Page 5 Foothills Sentry OCTOBER 2025 Guest Commentaries This is only one of many problems that Chapman students bring to the neighborhoods where families live. Chapman University is bringing ruin to the city when it creates a housing problem. More housing away from our neighborhoods must be provided for students. Chapman seems uncaring when confronted with serious behavior problems. I.T. Alvarez Orange Alarmed response Dear Editor: I am so disappointed in our current leadership. They are doing their best to dismantle our Constitution, the sacred document that formed the foundation for the greatest nation the world has ever seen, and pushing it aside to satisfy their lust for power. The oligarchs win and the people suffer. The Republican Party will use every possible lever at its disposal, with little respect for the law, to gerrymander red states, and the people of California are to do nothing about it? Turnabout is fair play. That is why I am supporting Proposition 50. I don’t like it, but dislike what the Republican Party is doing even more. This is about our survival as a democracy and a nation of laws. Craig Attanasio Orange State proposition has lasting impacts on our community By Ronna Sarvas Weltman When I think of all the reasons it is crucial to vote YES on Proposition 50, California’s response to Republican gerrymandering, my first thoughts turn to our own community. I am heartsick when I think of how many people lose their healthcare in the next few years. I read about the cuts in scientific research and I wonder how many people – including children – will succumb to cancer who would otherwise be celebrating remission. I wonder how many diseases that we no longer worry about, such as measles and polio, will start affecting our kids. Recently I was reading in the "Foothills Sentry" about local high school students excelling in science. I read it with enthusiasm, happy for their accomplishments, imagining their parents’ pride. Then, suddenly, I had a sinking feeling. Those kids will not have the same opportunity to work on cutting-edge science in college like my son did at UC Irvine. The funding for their future education has been snatched away. I walk in Peters Canyon and wonder how we can protect it and our neighborhoods from increasing drought and high temperatures when the administration and the Republican Congress pretend that climate change is a hoax. Now I have another thing to worry about. Looking at my mail, I keep reading misleading information from the "No on 50" crowd. Friends are asking me why the League of Women Voters is opposing the proposition, which offers temporary redistricting to California voters. They don’t oppose it. And the people who are sending out those mailers know it. Same with a mailers’ inclusion of an early quote on redistricting from California Common Cause, intended to imply that it opposes Proposition 50. Although Common Cause has long been a supporter of independent redistricting, it now acknowledges that “a blanket condemnation [of Proposition 50] in this moment would amount to a call for unilateral political disarmament in the face of authoritarian efforts to undermine fair representation and peoplepowered democracy.” That’s what none of the antiProposition 50 mailers will tell you. When the President demanded Republican states gerrymander their elections to maintain his power, the legislatures in Texas, and now Missouri, and maybe others to come, followed his directions. Californians will get a chance to neutralize this power grab by voting YES on Proposition 50. Proposition 50 is a temporary measure, in effect only until the next census, and abides by the Voting Rights Act to let the people decide. The majority party leaders know they can’t win with fair elections, so they are putting their thumbs on the scale. The states that have done it have not brought it to the people – they decided “in house” knowing that letting their citizens vote on it would be dicey. In California, the people get to decide by voting in November. Without Proposition 50 passing, the cowardly congressional majority that agrees to everything Trump wants, even while they know it goes against the interests of their constituents, will remain in place. Without Proposition 50 passing, it will be virtually impossible to protect: • Safety net programs -- Medicare, Social Security, SNAP, and Medicaid • The air we breathe, the water we drink and our public lands • Public education and higher education • Public health (think vaccines) and access to healthcare • Immigrants and people of color • Due process and the rule of law • Ourselves from our military being used against us • Our economic well-being from the bigots and oligarchs currently in charge. By voting YES on Proposition 50, we can look forward to our voices being heard in Congress. We can achieve: • Taking back the rights we've lost, or keeping ones we're at risk of losing • Passing common-sense gun reform • Investing in our people, schools and infrastructure • Reducing the price of groceries and goods • Supporting families and workers • Protecting the environment for future generations • Using taxpayer money for the people, not the billionaires. Ballots will be mailed out on Oct. 4 for the Nov. 4 special election. Your ballot may be smaller than you are used to since we're voting on only one