Letters: Billionaires are trying to buy Prop. 40 election

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Rich are trying to buy Prop. 40 election

Re: “Big money Bay Area interests shifting tax burden onto poor” (Page A6, July 22).

I once supported the California Forever project, but the overlap between its major investors and the massive campaign to defeat Proposition 40 has raised serious concerns. Voters deserve to know whether this effort truly serves the public or primarily protects the financial interests of a small group of wealthy backers.

The same donors pushing for large‑scale development and regulatory shortcuts are also bankrolling an $87 million effort to stop the wealth tax. They align when it benefits their wealth or advances the project, and separate when it doesn’t. That’s not civic leadership. It’s coordinated convenience.

I believed in the idea of building something better for California. The pattern of political spending has made me question the support I once gave. Transparency is essential.

Kathi Miller
Lincoln

Hegseth policies are degrading US military

Re: “The Art of War” editorial cartoon (Page A6, July 22).

The U.S. military is the world’s gold standard — physically fit, disciplined and 100% dedicated to their role in protecting this country against foreign enemies.

Sec. Hegseth has jeopardized our image by slashing experienced leaders because of their gender or color. He’s forced those in uniform into roles that are not only unconstitutional, but also domestic situations where they’ve had no training. He’s glamorized battles by describing wins no differently than a video game where soldiers don’t really die, even renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War. He’s undermined confidence and discounted training with his concern on waist size, facial hair and testosterone levels.

The secretary could learn a lesson from General Eisenhower, who said, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility and its stupidity.” Our military deserves better than Sec. Pete Hegseth.

David Wilkins
San Jose

San Jose lacks spaces without price tags

I’ve noticed something missing from San Jose: places to just be. Third places — the coffee shops, parks and hangout spots where people build community for free — are disappearing or never existed here to begin with. Everything either costs money we don’t have or closes early, as if the city assumed no one wants to linger.

Silicon Valley has given us endless apps to “connect,” but you can’t replace a park bench where neighbors actually talk to each other. Students commute in, grind through classes and leave. Nobody puts down roots, because there’s nowhere to root.

I’m not asking for anything extravagant. I’m asking why a city with San Jose’s resources can still feel this lonely. We have the money. What’s missing is the will to make space for people to spend time together without a price tag attached.

Jada Widemond
San Jose

US must find ways to speed green energy

While on a recent road trip to Denver, we heard about Colorado’s lack of winter snow, then passed through smoke-filled skies on the Utah-Colorado border. We also spoke with a friend in Paris about the blistering heat they were enduring, and during the holiday weekend read of the heatwave scorching the eastern United States. What will it take for our country to actively address the dire effects of burning fossil fuels that overheat our planet?

A hopeful sign along our route was the massive solar arrays we passed in the Mojave Desert. Clean energy from solar and wind power will reduce climate pollution. However, roughly 95% of new energy projects are being held up by federal approval delays.

Congress needs to pass legislation to reform the permitting process to help get clean energy online faster. Our new reality demands a response if we are to create a liveable future.

Diana Moss
San Jose

High court’s ruling gave green light to ICE killing

The 52-year-old immigrant whom ICE shot and killed July 7 was reportedly not the man agents were seeking. In my opinion, ICE saw a van carrying brown-skinned workers and pursued it based on the assumption that its occupants were in the country illegally.

The Supreme Court recently allowed broader ICE enforcement operations to continue while challenges to those practices remain in court. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that factors such as ethnicity or language may be considered along with other circumstances in determining reasonable suspicion.

In my opinion, this man’s death was a foreseeable consequence of that decision. When government authorizes agents to consider race, ethnicity, language, occupation or location in deciding whom to stop, innocent people inevitably become targets. I believe this tragedy is the human cost of the actions of this Supreme Court and that of Justice Kavanaugh.

Mark Grzan
Morgan Hill