Mayor Wu

Of course Michelle Wu is bringing President Trump into her reelection campaign. For the same reason she equates ICE to secret police and refers to Boston as “our city” despite being raised in Chicago. She’ll pursue anything that distracts the uncommitted voter from judging her on her merits.

The voters mainly care about the issues that directly impact them – traffic, safety, cleanliness, immigration, and taxes.  And they want to be heard.  These aren’t her strong points. This has left her vulnerable to a competent challenger with a more appealing style of governing and a better grasp of the issues voters really care about.

Sean F. Flaherty

Boston

Clean energy

Regardless of one’s stance on green energy, the Trump administration’s rug-pull of tax breaks for factories and other projects is alarming (“Billion-dollar battery plant pauses construction amid tariff uncertainty,” June 6). Billions in investments nationwide, representing thousands of well-paying jobs, are going up in smoke due to federal policies, including job losses in the wind industry in Massachusetts.

As the reporting notes, economic uncertainty driven by fluctuating tariffs makes investors nervous. The administration is using tariffs as a blunt instrument, ultimately hurting more than helping.

Furthermore, the dismantling of clean energy benefits in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is scuttling efforts to create jobs, especially across the South and Midwest. Plans for battery factories and other clean energy technologies are being clobbered by the blatant favoritism Trump has shown for fossil fuels. And nonpartisan analysts agree that the result of these policies will be higher electricity costs for ratepayers.

Trump’s decision to base his energy dominance strategy exclusively on oil, gas, and coal is costing good jobs, raising energy prices, and polluting our skies. The Senate should remove provisions in the tax bill that stifle clean energy development.

Frederick Hewett

Cambridge

Immigrants’ journey

I am the proud son of my immigrant parents, who as young children with their parents, emigrated to the USA during the great European migration of the 1920’s and ’30’s. Upon arrival they received NO assistance from the American government, not even one penny.  They learned to speak and write the English language and even Americanized their first names to better pronounce and spell for other Americans. They eventually met and married and raised a family of three boys. They were so grateful to become American citizens and earn their citizenship papers and assimilate into the American culture. They started a small business during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and with their hard work survived and it still continues today as one of the oldest businesses in New England.  And like so many other immigrants of their time, they gave the best of their heritage and culture to America! That is why I am so proud of my immigrant parents.

Larry Fraticelli

Leominster