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Without Congress,
citizens must resist
Re: “Schools in chaos amid research funding cuts” (Page A1, May 5).
This relentless assault on higher education, which also includes targeting international students, threatening to blow up the accreditation system and eviscerating the U.S. Department of Education, is a transparent attempt to exact revenge and silence opposition.
In my work in education research, I study how higher education transforms lives while producing knowledge and life-changing technologies. Yet this administration seeks to destroy this path to prosperity and ruin our nation’s global competitiveness.
Until Congress finds the courage to stand up to this blatant abuse of power, ordinary citizens will have to lead the resistance. We must protest the administration’s cruel and unlawful actions, boycott businesses that bend to its agenda, join legal actions challenging violations of the law, and support the many groups and efforts pushing back. Together we can fight back — and win.
David Radwin
Albany
Give birth certificate
rights to adoptees
California prides itself on championing civil rights and equality — yet adult adoptees in our state are still denied a basic right: access to their original birth certificates. While 15 states now allow adult adoptees unrestricted access, California continues to seal these documents, treating adopted citizens as second-class.
This isn’t just a matter of curiosity — it’s about identity, truth and dignity. Adoptees deserve to know their origins, just like any other person. Amended birth certificates that list adoptive parents as birth parents are legal fictions that erase history.
Bills like AB 1302 (2023) and SB 1274 (2024) tried to correct this injustice but failed. It’s time for our lawmakers to try again.
I urge our legislators, especially those in the Bay Area, to support legislation granting adult adoptees the right to access their unredacted original birth certificates. California should join the growing list of states recognizing that truth and identity are not privileges. They are rights.
Jennifer Wallig
Concord
Trans athletes make
girls sports unfair
Re: “SJSU athlete sets fine example for girls” (Page A8, April 27).
I felt I must respond to Barry Goldman-Hall’s letter supporting Blaire Fleming, a transgender athlete who participated in women’s sports at San Jose State University. Goldman-Hall states that this athlete is an inspiration to “young female athletes, both transgendered and cisgendered.”
Taking female hormones doesn’t turn a male human being into a girl or a woman. Human sex is determined at conception and remains fixed throughout life. Even after death, the sex of a deceased individual can be determined by DNA analysis.
We have many categories in sports so that other people besides young males can win a prize. Fleming’s presence on the women’s volleyball team is denying a young woman a spot on that team and all the opportunities that being on that team provides. This is unfair and unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of the university and the athlete involved.
Leslie Larsen
Lafayette
Democrats are
plagued by hypocrisy
Re: “Trump has continued his failed first term” (Page A6, April 24).
Hypocrisy knows no bounds when it comes to progressive Democrats.
During Donald Trump’s first term, there was an $8.18 trillion increase in the cumulative national debt (this included a $4.24 trillion increase from March 2020 to January 2021 due to a once in a hundred years epidemic). The Joe Biden cabal came into office and increased the cumulative debt by an additional $7 trillion.
Mishandled the epidemic? Are you referring to stifling differing opinions as to what should be done?
Apparently, if a Republican president uses his authorized power to nominate Supreme Court justices, it is “packing the court,” but of course not so should a Democrat exercise the same power.
Rick Silvani
Lafayette
Due process reserved
for Trump alone
One thousand two hundred and seventy riotous insurrectionists tried to stop Congress from certifying the president’s election on Jan. 6, 2021. Each rioter received a due process fair trial under the law, in which valid evidence was presented, and each had the opportunity to defend themselves. Each convicted rioter was judged guilty. Only the ringleader of the anti-democracy rebellion, the leader who told them to “fight like hell,” escaped trial and conviction. His lawyers masterfully played every “due process” trick in the book.
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Then, on Jan. 20, 2025, the insurrection leader, reelected president, pardoned the convicted rioters.
Now, Donald Trump is invoking the ancient Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deport alleged “enemies” without any due process as required by law.
That one anti-democracy perpetrator, the traitor who evaded judgment, should be forced to stand trial now. If convicted, he should be deported to El Salvador.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont