Sunday’s Letters to the Editor

Rights on chopping block

EDITOR: In the 233 years of the U.S. Supreme Court’s history, individual rights have been established by the law of this land. On June 24, that record was shattered when the court reversed Roe vs. Wade. Folks, pay attention here. This isn’t just about abortion. This is about individual rights being rescinded, thus narrowing the freedom of citizens in this country in support of a partisan agenda.

Justice Clarence Thomas made that quite clear when he wrote that “in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents.” The implication being that he and his colleagues could tailor the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

Women’s right to reproductive health care is only the beginning. Access to birth control and same sex-marriage could be next in line for the court’s chopping block. Should the court fully embrace Thomas’ revisionist ethos, what other cherished rights may we expect to disappear?

JOSEPHINE MEYERS

Santa Rosa

Let Trump go

EDITOR: This is to my friends, relatives, neighbors and fellow Americans who continue to support Donald Trump and reject allegations stemming from the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

I have always endeavored to consider all sides of a story or issue. I believe I understand your revulsion to Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders and the progressive agenda. I think I get your resistance to what’s happening at the U.S.-Mexico border and to expanded gun controls and to legislation and pageantry that you might see as kowtowing to political correctness while ignoring the struggles of common diligent Americans.

You have a legitimate right to your views, but please, for the sake of our country, don’t cover your eyes and ears to evidence of the illegitimacy of Donald Trump. He is far from the first person to ride grand promises to a position of great power, then thoroughly abuse that power, then lie, cheat, conspire and foment violent chaos in an attempt to maintain it.

Trump is a historic scoundrel who deserves relegation to the scrap heap of religious leaders, revolutionaries, healers, educators and others who’ve sweet-talked the masses, then betrayed them in sinister fashion. Let him go.

CHRIS SMITH

Santa Rosa

Rights at risk

EDITOR: After reversing Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas wants the Supreme Court to reexamine cases allowing LGBTQ+ rights and the right to contraception. Someone needs to remind Thomas that it wasn’t that long ago that some states banned marriage between a Black man and a white woman. Thomas should be careful what he wishes for.

BARBARA VAUGHAN

Santa Rosa

Sakaki’s ‘offenses’

EDITOR: Let us recount the appalling crimes of Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki. She had the bad taste to be married to someone accused of misconduct. She was cast as the evildoer in a petty she said/she said “scandal.” She was saddled with the financial fallout of the COVID shutdown, made worse by the enormous debt left by her predecessor. And to cap it off, she rashly upset the faculty with talk of structural reforms. For these offenses, Sakaki’s family life has been upended and she has been forced from her job.

Good luck to Sonoma State’s next president. Although why anyone would want the position is beyond me.

ADRIAN PRAETZELLIS

Santa Rosa

Truth and contrition

EDITOR: As we look at the concept of reparations, we must not neglect the other great evil perpetrated in the U.S. The first darkest time in U.S. history was the genocide committed against the people native to this land. Their lives were lost, their land was stolen, their culture and languages decimated, they were shunted onto some of the most harsh and unyielding land on this continent.

The next dark evil era was that of enslavement of African people. Both of these peoples still suffer the legacy of what was and still is inflicted on them and their ancestors.

How to make reparations for these horrendous crimes against humanity? The least we can do as a nation is to acknowledge the truth of our past and the ongoing effects of our actions. Systemic racism is still terribly present in the U.S. Truth and genuine contrition could begin our reparations.

THERESA MELIA

Graton

Men, step up

EDITOR: It is interesting how women have to bear the brunt of pregnancy and the cost of raising a child. I think laws should go in place to have men pay for a child’s welfare until the child is 18. After all, it is mostly men or religious believers who feel every child is sacred. In that case, let men bear the cost burden. Women bear the burden of pregnancy. With DNA information, fathers can be identified. Men, step up to the plate.

MARY WASHBURN

Sonoma

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