Honor thy Fathers by legislating
NVoicer Paul L. Newman submitted an excellent letter recently concerning the qualifications of Amy Coney Barrett to serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. He, as I do, finds her eminently qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. What he also did was point out the difficulty of being an originalist and of basing decisions on our Founding Fathers’ premier work, the United States Constitution, which was written more than 230 years ago. So, the Senate and the House of Representatives must undertake their elected responsibilities to develop legislation to pass amendments to the Constitution, and take the risk of appropriate passage of legislation in the states. It is that simple — and difficult.
The Constitution needs perhaps more than fixing to address Newman’s excellent points. It may require a new form of governance that takes the passage of all of these years into effect. Alexander Hamilton understood what the risks of our republic form of federal governance might lead to many years later. Scholars such as Eric Foner see this clearly, as do many of the people marching to obtain relief. Yet it will be another instance of state versus national government rights.
A fable: A trailblazing originalist sees a pathway forward and creates a trail, complete with written signs to lead the way. It includes a bridge over a bottomless canyon. For many years this path is useful. But one day the bridge collapses and new originalists are faced with a dilemma: Be an originalist and step off the edge, since the signs say to go that way, or adapt and find a new way. Judge Amy Coney Barrett says, “Step off, it’s the way it was meant to be!” Moral: Barrett on SCOTUS will lead America to its death in the abyss. She and Trump blindly follow ideas that have long passed their expiration date! Louis Alt
While I don’t minimize the seriousness of the presidential election, I remind all New York voters that there are other extremely important positions that affect us directly. The state Senate has all 63 seats up, the Assembly has all 150 seats up and there are 27 Congressional seats in play as well. I rarely hear from my representatives. My congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has not been heard from with regard to aiding our local government during this crisis. The only thing I have seen her do is set up tables at some of our train stations here in the Bronx for the distribution
Nancy Reilly compliance with required COVID-19 information on the state’s COVID-19 Report Card dashboard.
Why is it that outof-state people are complaining about New York politics and how we run our city? Mind your own business. Jaime Cruz
To Voicer Dianne Clemente: I certainly agree that the news should always be reported in an unbiased and impartial manner. I disagree, though, that George Floyd was killed by one rogue police officer. His fellow officers provided cover for the heinous act while ignoring the pleas of passersby to stop the “rogue” cop. They are all complicit and representative of their police department.
Voicer Natalie Barklow needs to learn history. Abortion was legal in 1776, and common. According to historian Leslie Reagan, until the mid-19th century, “the Catholic Church implicitly accepted early abortions prior to ensoulment.” The backlash against women beginning to go to medical school to learn OB/ GYN was that the fledgling American Medical Association fought to make abortion illegal in the late 1880s to force women to endure constant pregnancies that would make it difficult to pursue a career. Then, as now, it’s all a way to subjugate women by denying them control over their own bodies. Don’t want your wife free to do her own thing?
Tie her to the home with yet another time-consuming baby. When pro-lifers ask, “What if the fetus you aborted could cure cancer?” they miss the flip side: What if the pregnant teen who dropped out of school might have cured cancer?
RIP Rhonda Fleming. You’re legendary, the greatest “Queen of Technicolor” in the world. My sympathies go out to your family and friends.