Tuesday’s Letters to the Editor

Service and sacrifice

EDITOR: On Dec. 7, 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor rallied the nation to war. Sacrifice joined Americans together — rationing, enlisting, buying war bonds. The sacrifices made by Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast were monumental. Their rights as Americans were suspended, and they were rounded up and sent to internment camps with armed guards, leaving behind everything except what they could carry.

Out of this part of American history came the all-American Japanese fighting unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, with its “Go for Broke” motto. The 442nd broke the back of the German army in the Italian mountains. The Germans called them the little iron men as they were unrelenting in their attacks.

Fueled by proving their loyalty to America, the 442nd and the 100th Infantry Battalion, also all Japanese Americans, received the most honors and suffered the most casualties of any units their size: 680 killed in action; 9,486 Purple Hearts for being wounded in action; and 18,143 individual medals, including 21 Congressional Medals of Honor.

MELISSA GRAHEK

Santa Rosa

Keep 3rd District intact

EDITOR: I was dismayed to read that the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors is seriously considering ceding the area of the 3rd District in which I live to the 5th District. I think this will be a big mistake for several reasons, two of which I’ll state here.

The first is that relinquishing this area of west Santa Rosa to the 5th District would further exacerbate the decadeslong west-east division of our neighborhoods created by Highway 101, the Santa Rosa Plaza mall and railroad fencing.

Second, as Supervisor Chris Coursey, a former Santa Rosa mayor, is intimately aware, increased housing construction and population are underway in northwest Santa Rosa. With no disrespect intended to Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, Coursey knows our urban issues, which will continue to align more fully with the city of Santa Rosa than they will with those of the west county.

Keep the current 3rd District’s boundaries intact.

JANET BAROCCO

Santa Rosa

A middle-income benefit

EDITOR: Jonah Goldberg’s column about “colossal tax cuts” for the rich from lifting the cap on deductions for state and local taxes seemed more intent on provoking bad press against the Build Back Better bill than on acknowledging that while it may help the rich, it’s mostly giving tax help to many, many middle-class homeowners (“Spending bill gives the rich a colossal tax cut,” Thursday).

I have friends in Illinois who pay almost $20,000 per year in property taxes on a house they bought for less than $500,000. They work for a living. They aren’t millionaires, much less billionaires.

A more truthful statement, and one that would probably not incite more Republican ire, might be that Democrats are raising the cap to help taxpayers who lost the state and local tax deduction to the Trump administration’s tax cuts for the rich.

Raising the cap from $10,000 to $80,000 may help a few millionaires, but more middle-income taxpayers will benefit from this than the rich.

ANNETTE FLACHMAN

Windsor

Maligning patriotism

EDITOR: I take umbrage to the letter from Gayle Kozlowski accusing me and others of being unpatriotic because we didn’t vote for Donald Trump (“The worst president,” Nov. 26). The fact that she doesn’t realize the gravity of the insurrection on Jan. 6 shows she is not the patriot she claims to be.

Has she forgotten that Trump called veterans “suckers and losers,” and in reference to the late John McCain, a POW for five years in Vietnam, Trump said, “I like people who weren’t captured”? The word patriot has been thrown around loosely of late, and it appears she has it confused with loyalist. Her loyalty to Trump is obvious, even though his dishonesty has been proven many times.

So, yeah, I love my country, I support the Constitution. I, and my three brothers, one of whom gave his life serving, took the oath to uphold the Constitution and what it stands for. We still do. So, read the Constitution and stop trying to shame anyone who doesn’t share your narrow views. Trump is intent on dividing our country, and you are feeding into this cancer.

ROSE K. NOWAK

Petaluma

Guns at school

EDITOR: If a Montgomery High School student has to carry a loaded gun to school for “personal safety,” who is he protecting himself from (“Police: Student with gun arrested,” Saturday)? How many other students are carrying guns to school for protection? Do we need to build a fence around every school with remote-locking gates, metal detectors and armed guards?

JAN BOWEN

Santa Rosa

Sonoma’s bluesman

EDITOR: I loved the story on bluesman Robert Cray (“Bluesman,” Friday). No story about blues music in Sonoma County can leave out how lucky we have been for the past 20-some years to have had Bill Bowker of KRSH (“Crusader for the blues,” Sunday). His show, “The Blues with Bowker,” was hands down the best radio show of my lifetime. Listening to him tell history and detailed back stories, plus his extensive playlist of the who’s who in blues music, was so good. Bowker is true icon of Sonoma County. More than a deejay, he’s been a teacher with a Ph.D in the blues; soon to retire. Thank you, Bill Bowker, and thank you to whoever hired him at KRSH. He will truly be missed.

STEVE McLAUGHLIN

Windsor

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.