To the Editor:
Re “How Should Being a Heritage American Guide My Life?,” by David French (column, Sept. 22):
As a Heritage American, Mr. French is correct to argue that nothing is more un-American than the blood-and-soil notion of national belonging and citizenship advocated by the MAGA new right.
The American Republic has always aspired to civic and not ethnic nationalism, despite recurring bouts of nativism. This is the history lesson that I am teaching to my students this semester in my course on the American Revolution and its founding ideals.
Manisha Sinha Sturbridge, Mass. The writer teaches American history at the University of Connecticut.
To the Editor:
Until I read David French’s column, I had not heard the term Heritage American, although I’ve seen how genetic genealogy can facilitate a personal understanding of our nation’s history.
Ancestry.com recently notified me that I was a descendant of John Hart, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Though I’d never heard of him, I suddenly had a DNA connection to the founding fathers.
Not all connections are a source of pride. My maternal line descends from the prominent Scottish border reiver Johnnie of Gilnockie. These ancestors made their way in the 1600s to Talbot County, Md., and fought in the Revolutionary War. Then they moved to North Carolina, where most were Heritage American enslavers.
For those who feel superior because they’ve found a colonial ancestor, consider that in the 18th century, Britain transported some 60,000 convicts to the American colonies, most to Maryland and Virginia. Whether they were deported for crimes or their beliefs, they were colonials.
Heritage is messy. Centuries of residency do not define character.
Deborah Fries Philadelphia
To the Editor:
Like David French, I have a Mayflower ancestor. Others include a sergeant in the Revolutionary War, a grandmother who, like Eleanor Roosevelt, resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939 when the Black artist Marian Anderson was barred from singing at Constitution Hall, and men who served as officers fighting for the United States in several wars.
But what does that proud heritage mean for my family if we don’t proclaim that Black lives matter, welcome all of the huddled masses yearning to be free, fight the prejudices that bar students from their hard-earned places in university life and battle corporate greed that denies benefits to workers?
Yes, I like knowing who my ancestors were and, yes, I am on the Heritage American’s A list. But if I don’t fight for the poor, advocate the programs that help feed our nation’s hungry, support the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center and our nation’s other cultural institutions, then I no longer deserve the freedoms my ancestors earned for me.
I would still be a Heritage American, but I would be ashamed.
Corky Treacy Thompson Denver
To the Editor:
David French mentions that students of South Asian descent at the University of Texas at Austin were the target of racist insults by the Republican nominee for railroad commissioner. But he doesn’t point out that Vice President JD Vance is married to Usha Vance, born Usha Bala Chilukuri in San Diego County, Calif., to Indian parents, and his children are half Indian American.
Any discussion involving Mr. Vance should call out his deep hypocrisy and chameleon-like tendencies on any subject matter.
This one is particularly disturbing since he has said “the people whose ancestors fought in the Civil War have a hell of a lot more claim over America than the people who say they don’t belong.”
This theory would make his wife and children lesser citizens.
Laura Gaither Oakmont, Pa.
Trump’s Mental Fitness
To the Editor:
Re “Trump Has Untethered Himself From Reality,” by Thomas B. Edsall (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Sept. 15):
My mental health colleagues and I are grateful for Mr. Edsall’s essay. But it should be added that while none of the 36 experts who signed the statement printed in the Congressional Record on April 30 examined President Trump directly, the public record of his thoughts, feelings and behaviors are likely the most comprehensive of any individual in history.
This is a rich repository of clinical data. While we adhere to the principle of confidentiality in medical practice, in a time of weapons of mass destruction in which a single individual can unleash forces threatening the lives of millions, mental health professionals today are charged with a greater principle: the duty to warn. It’s in this spirit that we have come forward.
Henry David Abraham John Pastore The writers are, respectively, a psychiatrist and a cardiologist, and authors of the constitution of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.
Amazon’s Drone Invasion
To the Editor:
Re “Amazon Workers With 6 Arms Make Humans Murmur Below” (front page, Sept. 22):
Thank you so much for covering our plight in Richardson, Texas. Data centers make bad neighbors, with today’s rules and technology. So do drone fleets.
It is possible to imagine a future in which more thoughtful rules, quieter technology, easy reporting of nuisances, firm enforcement, stronger safety standards and some savvy local engagement could make both data centers and drone delivery palatable. Right now, these and other technologies are being implemented to benefit the few, at the expense of the many. It’s unfortunate.
For context, Richardson is a tech hub and has been since the 1960s. Lots of highly educated people who work for global companies and their supply chains. Many have firsthand understanding of technology development or deployment.
And it’s Texas, so the population is armed. Neighbors have debated the pros and cons of shooting down commercial drones that traverse the airspace over their properties. Yes, that’s dangerous and doesn’t help the noise problem. But wouldn’t it create folk heroes too?
Foisting emerging tech on people because you can is shortsighted. People are looking for ways to vote against this. We can hope that ballots will land the message.
Christie Turner Richardson, Texas
A.I. and the Job Market
To the Editor:
Re “A.I.’s Not a Job Killer So Far. But Raises and Hiring Are Down” (Business, Sept. 17):
The most important finding in this article may be the quietest: New hires among workers ages 22 to 25 have fallen by a third since 2021 in occupations exposed to A.I., even as firing rates have barely moved. That is not a labor market correcting itself — it is a work force entry ramp disappearing. The challenge is real. So are the solutions.
America’s training and employment systems were largely designed to respond to layoffs, not a shrinking on-ramp for new graduates. Federal policy should catch up. Expanding apprenticeships, giving young workers portable, employer-recognized records of their skills, and reimagining education pathways around real career outcomes would all help young workers clear the higher bar employers are now setting.
If A.I. is raising the price of admission to the labor force, work force policy needs to help pay for it. Otherwise, an entire generation risks entering adulthood locked out of the first rung of the ladder.
Sean Murphy Washington The writer is a director of work force and postsecondary pathways at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
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