Letters, week of April 2, 2025: Trump bigotry, Peace Archery, voting, Social (in)Security

Editor,

Having grown up in Vancouver, 1938–60, and lived in Bellingham since 1970, I welcome CDN’s call for a 2025 hands and voices across the border friendship and solidarity rally (CDN, March 13, 2025).

There’s a powerful precedent. Paul Robeson, with his U.S. passport revoked, rallied what’s broadly agreed as 30,000 Canucks and Yanks to the Peace Arch May 10, 1952. From a truck bed, he spoke about political rights denied and sang from his classical repertoire (see “Mossback” Knute Berger’s five-minute online visual). Interestingly, given today’s struggles over activism and conscience, Robeson was Columbia University’s third African-American law degree holder.

Exactly 50 years later came a reenactment. Thousands from Whatcom County and B.C. mingled again for picnics, speeches and songs, with, if memory serves, Hollywood’s Danny Glover and The Weavers’ Ronny Gilbert (a Vancouver “retiree”) reprising Robeson.

There will never be a better spring or summer time for the next reenactment than 2025. Let’s do it, negotiating Canuck-Yank mixing, and at need denying any effort to place barriers along the Peace Arch park border.

Milt Krieger

Bellingham

Editor,

We would like an OPT OUT for the FoodPlus program. We have been responsible to the environment and our neighbors by practicing composting in an earth machine and tumbler composter. We use the compost on our gardens.

We have never used a garbage disposal. Our grass clippings are used for mulch, and brush and hard debris are taken to recomp once a year for recycling. We feel that we would have to purchase fertilizers and soil along with mulch and ground cover to achieve the results we get from our efforts. This added cost plus the charge for the FoodPlus program is a burden for fixed-income retirees and low-income families.

We understand this would be a self-policing option, which will have its abusers, but maybe the community or neighborhood can be kept aware through city and SSC newsletters as to what to watch for with anonymous reporting. Also opt-out registration would include pictures of home programs.

Steven Wood

Bellingham

Editor,

I have to admit I got a kick out of the sloth (CDN, March 18, 2025) when I spotted it. How did it they get it there? Bellingham’s quirky gorilla art people at work. But really? “A distraction”? I have a hard time figuring out how it’s a safety issue. I guess they better start excavating the Bellingham rock.

The worst part is they ruined the pool we had going on when it would rot and fall down.

Thanks a lot, road department!

Tim Knapp

Alger

Editor,

Hillary is right to use the word DUMB.

What is the U.S. doing as the planet warms up? Trump is opening up public lands to oil drilling, canceling offshore wind turbines, and reversing former President Biden’s incentives for consumers to use solar and electric heat pumps. Dumb.

Robert Kennedy Jr., in light of the Texas outbreak of 422 cases of measles with several deaths, has hired an unqualified person to study if measles’ vaccinations cause autism — a claim that has been widely debunked. Meanwhile, children have gone to the hospital with liver damage from the Vitamin A he recommended instead of vaccinations. Dumber.

Worse yet is the security breach in the Pentagon where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth actually stated the coordinates on a planned airstrike in Yemen. Others on the unsecured chat were part of the security hierarchy, one of whom was in Moscow! An astounded journalist was also included inadvertently on the call. Without his reporting, we would never have known about this fiasco. Dumbest.

And folks, did you catch Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick declaring that only fraudsters complain when their Social Security check does not arrive? Tell that to the millions who are waiting for their check to pay the rent. And ask him why the stock market is in free fall? What next?

These people do not know how to run the government. They are incompetent, unqualified and cruel. Join the protest April 5.

Jayne Freudenberger

Bellingham

Editor,

In the 1970s, the newly formed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took on some of the worst polluters in the country, forcing them to pay for cleaning up toxic waste in what became known as “Superfund” sites. In the 1980s, the polluters fought back, investing in false advertising and groups that opposed environmentalists. In the 1990s, the polluters began a campaign to replace traditional news media with hedge fund media, gutting newsrooms and replacing investigative journalism with corporate press releases disguised as news. 

In the aftermath of the infamous 2009–10 bank bailouts that devastated economies worldwide, a federal regulator noted that what the top Wall Street investment banks had done was called “predation.” As the documentary film “The Men Who Stole the World” reveals, the CEOs of these banks were never prosecuted for what was “the largest financial crime in history.” 

