To the Editor:
Re “Trump Says House Republicans Should Vote to Release Epstein Files” (news article, nytimes.com, Nov. 17):
In a seemingly remarkable reversal, President Trump now says the House should vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. The reasons are not that hard to discern, and it’s most assuredly not that “we have nothing to hide.”
First, the House vote to release the files now seems inevitable, and Mr. Trump hates for it to look as if his own party is voting against him. Second, and I’d say much more important, he doesn’t believe that the Senate will vote to release the files.
All residents in a state with a Republican senator need to inundate their senators with a plea — I’d call it a demand — to vote for the full release of the files.
The lives of the many underage girls sexually exploited by Mr. Epstein cannot be restored, but for these girls, now grown women, some semblance of justice must be granted. They have suffered enough, and now the House and the Senate must do the right thing if they have any decency at all.
So, I’d like to ask the president, if he truly has nothing to hide, why not short-circuit the process and order his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release the Epstein files now? The answer is obvious: Despite his words, he does not want those files to ever see the light of day.
Ken Derow
Swarthmore, Pa.
To the Editor:
Re “Why Is Ghislaine Maxwell Being Pampered?,” by Michelle Goldberg (column, Nov. 15):
Besides the heinous nature of the Jeffrey Epstein affair and, perhaps, Donald Trump’s connection to it, the glaring abuse of the pardon power by this president needs to be addressed.
It is absurd that a power meant as a last resort to correct an injustice or to grant mercy in appropriate cases has now become a tool for a corrupt president to employ for his own nefarious purposes. We are fools to tolerate it.
Bruce Neuman
Water Mill, N.Y.
A Teacher’s Suspension
To the Editor:
Re “Professor Barred From Teaching a Class” (news article, Nov. 16):
You report, “A professor who showed a graphic labeling the ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan as covert white supremacy has been removed from teaching a class under a new Indiana law meant to foster ‘intellectual diversity.’”
Jessica Adams was doing what a professor should do.
I was a history teacher for more than 30 years. Happily, I retired before the current move to erase history took hold.
In my classroom were students whose families had fled the Khmer Rouge, whose ancestors had been enslaved, whose parents were forced to flee when the ayatollah took over in Iran. My own parents were Holocaust survivors.
These horrific events happened. My students saw images of swastikas and representations of the Trail of Tears, the forced displacement of Native Americans. They listened to Billie Holiday sing “Strange Fruit,” a song about lynchings in the South.
In the safe environment of my classroom, where we all knew each other and had built a framework of trust, students moved beyond the trauma and learned to be comfortable with discomfort, to understand the world better and live in it more productively and more proactively.
Ignorance is not bliss. It’s just ignorance.
Liz Zucker
Cambridge, Mass.
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