Letters to the Editor

Trump and democracy: Letters to the editor, April 24, 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters during the Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday April 22, 2019.

Democracy will long endure

David Rugeroni’s letter is a great illustration of how our party affiliation gives us political and historical tunnel vision. Yes, most of what he criticizes Trump for has at least a measure of truth. But the reality is that every president seeks to appoint justices who will concur with their policies.

Does he know that Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court by increasing the number of justices, all of whom would, of course, support his policies? Or that at least four of the current Democratic candidates suggest the same possibility? (Do you suppose they would appoint conservatives?)

As to lying, does he forget about keeping your own doctor and health plan? And wasn't DACA a run around the Congress? The truth, Mr. Rugeroni, is that President Trump has many sins, but history shows that most, if not all. former presidents have committed (or tried to commit) the same sins. And yet, somehow, the checks and balances of the system and the democratic process have managed to overcome those deficiencies, and the better part of those men did accomplish some lasting good, and the process moved us towards the fulfillment of the founders vision.

David Tolladay, Clovis

Calling out the race card

Mr. Warszawski, I just read your opinion piece in the April 14 Bee. Why don’t you pick on someone your own size? The person you take apart in your article is obviously not a professional writer. They were simply pointing out in their simplistic way, you were using the “race card.”

I’ve read some intelligent writers make the same point about political uses of race, like Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institute and Jason Reily of the Wall Street Journal. Why don’t you send the person’s correspondence to them and have them respond? You can debate them.

I’ve been reminded lately of Senator Moynihan’s warnings in the 1960s about the Great Society programs and the effect it would have on the poor. He sounds prophetic now. That’s especially interesting since we now know LBJ was using the N-word as he was signing the Great Society legislation, saying “that will keep them voting Democrat.”

Oh, by the way, if you contact Jason Reily about his research on Democratic Party social legislation and the Afro-American family, ask him about those charter schools full of black and brown students from the worst inner-city ghettos in the country regularly outperforming white students.

Mark Thornton, Fresno

Just like keeping status quo

To what lengths will the status quo go to keep the status quo? The vivid response from the city of Clovis officials shows the reluctance to look at a reality that has the status quo in place. With a small scintilla of truth comes such a strong response indicates that there is an incentive to remove investigation into the reality that there is something there to be looked into.

Only when the light is shined on the darkness is there possibility of change from the status quo. But who wants change when things can stay the same?

James Williams, Clovis

Feeling safer in the Tower District

As a resident of Fresno’s Tower District, I want to thank the recently erected Tower District police substation for keeping the Tower District secure.

Many people speak of the Tower District as unsafe, but I have never felt safer in any other neighborhood. Every direction I look there is a police patrol, either on bike or in vehicle at all hours. It must have the most police presence of any neighborhood in Fresno.

Because of them robberies and violent crime are at all-time low in the area. There is still issues with car break-ins but the police cannot be everywhere.

Police presence makes a massive difference in reducing all types of crime. Thanks for all the hard work.

Dominic Bedrossian, Fresno