Letters: Rolling back Roadless Rule threatens our forests, communities
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Roadless Rule rollback
threatens our forests
On June 24, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Roadless Rule, citing the need for forest management and wildfire risk reduction, i.e., logging. This rule, in place since 2001, protects nearly 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road construction and enjoys widespread public support.
The rule benefits tourism and outdoor activities, preserves carbon sinks for climate change mitigation, and filters water for over 350 municipal watersheds while providing habitats for wildlife. Increased road construction will threaten currently roadless areas, making them more accessible and, thus, vulnerable to wildfires, which are overwhelmingly human-caused. Logging can exacerbate this risk by exposing forest floors to the drying effects of more sunlight and by removing natural windbreaks.
Ultimately, the decision prioritizes corporate interests over public land that belongs to all Americans, making it a step that all Americans should condemn.
Jennifer Normoyle
Hillsborough
Abuses by ICE agents
tearing at social fabric
Re: “ICE cartoon only serves to inflame public debate” (Page A6, July 31).
Mark Habelt’s letter objects to ICE agents “being demonized” and states that they’re “apolitical actors duty-bound to follow lawful orders … as distasteful as their tactics seem to be to some.”
Beyond distasteful — they operate masked, with no visible I.D., no due process and no accountability. I’ve seen reports of legal residents and even citizens being detained and jailed, even if they’re carrying proof of legally being in the U.S. People are being beaten during arrests, insulted, abused and ripped from their families without cause.
I support ICE arresting criminals, but over 71% of ICE detainees have no criminal record. I’m sure many ICE agents are decent people and operate within the law, but far too many abuse their power. The “big, beautiful bill” provides funding to hire 10,000 more ICE agents in addition to the current 20,000. This is not keeping us safer. It’s fraying our social fabric.
Amy Laden
Mountain View
Immigration policy
is really about race
Donald Trump said that he would round up millions of undocumented rapists, murderers, drug smugglers, the mentally ill and criminals of every sort. They are supposed to be the worst of the worst, purposefully sent from Latin American countries to the United States.
Unfortunately, Trump can’t find them. So instead, armed ICE agents in ski masks and bulletproof vests are waiting outside the doors of local courthouses, grabbing and detaining immigrants who appear for scheduled hearings on their immigration status. These individuals are taking the right steps to migrate legally. They have jobs, families and no criminal records. They are following the law only to be taken and deported for any offense, even incorrectly filling out a form.
When will we realize this is not an immigration issue but rather unpretentious and outrageous racism by those we elected to protect our rights and freedoms?
Mark Grzan
Morgan Hill
State’s Medical Aid in
Dying law erects barriers
Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) is impossible to use in California, by design.
If you can get to multiple doctor visits in person, on different days, and clearly speak your intent, you’re obviously too healthy. You can’t even start the process.
Then when you’re sick enough to qualify, you’re too sick to jump through all the hoops.
It should not be easier to score a lethal dose of fentanyl on the street than it is to die with dignity surrounded by loved ones.
Randall Spangler
San Jose
Federal spending needs
greater transparency
Re: “Sloppy cuts at State Department weaken the U.S.” (Page A7, Aug. 1).
Elizabeth Shackelford’s excellent discussion on the harm caused by State Department funding cuts lacked one succinct statement.
I would suggest the following: The State Department is our nation’s first line of defense.
The lessons of two world wars were verified during the Cold War — namely, the U.S. is best served by diplomacy backed by serious lethal force.
This is not to say that State and Defense should get all the resources and backing they ask for. Both departments, but especially Defense, are often used for political payoffs with contracts, jobs and other pork-barrel politics. This cannot be allowed to continue.
We must increase our auditing and transparency to ensure that every dollar spent benefits the U.S., not just particular interests or corporations.
John Cormode
Mountain View
Letter slams spending,
ignores Trump’s debt
Re: “Trump hated for doing what must be done” (Page A8, July 27).
What planet has letter-writer Steve Slinkey been living on over the past six months?
It seems his big issue is “that the government cannot continue to spend over one-third of its budget with borrowed money.” Has he heard of Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill Act” that will add trillions to our national debt while taking health care away from millions of people?
And that only scratches the surface of all the horrible things Trump has done to our country in his short time in office.
Alex Rozovsky
Sunnyvale