Letters to the Editor: Oct. 3, 2025

Destroying democracy

Thank you, Mayor Kim Morris, for putting a stop to the intellectual lynching of Sal Peralta. But sadly, this is not over.

It didn’t take long for Season 2 of the Trump Show. With it comes deputizing of the “thought police” to seek out and weed out public officials expressing opinions or making observations not conceived of, born into, nurtured by, or officially approved by the current administration.

Restricting freedom of speech for any of us eradicates that right for all of us. Full stop. Saying what some don’t want to hear is unequivocally not tantamount to yelling “fire” in a crowded theater.

Here’s the real issue: Disagreement is absolutely essential to maintaining a healthy democracy. A richer, more informed, more nuanced and more insightful understanding of all issues can only be found in respectful exchange of differing points of view. Creating fear by inflicting negative consequences on anyone who disagrees with you seriously pre-empts all healthy and constructive exchange of ideas and information.

Then there is the underlying and even more insidious strategy of creating fear. Fear of thinking. Fear of disagreeing. Fear of speaking. Fear of taking action.

Why can’t these self-righteous, myopic zealots see the treacherous seeds they are sowing? Do they not realize that administrations inevitably change and that normalizing the restriction of free speech today will certainly come back to bite them tomorrow?

If what they want to do is to kill our democracy, they are certainly on the right track.

Erma Vasquez

McMinnville

Play ball!

Fast-forward to the year 2030.

During excavation and preparation for the foundation of the new major league baseball stadium along the Willamette River, a letter is found tightly wrapped in plastic. Dated Sept. 30, 2025, it reads his follows:

My dearest mother:

We are camped here along the river, as we have been called up by President Trump to the city of Portland for a cause I do not understand. I am sorry to leave you and Papa on the farm without help for the harvest, as I know bringing in the fruit without the help of Juan, Jesus, Chico and Manuel is very hard.

The weather here has turned rainy and cold. However, I do not see any negative spirit in the people of the city of Portland.

I have seen people out going about their daily lives, some playing in the park others going to the market along the river.

We should visit this city more often as a family when we get time away from the farm. It’s really beautiful along the river.

However, I have my duty and I am here as a soldier. We are well-armed, but I feel not well prepared for this unclear assignment.

If we upset the people, I am afraid that one of the younger guardsman might become afraid and fire a gun, which could start a very ugly situation. So far, the people have been very gracious and kind, and not threatening in any way, even though we were told they might be.

They are protesting our president’s declaration of war against their city, and the fact that we are here. They are loud, but seem peaceful.

I love you and miss you. I hope to be home very soon!”

Jimmy

Fortunately, as we look back on this dark time in Portland and America, we know now that the people stayed calm and protested peacefully, and that no internal war broke out between the citizens of Portland and those who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Everyone kept their heads and stayed calm. So life went on.

Now let’s get ready for major league baseball in Portland!

Philip Forve

McMinnville

Belittling and demeaning

I am embarrassed and ashamed for our country.

I can’t believe what Trump said in his speech at the United Nations meeting recently hosted by our country. I cringed at his harangue.

He went on and on, extolling himself while demeaning other countries and their leaders for what he perceived as their failure to help restore world order and peace. He especially maligned the UN.

Those in the audience, our guests, had to listen to his diatribe and belittlement. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

Trump claimed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump, the man who has disrupted the whole world, sent stock markets spinning with his up and down tariffs, and fostered hatred and violence across our country. What a joke!

His exaggerations, untruths and insults just get wilder and more uncontrolled. In fact, one of the foreign diplomats in attendance texted, “This man is stark raving mad! Do Americans not see how embarrassing this is?”

Well, this letter writer sure sees how embarrassing it was! Our country was once held in high esteem, and now it is the laughingstock of the world.

Look up the speech, listen to it or read it, then judge for yourselves.

Patricia Rickert

McMinnville

Racist and hateful

Many of us only vaguely knew who Charlie Kirk was before he was horrendously assassinated.

That was a terrible act which cannot be condoned. But having looked into what he stood for, I know he shouldn’t be turned into a Christian martyr.

He’s been eulogized as a proponent and spokesman for free speech, yet his organization, Turning Point USA, has established a Professor Watchlist. It’s a national list of hundreds of professors branded not conservative or Christian enough, and thus facing harassment.

WBEZ, an NPR station in Chicago, surveyed approximately 50 instructors from the list. All said the allegations represented distortions of their work.

There’s no process for these professors to contest their inclusion. Many have lost jobs and received hateful e-mails threatening rape or death — the opposite of free speech.

His sentiments about civil rights are evident in his comments: 1) “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s;” 2) “When you see a black pilot you wonder, ‘I hope he is qualified.’” 3) “Clarence Thomas is a far better Black role model to celebrate than Martin Luther King.”

His views of both Blacks and women were apparent when, in reference to Michelle Obama, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Joy Reid, he said, “Black women do not have brain-processing power enough to be taken seriously”.

He said, “This transgender thing happening in America … is “a throbbing middle finger to God.” As a result, he believed doctors providing gender-affirming care should be prosecuted and imprisoned.

He also said, “Joe Biden … should be put in prison and/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America,” and, “Executions should be public, quick and should be televised.”

I can’t celebrate the life of this racist, misogynistic and hateful man. But I can regret his assassination.

Les Howsden

Amity

Historic threat

War had been declared by the Trump administration, not on a foreign country, but on the United States of America.

The perceived enemy is anyone who has a different political, racial or religious philosophy than that of the fascist leanings of the administration.

Trump exhorted an assembly of the major commanding officers of the U.S. military to go after “the enemy within” using “all means of force.” He demanded their loyalty and threatened them with loss of present and future appointments in the military if they disagreed with him.

We are witnessing an unprecedented abuse of power, a truly historic threat.

This type of usurpation of power and control has happened countless times around the globe, but not here before. And the outcome has never been good.

Stuart Gunness

Sheridan

Free the children

I would like to extend a hearty “Howdy” to all of the boys and girls that our Dear Leader is sending to the ICE facility in Portland.

As long as we, the taxpayers, are paying for this little party I certainly hope there will be balloons, and ice cream and cake. Enjoy yourselves, children, but go home soon.

Sally Tucker

McMinnville

The ultimate con

So our thin-skinned Mad King has decided the First Amendment is his to grant or to withhold, depending on whether the speech in question praises or criticizes his “genius.”

Since the First Amendment applies only to governmental attempts to control speech, he is pressing private media corporations to do his dirty work for him. He muses, “Nice little broadcasting operation here... What if I sue it for $15 billion?” And unfortunately for us, some of the media billionaires are rolling over.

Don’t let the horrific scene unfolding in front of us distract you from the underlying problem of media consolidation. Between them, Nextar Media and Sinclair Inc. own about 400 local TV stations. Musk owns X, Zuckerburg owns Meta, and between them they control internet information flowing to over 800 billion users monthly.

Larry Ellison, owner of Oracle, which currently makes him the richest man on earth, is ready to take over TikTok when the dust settles there. His son David owns Skydance Media, which owns Paramount and CBS, and is trying to acquire CNN.

They all want to increase their holdings, and losing favor with their Mad King may endanger the mergers that they have been working on to further consolidate their control over everything we see and hear on TV, radio, and the internet.

These folks are aligned, and they are working to replace the reality that ordinary citizens experience daily with a delusion that flatters the Mad King.

They want to serve up an algorithmic “reality” that is customized to each of us in order to keep us clueless. That way, they can pick every dime from our pockets. With a little fine-tuning, nothing in the media will displease His Highness again.

That alternate reality is the ultimate con.

Bill Johnson

McMinnville