Fresno and Pride Month: Letters to the editor, June 20 2021

Fresno GOP misses point about Pride

A May 28 press release from the Fresno GOP punctuates how radically out of touch today’s Republican Party is with the American people.

At least 10% of the population is LGBTQ+. How can you possibly define “family” by excluding those individuals?

The Fresno City Council’s recognition of Pride Month and the flying of the Rainbow flag is all about unifying our community. We must stop the oppression of our LGBTQ+ residents — our family members, our friends, our co-workers. Are we serious about “One Fresno”?

The release claims that the City Council’s “plan is intolerant of those who disagree with their radical views.” How rich is that? After four years of Donald Trump and institutionalized intolerance against anything reasonable, much less progressive, you’ve got to have some chutzpah to perpetrate such nonsense.

The Fresno City Council has made a positive stand for real family values. Let’s celebrate that and enjoy Pride Month.

More criminals on our streets

Why is Gov. Newsom closing our prisons as California crime is on the rise and out of control?

It was just the other day when our state was ordered to “early release” thousands of convicted criminals from our prisons due to “overcrowding.” Now the rush is on to close California prisons. This, in turn, will create overcrowding and more early releases.

Last time I checked, everyone has to be somewhere. This policy places more criminals on our streets, plain and simple.

So what is the cause of crime? It is criminals!

What is the first responsibility of government? The protection of its citizens. What is the responsibility of its citizens? To replace a governor and government that places us in danger.

Nunes makes free speech a crime

A disturbing revelation arrived from Washington, D.C. last month: newly unsealed court documents suggest that Trump’s Justice Department secretly obtained a grand-jury subpoena to identify the owner of the satirical Twitter account that mocked congressman Devin Nunes.

Certainly, politicians often serve as the target of uncomfortable and sometimes hurtful political satire. However, lampooning politicians is nothing new. Indeed, it comes with the territory. Moreover, provocative and humorous political satire is an effective antidote against government corruption and abuses of power. That is why dictators everywhere both hate and fear political satire because it exposes their lies in humorous and accessible ways to all people.

Using state institutions in a surreptitious manner to identify and persecute an online critic is a clear and dangerous violation of the First Amendment of our Constitution. For a country that prides itself in protecting citizens’ right to speak freely, it is, perhaps, as un-American as it gets.

It is also a sign of creeping authoritarianism. Folks, no matter where we stand politically here in Fresno, we can all agree that as Trump’s closest ally, Congressman Nunes, must publicly explain to his constituents where he stands on this egregious criminalization of free speech.

Too many fires, too few firefighters

I am writing to address the small number of firefighters in the city of Fresno. There are 298 licensed firefighters to a population 537.100 citizens in our city. We know the fires are coming and are not prepared to protect our city in this expected fire season.

Our firefighters have responded to every call that has come in ,but we are not able to maintain this number of firefighters in this growing city.

Arizona vote audit, more Trump votes

It would not be surprising if the Arizona “audit” “finds” millions or even billions of more votes for Trump!

Burning America to the ground?

Our false friends and true enemies enjoy watching us obsess over an “unknown-known” while oblivious to the clear and present dangers of “known-knowns.”

The apparent mission statement of this administration, our military, both houses of Congress, a mainstream media, many teacher unions, the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, numerous state governors as well as most malcontents and criminals everywhere coincides with Sun Tzu’s adage: “An evil enemy, will burn his own nation to the ground… to rule over ashes.” For the reason expressed by Alex De Toqueville: “Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.”

Democrats’ emails are not unusual

Re: “In emails, California Democrats sound desperate,” by Marek Warszawski (June 1):

Unfortunately, Marek Warszawski falls well short of his usual high standards in the recent column.

Marek is referring to the fundraising e-mails emanating from the campaigns of congressional Democrats and implies that the panicky nature of these e-mails is somehow a statement on Democrats’ pessimism regarding next year’s election.

In fact, these e-mails are in the same vein that the DCCC has been using for its favored candidates for several election cycles. Although I typically ignore such panic-driven e-mails, they work at their intended goal, which is raising money for the campaign making the solicitation.

Had Marek also reviewed Republican solicitation e-mails, he would have found them even more problematic exploiting the “crisis” of the moment and fudging the truth.

Moreover, Marek does an about-face three-quarters into the piece to address a recent statement from the Fresno GOP outrageously condemning a resolution for Pride Month that was recently considered by the Kingsburg City Council. That display of disdain for many in our community by the Fresno GOP is the real concern to address.

GOP, get over silly word games

A recent op-ed by Marc Thiessen espouses an otherworldly interpretation of reality. He concludes that (President) Biden is insincere in his bipartisan outreach.Yet he fails to mention Republicans not having negotiated in good faith during the Obama years, weakening legislation significantly and then not voting for it. And with not even 10 Republicans supporting an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection, we learned that bipartisanship simply isn’t part of their agenda.

Thiessen says that the 2009 stimulus of $787 billion “was considered a massive amount of money at the time.” In fact, serious economists then and now have pointed out that a larger stimulus would have delivered us from the recession much more quickly. He further attempts to tightly define infrastructure spending (what Republicans want is infrastructure spending, what Democrats want is not) and further refers to the proposal as a “radical, left-wing agenda.”

For the past year, Republicans have been screaming about the need to restart the economy and Biden is now delivering — benefiting everyday Americans, small business and most sectors of the economy. The right can pursue its convoluted word games or it can get behind Biden’s stimulus to really make America great again.

This story was originally published June 20, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Fresno and Pride Month: Letters to the editor, June 20 2021."