Make this your year for civic resolutions
If you failed to visit the gym, cut back on sweets or start a new hobby in January, never fear. Experts say it’s best to make resolutions a little later in any case. And the most important resolutions you make in 2024 may be less about self-help than about the nation as a whole.
Letters to the Editor for March 9
Nahale-a should have been approved
As I See It: Historical stunts
In 1942, George H.W. Bush was the youngest Navy pilot to be shot down. He was 18. He survived and went back up again. He followed the Navy with a distinguished career in public service. In 1988, he ran for president. It was not clear why but the opposition started calling the war hero a wimp. His candidacy looked dim until he arrived at a campaign rally driving a heavy-duty tanker truck, not just blowing the horn. The wimp label fell away.
The War on Poverty wasn’t enough
Sixty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared “an unconditional war on poverty.” Using policies and programs as weapons, Johnson focused heavily on health coverage and “human capital.” His Great Society agenda also included key political reforms like the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Bravo to France for enshrining the right to abortion in its Constitution — a worldwide first
The ripples of the U.S. Supreme Court’s terrible decision overturning federal protections for abortion have not stopped at our own shores. They have crossed the ocean and resculpted the abortion landscape in countries — well, at least one country — far from our own.
The Supreme Court was right to keep Trump on the ballot. Now voters should reject him
In ruling that Colorado — and other states — may not bar Donald Trump from the ballot, the Supreme Court has provided necessary clarity about the reach of a once-obscure section of the 14th Amendment aimed at preventing insurrectionists from holding public office.
Letters to the editor for Friday, March 8, 2024
’Kona deserves better health care’
McConnell’s wins, America’s losses: A Senate partisan departs
What is Mitch McConnell’s legacy as leader of Senate Republicans? A lot of procedurally astute but brazenly hypocritical moves to strengthen the power of his party in the chamber.
Longshot effort to disqualify Trump unanimously rejected
The Hail Mary attempts to keep Donald Trump off the ballot this November weren’t in vain. They managed to unify the U.S. Supreme Court.
Letters to the editor for Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Alabama’s high court got it wrong
Surge pricing for burgers leaves a bad taste in our mouths
After the Five Guys franchise went viral the other day over a $12 burger, the joke making its way around the internet was that customers would have to start going to Four Guys just to save a little money.
We need protection from harmful surveillance technologies
In December 2023, the Chicago Police Department quietly entered into a free six-month pilot for a database called CrimeTracer by SoundThinking, the company behind the controversial ShotSpotter technology. CrimeTracer is a police database and search engine, repackaging and sharing large pools of data across different agencies. The approval occurring without public oversight prevents a good-faith assessment of the hidden public costs large-scale databases can wreak, showcasing a larger pattern of U.S. cities’ rash tendency to adopt technology built on legacies of racist policing and state violence.
Ronald Reagan would not be welcomed in today’s GOP
How did Ronald Reagan’s party become Donald Trump’s party? That is a question asked by many of the GOP faithful. Although Reagan was the first MAGA president (recall that in 1980 he ran on the slogan “Let’s Make America Great Again”) I don’t believe that he would be welcomed in today’s Republican Party.
Letters to the editor for Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Republicans and abortion rights
The battle between good and evil rages on
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “the first lesson of history is the good of evil.” A contrary statement, but one that describes the impetus that must often take place to move people and nations to action. Such a time is now.
More delays? Supreme Court was wrong to put off Trump immunity decision
The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it will consider Donald Trump’s claim that as a former president he enjoys immunity from prosecution for alleged crimes connected to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. By taking the case and scheduling oral argument for the week of April 22, the court has further complicated the timeline for a Trump trial, which a district judge originally scheduled for March 4.
Dems tough on (some) crimes, but leave immigration out of it
Democrats can’t have it both ways, casting violent incidents as either signs of societal collapse or no big deal, depending on the agenda.
Trump’s outbursts weaken NATO and harm the US
Perhaps inevitably, the 2024 presidential campaign is quickly becoming a clash of first principles, one that will require repeating basic facts about the world and repudiating lies.
Netanyahu’s ‘day after’ memo isn’t a plan, but it’s a start
Benjamin Netanyahu’s one-page plan for the day after the war in Gaza isn’t a plan at all. Rather, it’s a list of the Israeli prime minister’s long-held and often contradictory positions on the Gaza conflict — committed to writing to keep his government together, the Israeli population quiescent, and Washington at bay. The more interesting question is what to do with it.
Without even ruling on Trump’s immunity claim, the Supreme Court handed him a huge victory
Given the Supreme Court’s possible responses to Donald Trump’s appeal of the D.C. Circuit’s denial of his claim of immunity from prosecution, the justices’ decision Wednesday has to be counted as a gift to the former president. That’s because the court came through for him on the most important axis: time.
