Letters: Fight over gate raises questions of government service

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Gate fight raises issues of government service

Re: “Battle nears end of road” (Page A1, Jan. 26).

The spat over 1,000 feet of Morrison Canyon Road reflects a question that applies at all levels of government: Do elected officials serve voters broadly or a few wealthy donors?

The current issue is whether Fremont controls the road that the Alameda County Board of Supervisors ceded to Christopher George, who has now blocked access with a gate. But it is part of a longer battle that has included the board considering George’s request for the land after his company donated $10,000 to Supervisor David Haubert’s campaign. The board granted his request ostensibly to save maintenance costs, but at the expense of constituents who have used that section of road recreationally for decades.

I hope the city of Fremont prevails and removes the gate. I also hope we all ask whose interests our county supervisors and other elected officials really serve, and vote accordingly.

Phil Sanders
Fremont

Balance missing for tenants and landlords

The relationship between landlords and tenants in the Bay Area is defined by unease — not because it has to be, but because the system is designed that way. From the moment keys change hands, policy quietly positions neighbors as adversaries, then acts surprised when trust collapses.

I’m an Oakland housing provider who supports tenant protections and housing stability. I’ve also watched well-intentioned policies reward conflict, punish cooperation and harden people who entered the relationship in good faith. This isn’t about defending bad landlords or blaming tenants. It’s about acknowledging that unchecked power in either direction produces harm — and that humanity has been edited out of the equation.

If we want housing stability, we need laws and norms that encourage accountability on both sides, not frameworks that assume guilt by role. Fairness isn’t favoritism. It’s a balance. And right now, the balance is broken.

Rod Campbell
Oakland

Administration on wrong side of gender issues

Re: “SJSU accused of Title IX violation” (Page A1, Jan. 29) and “We need to be worried about AI chatbot love” (Page A6, Jan. 29).

Let me see if I can understand. The Trump administration aims to regulate human gender that doesn’t meet a “biology-based definition,” while at the same time advocating freedom for people to engage in A.I. “chatbot love” affairs with computers.

What happened to biology? How much damage is caused to society by people of whatever gender loving other people, and how much damage is already occurring when people want to marry their obsequious A.I. machines? Forget the hard but necessary work of learning how to live with real human beings. If there’s a problem, just upload the digital personality to another platform. Get a new one.

Oh, and closeted people in love with chatbots, withdrawing from humanity, will be so much easier to control.

Kathe Jordan
Berkeley

Honor slain activists by standing up for ideals

On June 21, 1964, three young men — two New Yorkers (Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner) and one Mississippian (James Earl Chaney) — were murdered in Mississippi because of their efforts to stand up for the rights of others and hold this nation to the ideals espoused in the Constitution. Their violent deaths were an inflection point in the Civil Rights Movement, in part because Goodman and Schwerner, as Jewish New Yorkers whose lives weren’t directly impacted by Southern oppression, stepped out of relative comfort to put their lives on the line to help others.

Neither Renee Nicole Good nor Alex Pretti were at risk of being abducted by ICE or having their citizenship challenged, yet they, like Goodman and Schwerner, recognized that infringing on the rights of some is an infringement on us all. We can honor their sacrifice by ensuring this nation lives up to its ideals.

Barry Gardin
Hayward

ICE’s intent is to terrorize all of us

Re: “State terror has arrived in the United States” (Page A7, Jan. 27).

The photo accompanying this op-ed really drove home the point that ICE is all about aggression, terror and intimidation — not just to immigrants, but to all of us.

Not only are they murdering people of all nationalities, but they are also torturing them for no reason. Murder grabs the headlines, but the torture, which happens far more often, I’m sure, doesn’t draw so much coverage. This picture shows a protester face down on the ground with an ICE agent on top of them who has ripped off their goggles and is leaning over to pepper spray them point-blank in the face.

Pepper spray is for defense and avoidance. But seeing ICE use it as a weapon of torture clearly illustrates what they are really all about.

Sydney Stull
Clayton

Statements after killing also need investigation

Re: “GOP calls grow for deeper investigation” (Page A4, Jan. 26).

Investigations into the brutal murders of two innocent American citizens at the hands of ICE are certainly called for, in spite of the fact that dozens of videos, from many angles, document what transpired.

There is a much greater need for investigations into why so many government officials, including President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and numerous ICE spokespeople immediately and consistently lied to the public about these events.

After such tragedies, we look for compassion, truth and healing. None of these were provided by our so-called leaders, only self-serving lies.

Jim Hogan
El Sobrante