Copyright Santa Rosa Press Democrat
A week almost impossible to fathom Editor: Just contemplate what this current president has done in less than one week: posted a ridiculous and offensive AI video on his social media account addressed to the American people who participated in No Kings marches; tore down the East Wing of the White House with not so much as a demolition permit or warning; and now has the gall to ask U.S. taxpayers to give him $230 million of our hard-earned wages to compensate him for the heart ache and expense he endured because the U.S. government prosecuted him for a few of his very expansive crimes. I can’t wrap my head around this series of horrific events (and these things pale in comparison to the cruel policy changes and illegal actions he has taken since January). Any other president in the history of this nation would not have come close to this series of insane, delusional actions. Not in one week or in a four-year term. How much longer will the Republican Party ignore the insanity and continue to support this man? Patricia Westman, Santa Rosa What it takes to actually care for chickens Editor: With all the problems we face today, some are easy to solve. Take how chicken rescue organizations are overwhelmed with abandoned chickens, many of them roosters. All they need to do is bring them to Zoe Rosenberg’s home and turn them over to her. She claims to love chickens, and I’m sure she would be glad to care for them. But if where she lives isn’t zoned for raising chickens, all she needs to do is buy some property in the country that is zoned for housing chickens and build the infrastructure needed to care for them, including well-ventilated and insulated chicken coops, feeders, a water delivery system, nesting boxes and waste management systems for managing manure. Of course, she’ll also need fencing and security to prevent anyone from stealing her chickens. This would allow her to show everyone that she really does care about the welfare of chickens and isn’t just trying to force her vegetarian lifestyle on the rest of us. Voila. Problem solved. Temple O. Smith, Cloverdale Assaults on peaceful protesters are becoming common Editor: On Oct. 23, a pastor of my denomination — the United Church of Christ — was peacefully protesting the presence of ICE agents in Alameda when he was attacked by an agent and received a blast of pepper spray in his face. He ended up in the emergency room. ICE initiated this unprovoked attack on a pastor, a U.S. citizen, who was simply exercising his right to freedom of speech. Such attacks are becoming more common. I have read much speculation about the path we are on. Are we slipping into dictatorship and a police state? ICE’s ever-increasing state-sanctioned terrorism, dehumanization and assaults on freedom leave me wondering if we are already there. And then I read that $10 billion has been set aside to build a network of migrant detention centers — concentration camps? — across six states to incarcerate up to 10,000 people. What has become of us? Do we still believe in freedom and justice for all? Do we still believe that every peaceful protest is an act of prophecy and justice? In these dark days, our ongoing efforts in the name of mercy, kindness and justice have become subversive efforts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Rev. Gene Nelson, Sebastopol We aren’t getting what our taxes were paid for Editor: One thing that seems to bridge the chasm between the vast majority of people is the aversion to paying taxes for anything we don’t support. Our Constitution says very clearly that Congress is the deciding body on what the revenue collected should pay for. That’s not functioning in 2025. Many projects have been defunded, leaving not only the works that Congress allocated money for, but individuals, organizations and businesses who undertook those projects unpaid, and the projects themselves at risk. This is technically illegal. I’m not suggesting that we, the people, don’t pay our federal tax liabilities, but I think that there should be a determination of the percentage of the total government’s expenses that is represented by those already authorized projects and the societal losses that will be incurred by their collapse. An escrow account should be created for us to deposit that percentage of what is due the IRS to pay for what’s been duly authorized. I’ve searched far and wide to bridge the divide, and this is the only thing I can come up with. That’s pretty sad. Jonathan McClelland, Santa Rosa