America’s accountability deficit, noted by CDN executive editor Ron Judd (CDN, March 27, 2025), starts with the media, which due to systematic predation in the United States of America, has failed us. Hedge funds, by design, buy financially sound businesses in order to loot their assets, oftentimes ruining the companies and laying off workers. Similar to what Elon Musk is presently doing to the federal workforce.

Jay Taber

Blaine

Editor,

I am in agreement with most of Ron Judd’s editorial regarding accountability deficit and national malaise. I would like to add to his comment about “half the voting population of America” voted for Trump ( 70+ million).

Kamala was a close second. However, astoundingly, over 90 million eligible voters opted out completely. Like it or not: most MAGAs vote. Because they reliably do so, I believe that a majority of the non-voters were Independents, Libertarians or disaffected Dems.

Had these people swallowed their egos (I don’t like either one), thought about what was written in Project 2025, and cast their ballots, we likely would be in a very different situation today. Our votes DO matter. Perhaps we don’t deserve a Democracy if so many of us disregard the most fundamental privilege of having one.

Deborah Dillaway

Bellingham

Editor,

Much thanks is owed to the organizers of the CDN Town Hall (CDN, March 28, 2025). As dual citizens residing in Blaine, it was a welcome change to hear discussion that didn’t slam either side of the border. We are eager to involve ourselves in the work ahead for all of us. The PNW is a beautiful place to live. Looking forward to more town halls like this. Again, thank you. 

Suzanne and Tom Cresswell

Blaine

Editor,

They want you to believe this is just about cutting bureaucracy. That USAID is some bloated, useless agency handing out free cash overseas. But let’s be clear: this is a takedown of one of the last institutions standing between global stability and complete chaos.

For decades, USAID has done the quiet, unglamorous work of keeping people alive — fighting pandemics, stabilizing economies, helping communities adapt to climate change before famine and war break out. It operates on less than 1% of the federal budget, and yet, in just four weeks, it’s been gutted— 83% of programs slashed, thousands of workers fired, entire regions abandoned to authoritarian regimes eager to step in where we retreated.

And here’s the kicker: This is happening while Big Oil and defense contractors rake in record profits, while billionaires dodge taxes, and while we’re told there’s “just no money” for diplomacy, development or disaster relief.

This isn’t about saving money. This is about dismantling anything that holds power accountable. Bellingham knows what happens when the people in charge stop giving a damn about anyone but themselves. We’ve fought pipelines, pollution, corporate greed — now we fight for the soul of our country.

We can sit back and watch as they tear it all down, or we can remind them that we’re still here, and we’re still paying attention. Call your representatives. Raise hell. Because if we don’t, no one else will.

Abigail Heimann

Bellingham

Editor,

Yes, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, senior citizens would indeed miss a Social Security check! Forty percent of this country lives paycheck-to-paycheck, to the eternal damnation of the billionaires.

The Congress has made a total mockery of OUR Social Security Trust Fund. Made up of OUR money and matched by our generally cheap bosses who provided no other retirement benefits. (You could inform Elon Musk, who is apparently ignorant of the source of these funds.)

As a legal secretary, I learned that if our trust account were to be off by a single penny, all hell would break loose. Congress has SPENT OUR trust fund from the beginning. Mostly lawyers, to their eternal damnation.

Lynn McMillan

Concrete

Editor,

Last week, President Trump issued an executive order on elections. The League of Women Voters strongly opposes this order. It will introduce chaos into Washington State’s well-functioning system. The League notes the following potential impacts on Washington’s elections:

Proof of citizenship requirement: This order could disenfranchise millions of Washingtonians who lack passports (over 2.7 million), have name changes due to marriage (over 1.5 million), or lack enhanced driver’s licenses or ID cards (78% in 2024).

Ballot deadline restrictions: Washington’s vote-by-mail system ensures all ballots postmarked by Election Day are counted. Changing this common-sense process would unfairly penalize voters, especially in rural areas and in our armed forces overseas.

Federal oversight of voter rolls: Washington already maintains a secure, statewide voter database. The executive order would introduce unnecessary federal interference by DOGE, undermining election integrity.

The League of Women Voters of the United States also has issued a statement about the impact nationally.

