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Trump’s policiesare hurting us all
Flu kills thousands of Americans each year. Yet, jeopardizing the timely manufacture of this fall’s flu vaccine, the FDA canceled the March meeting where the next flu shot strains were to be recommended.
Measles cases are rising, and the death this year was an unvaccinated child. Yet Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Department secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spouted anti-vax lies and does nothing to raise vaccination rates.
Trump courts Russian President Putin, endangering the balance of power that has kept us from a world war for nearly 80 years. Already, Trump is selling out Ukraine and thereby threatening our longtime European allies.
Do you think what Trump does won’t hurt you? Think again.
Karen Lee CohenWalnut Creek
President abdicatesas leader of free world
Re: “European leaders pledge to stand with Ukraine” (Page A4, March 1).
In the Oval Office, the most revered room in the White House, across from the leader of Ukraine and in front of cameras for all the world to see, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, “self-deported” as leader of the free world.
Leaders of European and other democracies must rise to the role that Trump abandoned. These are very scary times, but over the ages we were built to use fear not to collapse but to survive.
Doug McKenzieBerkeley
Are politics blockingpath to Ukraine peace?
I’m first to admit I don’t know how to peacefully end the war between Russia and Ukraine or pretend to know all the geopolitical games involving the United States, NATO and Russia that resulted in Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine.
For three years, the U.S. has spent billions arming Ukraine. At least 300,000 soldiers have been killed from both sides. Ukraine understandably wants revenge and to see Putin destroyed. Putin has his reasons for continuing to fight. Both sides are unwilling to end this no-win war. Ukraine needs more U.S. arms to continue.
Donald Trump is trying to broker peace between the two to prevent a world war or, worse, a nuclear one. Democrats need Trump to fail — after all, there is an election to win next year. And we wonder why countries can’t get along.
Bill BehanBrentwood
SAVE Act endangersour fragile democracy
I am a firm believer in democracy, which depends on every eligible voter having the right to vote, not because it’s a perfect system, but because it’s the best system available. That is why I strongly oppose and vociferously reject the risibly named SAVE Act, which purports to promote “election security” but is intended to undermine our right to vote.
We need Congress to reject the SAVE Act, since there is no evidence of weakness or a breach in our election security, and pass legislation that protects against voter suppression and ensures equal voting access for all eligible voters; for example, the Freedom to Vote Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Native American Voting Rights Act.
Lillian MayersAlbany
Economic blackout wasabout helping ourselves
On Friday, I participated in an economic blackout. Today, I spent $50 at an independent store rather than give my money to Target Stores.
I listened to political experts stating that small financial protests wouldn’t hurt the large chains.
Our protests are more about helping ourselves than hurting large retailers who so easily decided that diversity, equity and inclusion are not valuable.
Retailers who choose political kowtowing over supporting the lives of real people proved they only want money, not true equality.
Their insincere support of people of color and LGBTQIA+ was just a way to get money from us.
Our protests let large companies know that they do not get to use our own money against us.
I will keep finding ways not to support those who do not support us, and I will keep voicing the ways I do so that there is no doubt.
George SeguraOakland
America must reverseTrump’s missteps
Re: “Trump, Vance berate Zelenskyy” (Page A1, March 1).
I have been worried since the election of President Trump, followed by the genuflecting to him by the Republican Congress, but now I am actually embarrassed to have such a president leading our great country.
It was sickening to see his (and JD Vance’s) gangster like belittlement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a man heroically fending off a much larger Russia to keep Ukraine as part of the West. It was sickening to see Vance, like a childish thug bodyguard, berating Zelenskyy for not saying thank you after President Trump tried to extort, with the threat of U.S. abandonment, half of Ukraine’s rare minerals.
The president I would like to see would encourage Zelenskyy to hang in there, promising to help rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure. It is a bad time to be an American. I hope we will be able to turn it around.
Wallace ClarkConcord