Letters to the editor | Monday, July 4, 2022: Cooperation will save U.S. democracy
Cooperation will save democracy
In honor of July 4, I reviewed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and ancillary writings. I learned that the colonies were indeed treated very poorly by King George III. After deciding they needed to separate from Great Britain, the founders determined to forge an innovative government that would be tasked with protecting the people’s rights and maintaining their safety. Aware of the weakness of human nature, they also wove into the foundation a system of checks and balances to prevent power from solidifying in any of the three branches. The result of their efforts has been an exemplar of steadfastness and freedoms for the world to view.
Recently though, conflicts have proliferated. Political negotiation and compromise are belittled, not rewarded. Elections are threatened by new red state laws undermining the security of the process. Social media’s skewed algorithms promote discord and dishonesty. The Second amendment has been twisted into a caricature of itself.
The founders realized that a commitment to cooperation and comity would be needed to keep our republic. Maybe Lincoln’s hope can guide us now: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”
Diana Doll, Modesto
What about the father?
If safe, legal abortion is to be eliminated, let’s at least shift the responsibility since it takes two to tango. Women have born the brunt of an unwanted pregnancy for centuries, often changing the course of their lives as choices and opportunities diminish.
We now have DNA testing to accurately identify the father. Women of course, will carry the child and the father will support her throughout. At birth the child is given to the father to raise. If the woman chooses to stay and help, she can.
Susan Reichle, Jamestown
Scary times, these
Donald Trump promised to Make America Great Again, taking us back to past greatness.
Supreme Court decisions give us a glimpse of how far back that may be. Certainly back to the early 1970s when I taught in San Diego County. There, southern border hospitals reported treating way too many women making it back from Mexico where they had bad abortions, then rushed to enter California hospitals while hemorrhaging.
Maybe farther than that. Before the 1965 SCOTUS decision Griswold v Connecticut, in many states it was illegal for married couples to use contraception.
Maybe farther than that. After Jan. 6, 2021, when Shaye Moss worked as a Georgia poll worker, MAGA fanatics sent her Facebook threats like, “Be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920.” Ms. Moss is Black.
Richard Anderson, Modesto
What is his name ... ?
Mudd, the doctor who (conspired with John Wilkes Booth to) assassinate Abraham Lincoln, has forever had his name used as an ugly pejorative for a ruthless assassin. What we have witnessed recently during the January 6 Committee hearings is that Trump has quickly inserted his name as the rightful heir for Mudd. Now his name is Trump! An attempted assassin of our democracy, our constitution, our effort to live in a more perfect union. That is his legacy — that he and his criminal minions plotted to disassemble our political heritage.
Not only has his name swelled into an adjective for nastiness, but his ruthless desire for power has severely tarnished the character of the GOP and the nation. If it is to recover any honor and dignity, it will happen because of the effort of honest women like Liz Cheney and Cassidy Hutchinson. People endowed with a sense of moral dignity, who must now endure being attacked by the Trumpish horde.
Timothy Buchanan, Modesto