Please call the White House to express your disagreement with this order. White House: 202-456-1111, 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday to Thursday.

Eileen McCracken

President, League of Women Voters of Bellingham-Whatcom County

Editor,

One of the missions of USAID is to assist other nations after disasters.  This week we have seen how cuts that Trump and Musk have made to USAID has crippled America’s ability to send much needed aid to one of the poorest countries on earth, Myanmar, after the recent 7.7 earthquake that devastated the country and has killed thousands.

While the richest nation on earth is forced to apologize for our tardiness, countries like China, Russia, Thailand and Malaysia, as well as most European countries, are already on the scene. 

Apparently, a few dozen American servicemen have arrived so far. But according to USAID spokespeople, they plan to send some initial aid later this week as well as three people. Three.

After America’s largest ever earthquake and natural disaster hit Alaska in 1964, at the height of the Cold War, China, Russia and Korea sent aid immediately. 

More recently, after Hurricane Katrina, offers of aid and assistance came in from around the globe.  Seventy countries, as well as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and even poorer countries like Afghanistan, sent or promised aid.

It is extremely embarrassing that the Trump administration’s disaster relief efforts, hindered by their DOGE fiasco, are making America a laughingstock, and completely late to the aid of a world that has always stepped up to help us in our times of need.

 I wonder if the MAGA crowd even has any awareness of those facts, or if Trump can spare time from his golfing schedule to actually do something other than make America and him look like fools.

Michael Waite

Sedro-Woolley

Editor,

In 1946, Aldous Huxley wrote, “Only a large-scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the tendency toward statism.”

Today, many of our decisions are not made by the people and their representatives, but by unelected government bureaucrats.

This started with Woodrow Wilson, and especially with FDR, and has gotten progressively worse since then. Most people don’t realize that the progressives didn’t appreciate democracy but felt that things would run much better if “experts” ran everything. It is no accident that the progressives in the ’20s and ’30s were pro-communist, pro-fascist and pro-Nazi.

James Burnham talked about this in his 1941 book “The Managerial Revolution.” Nobel Memorial Prize winner Friedrich Hayek warned that we were heading towards a collectivist state (because of the growth of government) in his 1944 book “The Road to Serfdom.” These freedom lovers preached classical liberalism rather than collectivist statism.

“Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic freedom, political freedom and freedom of speech.”

Trump and Musk are attempting to REDUCE this government bureaucracy and return this country to the people. They are opposed by the Democratic Party (the pro-government party) and its propaganda arm, known as the press (which I used to work for), as well as the universities, colleges and activist judges as kings. That’s why these forces continually project their true aims onto their opponents.

Allen Peterson

Bellingham

Editor,

D-Day is coming!

June 6–8, 2025, Democracy D-Day — on the 81st anniversary of D-Day 1944, Normandy: A million-person protest march on Washington, D.C.

America goes on the offensive against Trump tyranny to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution and democracy in America! Coming to a city near you!

Here’s the big question:

As Donald Trump takes a wrecking ball of chaos and anarchy to our hallowed American democracy, what does he intend to construct in its place? For tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.

For the answer to that compelling question, one has to look no further than “Project 2025,” essentially the imposition of a reactionary patriarchal Christian flavor of Muslim Sharia Law, with almost unlimited imperial powers granted to the Executive Branch.

But the larger question is:

What are you personally willing to sacrifice, financially … and yes, physically, to protect and defend American democracy from foreign … and now predominantly domestic enemies … as enshrined in the sacrosanct U.S. Constitution?

If you are neutral … or just silent, in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor, as “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” And … are you able and willing to take it to the streets with fellow Americans, in peaceful non-violent demonstrations to pursue the ultimate triumph over Trump’s tyranny … for however long it may take?

D-Day is coming! See you there!

Michael Kominsky

Bellingham

Letters to the Editor are published online Wednesdays; a selection is published in print Fridays. Send to letters@cascadiadaily.com by 10 a.m. Tuesdays. Rules: Maximum 250 words, be civil, have a point and make it clearly. Preference is given to letters about local subjects. CDN reserves the right to reject letters or edit for length, clarity, grammar and style, or removal of personal attacks or offensive content. Letters must include an address/phone number to verify the writer's identity (not for publication).