Do not acquiesce to a wannabe dictator-king

Donald Trump is striving to be the authoritarian dictator of a fascistic America contrary to many principles of the Constitution. He extols a “great” America that systematically excludes the rights of races other than white, religions other than Christianity, and genders other than male. Authoritarian leaders like Trump, Orban and Putin rely on the fear-induced passivity of the citizenry, corporations, and institutions, except for a group of rabid loyalists who ignore the obvious corruption of their fearless leader.

That’s why we must all stand up now or bow down later! It’s very easy to feel afraid of the oppressive ways of the Trump regime and his politization of normally nonpartisan institutions. Or to feel overwhelmed and confused by the blizzard of executive orders of a president who doesn’t know anything about how to get legislation passed in Congress. Huge tariffs today, gone or reduced tomorrow, reinstated in “two weeks.” These are the tactics of an authoritarian dictator, not an elected president of the U.S.

So, to those who feel intimidated to publicly express your disdain of the Trump regime or fearful of joining the millions who are actively demonstrating their opposition to an America where voting rights are suppressed, women’s rights are deprived, medical coverage is decimated, LGBTQ rights are eliminated, lawful, hard-working immigrants are illegally kidnapped and sent to other countries, scientists and researchers are heedlessly fired by a shadowy DOGE, and people are impoverished to further enrich billionaires, I encourage you to do something! You’ll find power and courage when you see you’re not alone. The enthusiasm and energy of demonstrators is contagious — see for yourself! Write to your Congresspeople, donate to democracy-defending organizations, join Indivisible, and talk to each other. We must not acquiesce to a wannabe dictator-king! That’s not what the USA is about.

— Kenneth Nova, Boulder

No excuses for not repaying student loans

If Sunday’s(June 22) story regarding credit scores dropping as student loan payments restart was meant to elicit sympathy from the reader, it fell miserably short. If anything, it makes one wonder how people who pursued advanced education to become more intelligent, completely failed in their undertaking. I have no idea what they learned, but they learned absolutely nothing about life or finances. Payments were suspended during the pandemic and only recently have been restarted. It appears the grasshoppers made little to no effort during the suspension of payments to put some money away to help out when the payments resumed.

One poor soul whined about how he was being destroyed financially by the rest of us because his credit score dropped and he’s going to have to repay his loans. He probably should have taken another English 101 class so he could more thoroughly understand the definition of “loan.”

The last example in the story states he’s 58 years old and can’t afford his $250-300 month loan payment. Yet he owns a car and a house. Seriously? The story didn’t give a timeline for when he first took the loans out, but if he’s 58 and still owes $30K, it sounds like no effort was made to repay.

Everybody has an excuse, but if you borrow money, you should never figure someone else is going to haul you out of debt. There are plenty of people around who did not go to college, have worked hard and stayed out of debt. There is no reason they should have to pay for someone else’s debt. Those of us who took out loans and repaid them don’t feel like paying yours. Grow up, figure it out and deal with it.

— Marion R. Hill, Longmont