Readers’ Comments: September 26, 2025

Readers’ Comments: September 26, 2025

Democrats: shut it down

Dear editor:

Time for Democrats to play hardball. Yes, shut it down.

The government has been shut down for a long time to certain folks.

It has been shut down to people of darker skin, people of the wrong religion for years. And this week, our boy president has had prosecutors fired for filing and perusing violations of the Fair Housing Act. Shut down.

For years, the government has been shut down for the poor needing medical help. Now, we have an imbecile at the Department of Health and Human Services who would close off access to life-saving vaccines and promising treatments for cancer. Shut down.

For years, the government has been shut down to the aspirations of women wanting to exercise their full talents, to go as far as ability and imagination would take them. Enough with the war on women. Enough with the dismissive attitude to the Epstein/Maxwell victims.

So … I say shut it down completely until all have a level playing field. That means do not provide a single Democratic vote to continue government operations until:

• Cuts to Medicaid are restored; and because we live in relation to other nations, restoration of cuts to USAID with a presidential signature, even with a black Sharpie.
• Passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Where’s that Sharpie?
• Passage of “card check” to enroll in a union — it can be done at the factory gate. Yes, get out that Sharpie again.

Shut it down until our democracy is safeguarded with a level playing field for all. If we Democrats don’t show a little spine here and exercise the muscle we have, we’re absolutely worthless to the people we would represent. We will be deserving of 40 years exile. Shut it down.

John C. Forney
Claremont

A poem for America

Dear editor:

“So Long America, We’ll Miss You”

Verse one
I walked along the riverside, where freedom used to sing,
The echoes of the voices there, once promised everything.
The flag still waves above the shore, but colors fade to gray,
The dream we built together seems to slowly slip away.

Chorus
So long, America — we’ll miss you when you’re gone,
The land of hope and liberty, where we all belong.
We’ll hold your light inside our hearts, though shadows dim the view,
So long, America… we’ll miss you.

Verse two
I hear the whispers in the fields, of workers tired and worn,
The songs of children asking why, the promise feels so torn.
The highways stretch from coast to coast, but walls rise in between,
The beauty of your open sky, now feels like just a dream.

Chorus
So long, America — we’ll miss you when you’re gone,
The land of hope and liberty, where we all belong.
We’ll hold your light inside our hearts, though shadows dim the view,
So long, America… we’ll miss you.

Bridge:
But maybe in the ashes there, a brighter flame can grow,
A country born of courage still, with justice we all know.
The spirit’s never buried deep, it waits to rise again,
If we remember who we are, and find our common friend.

Final chorus:
So long, America — but maybe not for long,
If we can find our voices true, and sing a stronger song.
We’ll hold your light inside our hearts, until it shines anew,
So long, America… we still believe in you.

William Rook

Claremont

A baggy conundrum

Dear editor:

A topic of conversation today at Stater Bros. was “changing to paper bags soon.” My Walmart has already. They are two feet tall and no handles, and carry too much for me to edge into the house.

I give to a food bank, fill plastic bags (with handles), and deliver as is to Inland Valley Hope Partners, and they are refilled there for giving. I hear the problem is we are not all recycling bags as we should, and don’t reuse bags as we should. Thus, plastic bag islands in our oceans.

Some are recycled into trash bags and turned to trash anyway. Problem. Cut down trees to make bags to fill the landfills? Oxygen problem. Make used bags worth reusing. Charge more for them? Problem. You must bring your own bags for shopping — markets will have none to give? Problem. Fill bags halfway to give them a handle to fold. Overuse of paper. Problem. Offer money to carbon and oxygen chemists to invent timed self-destruct bags made of weeds. Too much time. Problem.

Make garbage treatment uniform from town to town. Bags can’t be labeled with triangle numbers to inform us if they are not the same for all.

Can’t anybody make enough money from this problem to do research on it so I can fit through the garage door with one paper bag with no handles?

H. Feller, older and shorter lately.

Helen Feller

Claremont

Gratitude for the Courier

Dear editor:

Disney has reversed course, at least for now, and restored Jimmy Kimmel to his late-night talk show. But the events of the past week show that President Trump and his allies have declared open war not only on their critics, but on free speech and the First Amendment itself.

The Federal Communications Commission, charged with protecting free expression, has instead been weaponized to pressure and censor those who criticize Trump.

“We can do this the easy way, or the hard way,” FCC chairman Brendan Carr said last week of the pressure campaign to cancel Kimmel’s talk show. It’s telling that even conservative Rep. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) compared his words to those of a mafia don.

In this rapid slide toward authoritarianism, I am especially grateful for the Claremont Courier’s commitment to independent journalism. Too many communities have lost their local news coverage, much less from an independent, nonprofit newsroom. I don’t always agree with the Courier’s coverage, and that is the point — the right to independent voices is the hallmark of a free press.

I hope Claremont continues to stand behind the Courier as our local bastion of free speech.

Sam Atwood

Claremont

 A recipe for peace in the Middle East

Dear editor:

Some recent Courier readers’ letters have disputed whether the current situation in Gaza should be called a genocide.

Yet a more pressing question than what terms should be used to describe what’s happening in Gaza is the question of how to fix it.

Stuck between the madness of the bellicose and out of control Netanyahu government and the madness of bellicose and out of control Hamas there are millions of ordinary people, Palestinian, Israeli, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and more, who are suffering in many ways and who want the opportunity to live out normal lives in their ancestral homelands in the Middle East in peace.

If peace and security are ever to grace the Middle East, it will be through brave people there who figure out how to meet one another in a genuine spirit of mutual recognition, respect, truth and reconciliation.

Kathryn Martens
Pomona

The First Amendment is for everyone

Dear editor:

We should all realize and agree that “freedom of speech” does not mean it belongs only to me and not to thee.

Opanyi Nasiali 

Claremont

Slurs get us nowhere

Dear editor:

In the September 19 edition of the Claremont Courier, I noted that a Mr. Pilz wrote a letter to the editor [“Comment on Readers’ Comments”] using the word “leftist,” and the phrase, “handful of meaningless words,” in reference to letters written by Mr. Opanyi Nasiali. It appears to me that his intention was to slur his target. Mr. Nasiali and I served together on the Claremont City Council for several years. Our political views differed at times, he being a conservative and me being a liberal, yet we enjoyed productive civil discussions. I found Mr. Nasiali to be an intelligent and honorable person who always served Claremont well.

Rather than making incendiary negative comments about others, let’s work together and create a powerful coalition in leading our country to a brighter future.

Larry Schroeder

Claremont