critiquing mine. Some of Mr. Nasiali’s comments include:

“Better to be ignorant than stupid. Ignorance can be cured. Stupidity is incurable.”

“If he talks like a dictator, acts like a dictator, and pals around with dictators, he is a dictator.”

“America must not accept a wannabe dictator Trump rigging the 2026 midterm elections so that he can consolidate and stay in power.”

I don’t consider the above remarks to be very productive civil discussions. Lastly, another appropriate saying comes to mind: “It is best to get one’s own house in order before advising others to get their house in order.”

Alex Pilz

Claremont

‘This is our Paul Revere moment’

Dear editor:

I seem to never take into full account the malevolence of the Orange Toddler occupying the White House.  When I called for a shutdown of the government as leverage to restore a level playing field, I had not contemplated a wholesale firing of a raft of our civil servants. My bad.

Therefore, the fourth non-negotiable to secure any Democratic votes should be their full reinstatement with back pay and interest of 6% on the lost wages for any terminated workers.  Get that Sharpie out again.

I had also failed to recognize the full contempt of this administration for the rule of law. In wreaking revenge on imagined enemies and actual opponents, we have entered banana republic territory.

As James Comey urged in his video rebuttal to such folly, vote in next November like our democracy depends on it. In the meantime, contribute to candidates across the board who will uphold the ideals of this republic, and who respect science and our documented history.

Our family just welcomed our first grandchild, Luther James, this past week — actually the first grandchild for both families! Luther: warrior for the people. From both families he inherits an activist pedigree. When he’s of age, I don’t want him asking, “In that time of national peril, what did grandpa do?” I want him to know.  And you don’t want your offspring and their future generations asking that very same poignant question with any doubt.

This is our Paul Revere moment. Let’s act like it.

John Forney
Claremont

Yes on Prop 50

Dear editor:

Prop 50 is the only item on this November’s ballot, yet it may be the most consequential ballot measure in the country. Since Prop 11 passed in 2008, California has had a bipartisan citizen’s election commission made up of voters, rather than legislators or a partisan commission. I have been proud of our state in leading the way to more fair and equitable districting maps. But Trump doesn’t want fair elections!

Commissions set up as Californias’ are very uncommon. This has resulted in some recent and horrific gerrymandering in Texas and Missouri. Florida and Indiana are looking to further gerrymander their maps even more Republican leaning than they were. Trump has been pressuring the governors of these states to create new maps biased toward Republicans. Texas has already created five more seats that will lean very red. Other Republican leaning seats may be created with new maps in the other red states. Trump has even suggested that we need to have a new census taken that would exclude millions of people living in the country without legal status — an unprecedented, unconstitutional change to how the country has conducted population tallies since the first U.S. Census in 1790.

Trump and his followers aim to change the rules by any means possible. Our country is on the brink of becoming a totalitarian oligarchy. As an example, 99% of the funding for the campaign against Prop 50 is coming from Republican billionaire, Charles Munger Jr., who not surprisingly, did nothing to stop the gerrymandering in Texas. If you have seen an ad or received a flyer against Prop 50 it came from Munger.

A yes vote on Prop 50 will counter the gerrymandering done in Texas, and the bill automatically reverts us back to our bipartisan commission system in 2030. Vote yes on Prop 50!

Ron Jones

Claremont