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Extremist court brings
dystopias to life
What’s next? If I have a miscarriage do I now have to prove that I didn’t intentionally abort? And now, if I intentionally have an abortion in Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota and nearly two dozen other states, I am a criminal? Raw power has infected organized extremists to change the country and remove our constitutional rights. Mitch McConnell is working to nationalize the banning of abortion. Gay marriage, gay relationships and civil rights will be next. How cruel. How un-American.
The extremist, hateful worlds depicted in Margaret Atwood and Sinclair Lewis’ books, “It Can’t Happen Here” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” are now forming. That is the beginning of the end of our democracy unless we get people out to vote in November, win the midterms and, in my view, expand the extremist Supreme Court to restore some modicum of balance.
Virginia Carpio
Los Gatos
Today is heartbreak;
on Nov. 8 we vote
The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to strike down Roe v Wade doesn’t affect me directly. I’m a straight white post-menopausal woman living in California with good health and pension benefits. I’m incredibly fortunate.
Nonetheless, I’m heartbroken. I’m heartbroken that our country is regressing when it comes to freedoms. I’m heartbroken that people will die because they don’t have access to safe abortion. I’m heartbroken that access to contraception and the right to marry the person you love are also at risk. I’m heartbroken because I don’t know where it is going to end. When did we stop being a country that stood for liberty and justice for all?
Today I’m heartbroken. I don’t know what I’m going to feel or do tomorrow. I do know what I’ll be doing on Nov. 8. I will be voting. Please join me and make your voice heard.
Tracy Hemmeter
San Jose
Gore showed how
to put country first
It is time for Donald Trump to sit down with Al Gore.
In the election of 2000, Al Gore had 500,000 more votes than his opponent. The Electoral College would be decided by the returns in Florida. Gore was trailing by 500 votes when the Supreme Court overruled the Florida Supreme Court and decided to stop counting ballots. Later, the New York Times and Washington Post paid to complete the counting of ballots and found Gore had the most votes. George W. Bush had been declared the winner and the Republican Party was adamant about not changing anything.
What would Al Gore say to Donald Trump? Perhaps it would include being a leader and putting the nation before personal ambition.
Richard Caudill
Campbell
Predicting fallout from
gun ruling is speculation
Re. “Supreme Court’s gun ruling opens a frightening new era,” Page A6, June 24:
The Mercury News editorial board writes: “What’s clear is that, with some exceptions, almost everyone will be able to bear arms. There will be more guns on our streets. There will be more shootings. More people will die. The breadth of the ruling is breathtaking.”
You simply don’t know that will happen. It’s pure speculation.
People who go to the trouble to get aconcealed-weapon permit are not the problem. They are very largely law-abiding, ordinary citizens.
James Turner
Menlo Park
Why was Pence silent
on coming insurrection?
I will forever be grateful that Vice President Mike Pence did the right thing and refused to go along with Donald Trump’s scheme to illegally prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election.
But what did he do to prevent the insurrection? Nothing. Not a word out of him publicly while Trump and his co-conspirators barraged us with baseless claims Pence could throw the election back to the states. We’ll never know how many rioters would have stayed home had he spoken out.
His silence makes him nearly as responsible as Trump for the Capitol riot. Remember that when he runs for president in 2024.
Todd Lowenstein
San Jose
Not all freedoms
are desirable
Re: “Fillmore called it: Freedom under attack” (Letters, Page A8, June 21), Rich Russek asserts that the left, in the form of increasing government regulation and taxes, is threatening our freedoms. I guess that depends on what your definition of freedom is. Let’s take a look at the kind of “freedoms” that the Trump-dominated Republican Party is offering us:
• The freedom to go bankrupt due to exorbitant medical expenses because you can’t afford health insurance.
• The freedom to have your children murdered in school because an 18-year-old can purchase an assault rifle with no questions asked.
• The freedom of a woman to die in a botched back-alley abortion because safe, legal abortions are no longer available.
• The freedom to have your legitimate vote thrown out because the president of the United States claims that the election is rigged.
I think these are “freedoms” we can happily live without.
Bob Steele
Redwood City
Source: www.mercurynews.com