Readers’ comments: June 5, 2026

Kudos to Claremont for supporting Pride Month
Dear editor:
I was pleased to see the City of Claremont mark the beginning of Pride Month June 1 on its Facebook page. The responses were mostly hearts and likes, but sadly there were also a couple of mean-spirited comments.
Before I moved to California and then Claremont soon after, I had met very few LGBTQIA+ people who were out. It wasn’t safe for them to be out where I lived.
Consequently I had some terribly wrong ideas about people, which with time and the incredible graciousness of LGBTQIA+ friends and colleagues, I’ve managed to change.
I’m very grateful to live in a community where the official word from the city is of welcome and support. I hope our civic policies and actual practices bear out our words, and one thing I’ll be doing during Pride Month (and always) is paying attention to that.
Victoria Bhavsar
Claremont

City is failing to maintain urban forest
Dear editor:
On May 30, I sent the following email to the Claremont Community and Human Services Commission. The agenda item was staff’s most recent report of tree removals and plantings.
Dear Commissioners:
Please ask city staff:
• to report the reason why each removed tree was dead or had failed.  Has watering been inadequate or improper?  Was the tree planted in the wrong place?  Were its roots tangled when it was planted?  Were its roots or branches improperly pruned?  Was it diseased?  If it was, what weakened it and made it vulnerable?  We need to know in order to minimize tree loss in the future.
• To plant two trees for every one removed, as an ongoing policy and practice.  We require this of property owners.  Why not of our own city government?
Goal 5.4.2 in our sustainability annual report is to increase or maintain the number of our city trees.  We are failing.  Our baseline was approximately 26,000 in 2018.  We ended 2025 with 24,301, a loss of almost 2,000 trees.
We need to reverse the decline of our urban forest! Its fate is largely in your hands.  You will make a difference, one way or the other.
Bob Gerecke
Claremont

Don’t count the chicks yet
Dear editor:
To the Democrats regarding this year’s mid-term elections, heed the Swahili saying “Usikate kanzu kabla mtoto hajazaliwa.” Translation: Do not make baby clothes before the baby is born. Or the English equivalent, “Don’t count chicks before they hatch.”
Opanyi Nasiali 
Claremont

In praise of capitalism
Dear editor:
America’s prosperity has been built on the foundation of free-market capitalism — a system that rewards hard work, innovation, risk-taking, and personal responsibility. From the invention of life-saving medicines to technological breakthroughs that have transformed the world, capitalism has created more wealth and lifted more people out of poverty than any economic system in history.
In contrast, democratic socialism and communism rely on greater government control over the economy and the redistribution of wealth. While their advocates promise fairness and equality, history repeatedly shows these systems often produce slower economic growth, reduced innovation, higher taxes, and fewer opportunities for individuals to improve their lives.
Communist regimes in countries such as the former Soviet Union, China under Mao, Cuba, and Venezuela have demonstrated the dangers of concentrating economic power in the hands of government.
Capitalism is not perfect. It requires ethical business practices, fair competition, and laws that protect consumers and workers. But its strength lies in allowing individuals the freedom to pursue their dreams, start businesses, create jobs, and build better lives for themselves and their families.
The American dream exists because people are free to succeed through their own efforts. Rather than moving toward socialism, we should strengthen the principles that made the United States the most prosperous and innovative nation in history: economic freedom, private property, entrepreneurship, and limited government.
A strong work ethic is also essential to America’s continued prosperity. Public policy should encourage employment, self-reliance, and personal responsibility by reducing unnecessary welfare programs that can discourage work and dependency. A society that rewards effort and opportunity helps individuals develop skills, contribute to their communities, and achieve upward mobility through their own initiative.
A strong America depends on a strong capitalist economy.
Kris M. Meyer
Claremont

Trump’s malignant narcissism
Dear editor:
Last week a federal judge ruled that Trump’s name must be removed from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Trump’s response to this embarrassment was to state that the planned renovations of the building will not go forward, like a child that takes their toy away after they lose a game.
This entire fiasco was always just about Trump trying to get recognition for himself. Instead of doing something worthy of an honor we see Trump slapping his name on a memorial for a much revered and assassinated President Kennedy.
Unfortunately, Trump’s other efforts at unearned recognition continue with varying degrees of success. The planned White House ballroom, the destruction of the rose garden, the $1 coin and the $250 bill, both using his image, the “Trump arch,” his chairmanship of his invented “Board of Peace,” his pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize, his desire to be on Mount Rushmore, and more. Trump’s malignant narcissism is obvious to anyone willing to see.
For years Trump wanted to be part of the Manhattan A-list but was always seen as a buffoon with a weird hairdo. He moved to Florida and started a private club so that he could surround himself with people willing to play sycophant to his unchecked ego surrounded by tacky decor.
This country has had truly remarkable leaders, and they have been honored with monuments, faces carved into a mountain, images used for currency, schools named after them. They have mostly deserved to be remembered fondly or at least honored for their historic part in our country’s development. Trump will be remembered as the worst president this country has ever had to endure. That will be his lasting legacy.
Sydney Pollard 
Claremont