As reported in the Jan. 26 Metro article, “Norton drops reelection bid, signaling end to decades on Hill,” Eleanor Holmes Norton has decided not to run again as the District of Columbia’s delegate to Congress. I met Holmes Norton in June 1963 when I was a volunteer working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the Council of Federated Organizations, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.
When Holmes arrived in our Greenwood office, we were desperately struggling to find ways to keep alive Fannie Lou Hamer, Lawrence Guyot, June Johnson, Euvester Simpson and Annell Ponder, who endured severe beatings by police while in custody in Winona, Mississippi.
I still recall the immense beauty of Holmes’s countenance. She was brave and determined to help, even though the first person we had turned to for help — Medgar Evers, NAACP’s first field officer in Mississippi — had just been assassinated.
And help she did. I recall her using her status as a law student at Yale to make it clear to the authorities that they were being watched. She helped keep our civil rights pioneers alive. Holmes Norton was present big-time in a very dangerous place to be at a very dangerous time.
Rick Tuttle, Culver City, California
The writer is a former Los Angeles city controller.
Get serious about safety
I am the director of Vera Action, whose presentation at the Democratic National Convention’s summer meeting on a “serious about safety” approach was referenced in the Jan. 30 news article “Top Democratic groups urge party to shed soft-on-crime image.”
Being “serious about safety” means delivering strong, accountable policing to solve serious crimes. It also means investing in schools, jobs, housing and treatment as well as targeting illegal guns. Accountability when someone breaks the law should involve remorse, repair and change — not just strict punishment.
My organization has drawn harsh criticism from political operatives who urge Democrats to lean into being “tough on crime.” I get it. Democrats have a long-standing trust deficit on crime, and the conventional political wisdom is that “tough” wins. However, this prescription is outdated. In our polling, a “serious about safety” approach consistently beats a “tough on crime” platform by 20 points. When voters hear from two hypothetical Democrats — one “serious,” the other “tough” — the “tough” candidate lags 13 points behind. Democrats need only to look to cities led by their own party’s mayors to know that being “serious about safety” works.
In contrast, voters see that the Trump administration’s takeover of Minneapolis by “tough guys” made the city less safe.
Nearly half of Americans say crime is a serious problem. If the Democratic Party wants to win, it must get serious about safety.
Insha Rahman, New York
Prioritize cannabis reform
Regarding Scott Eden’s Jan. 26 online op-ed, “Why the black market is beating legal weed trade”:
I spent nearly a decade in federal prison for a nonviolent cannabis offense. As we reckon with the failure to legalize cannabis nationwide, we must also address the moral crisis that thousands of people remain locked up for conduct that is now widely legal.
Outdated drug laws aren’t just causing the wrong economic incentives; they’re also keeping families apart. Many people in prison for cannabis have served years-long sentences for conduct that is legal and profitable in much of the country. My organization works with families and incarcerated people nationwide who are still paying the price.
This contradiction mirrors the chaos in the market itself. Legal ambiguity benefits organized crime and large players, while ordinary people suffer the worst consequences. Polls show Americans across party lines agree that people should not remain incarcerated for cannabis in this era of widespread legalization.
Just last month, President Donald Trump made progress toward rescheduling cannabis to a lower classification. It’s a positive step toward supporting the legal cannabis industry and preventing more Americans from unjust punishment for a plant that’s legal in 24 states and D.C.
Trump and local leaders across the country should make freeing those still incarcerated for cannabis-related offences a priority. We must finally align our laws, our markets and our values.
Stephanie Shepard, Sacramento
The writer is executive director of the Last Prisoner Project.
Strength required
Regarding the Jan. 30 front-page article “Rationale for possible strikes on Iran is in flux”:
President Donald Trump’s demands of the Iranian mullahs to avoid military action are insufficient and ultimately counterproductive. His desire for a new nuclear deal echoes Barack Obama’s eagerness to reach an accommodation with Iran. He accepted a poor deal and rescued the failing regime. Since then, Iran has summarily violated the agreement, brutally repressed the Iranian people, made illicit oil sales to America’s adversaries and sponsored terrorism worldwide.
Trump’s mere demand to stop killing protesters leaves the wanton slaughter of many thousands of Iranians unpunished. We imprison murderers for past acts. We don’t grant them absolution for pledging not to murder in the future. The U.S. will have betrayed the protesters who risk and lose their lives seeking not promises of reform but elimination of a dictatorship that has no regard for human life.
The Iranian regime has never been weaker militarily, economically or politically than it is right now. The moment demands aggressive action to remove the mullahs permanently. There’s an adage: Never take out a weapon if you’re not willing to use it. Having assembled a fearsome armada to force the mullahs to bend to his will, Trump cannot afford to back down.
Efraim A. Cohen, Zichron Yaakov, Israel
The writer is a retired American diplomat and a former assistant U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
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