item. Keep an eye out for it. Even though the ballot will be small, the consequences will be huge. That’s why I’m voting YES on Proposition 50. Ronna Sarvas Weltman is a community volunteer who lives in North Tustin. Proposition 50 is California’s line in the sand By Rebecca Gomez There’s a reason why our community’s educators and child advocates are voting YES on Proposition 50, the temporary redistricting plan to counter unethical gerrymandering. As a former city council member and trustee for the Orange County Board of Education, I understood my role to serve the community and to make life better for my constituents, not to make their life more challenging. While on the Board of Education, the county received a grant to assist special education students. The grant was intended to use art to improve their ability to communicate and learn. When I asked one student about his art, he responded hesitantly, but then began to share a picture of his family. The instructors were amazed that he shared because he rarely spoke. The ability to use art enhanced his communication and academic performance. I later heard from the teachers that this student’s guardian was grateful for this program because it also improved his behavior and communication at home. This is one of many success stories. Today, California’s ability to protect our children and families stands at a crossroads. Proposition 50 is California’s line in the sand. While states like Texas and Florida have pushed aggressive policies that defund public education, censor curriculum, and target vulnerable students, YES on 50 ensures California doesn’t follow that path. It’s a proactive defense that redraws congressional districts to reflect our values and elect leaders who will fight for inclusive, well-funded schools. It is not an exaggeration that the survival of public education in Orange County hinges on the passage of this proposition. Right now, we are looking at the federal government trying to withhold over $800 million from California education programs. It is trying to cancel $3.5 million from special education and teacher training. Short-sighted federal policies are resulting in teachers being intimidated and restricted from delivering approved curricula. These policies are intentionally weakening our neighborhood schools while subsidizing private and forprofit charter schools, some of which offer an unsafe, unproven, censored educational environment that fails to meet the learning needs of all students. At the college level, classes are being curtailed or outright cancelled. Students are seeing their graduate and professional school offers rescinded. Their job offers are being terminated. Research funding has been decimated, which impacts future innovation. These conditions are devastating blows to our best and brightest. Destroying our schools is not the only threat our children face if this proposition does not pass. Federal rules to withdraw school vaccine mandates, like they are doing in Texas, will increase child mortality in Orange County. Removing Medicaid from families means children will have less or no access to health care. The curtailment and outright cancellation of childhood cancer studies will have an obviously gruesome impact on survival rates. Local hospitals and clinics rely on Medicaid funding, and its removal means many would have to shut their doors — to all of us. Removing SNAP food benefits to low-income families means children will come to school hungry. And that is IF they come to school. Federal immigration policy has a severe impact on our children’s mental health. Children are afraid to go to school, worried that they might come home to an empty house, with no way to find out where their parents have been sent. Parents are keeping their children home from school because they fear their children being snatched by ICE. When children are hungry or feel unsafe, they cannot learn. Saying YES on 50 is saying no to this cruelty. Our community has proven time and again that we believe in diversity, access, and opportunity for all students. We don’t want to be forced into a national mold shaped by extremist agendas. Each state is unique. That’s one of the beautiful things about the United States. We should not be forced away from the table. YES on 50 protects our ability to chart our own course—one that uplifts students, supports teachers, and reflects the progressive spirit that defines our state. Rebecca Gomez is a former OC Board of Education trustee and Tustin City Councilwoman. She is currently a board member of the Tustin Community Foundation, President of the American Association of University Women TustinSanta-Ana-Orange and Director of the AAUW-Ca. Community Services front counter moved Front counter services for the City of Orange have moved to the Sports Center at Grijalva Park, effective Sept. 29. The new location will offer consistent hours, Monday through every other Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and evening and weekend service during sports center programs. Park and facility permits are available online via CivicRec, (cityoforange.org, parks and facilities). Users must create an account on that site first. Counter service is now provided at 368 N. Prospect Street, Building B. "Letters" continued from page 4
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