To the Editor:
Recent events in Minneapolis are a poignant reminder that we the people can still make a difference when we stand shoulder to shoulder and raise our voices in consistent and articulate protest and dissent against abuses of power.
Thank you, Minneapolis.
With democracy facing grave threats from gerrymandering, disinformation, million-dollar contributions to campaign committees, fake electors, judicial concoctions of absolute presidential immunity and more, it behooves us all to more actively engage as voters, speakers, writers and citizens to exercise this great power of the people to ensure that the voices of all are heard and thereby help restore and forge a greater democracy.
William August Cambridge, Mass.
To the Editor:
Re “State Terror Has Arrived,” by M. Gessen (column, Jan. 27) and “Grief, Whistles and Bad Dreams” (news article, Jan. 31):
The memories we give our children.
I was just 4 years old, a little girl in Amsterdam, when I tried to run over to pick up a doll for a little girl my age who had dropped it on the sidewalk as she and her parents were being dragged out of their apartment by men with guns.
My dad pulled me back, afraid that I would be loaded into the truck bound for a death camp with that little girl and her family, who were deemed “other.”
I was not quite 7 when men with guns broke into our apartment and held my mother at gunpoint while they dragged away the foster sister we were hiding.
I learned not to talk about those experiences of terror until I had established an adult life in the United States, where I could raise my children and grandchildren in the democratic freedom of a shared humanity that recognized the rights and value of all people, of all the children.
I did not imagine that some 80 years later, I would be reliving my childhood of armed thugs terrorizing human beings they deem inferior and shooting those who protest and resist.
Will a little girl growing up today recall scenes from the streets of an American city that echo my childhood memories of Nazi-occupied Amsterdam? Is this really the culture of terror in which Republicans want to have their children form their memories?
Hendrika deVries Santa Barbara, Calif. The writer is the author of “When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew,” a memoir of survival and resistance in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.
To the Editor:
Re “A Tech Arsenal Is Assisting ICE in Minneapolis” (front page, Feb. 1):
The use of facial recognition software and other technology to identify and track citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest should set off alarms for all Americans.
Tying a citizen’s presence at rallies and other lawful protest activities to the denial of participation in Transportation Security Administration travel privileges and programs such as Global Entry is downright chilling.
Despite its rhetoric to the contrary, how can one not conclude that this administration is intent on building, not dismantling, the “deep state”?
David Baldwin Petaluma, Calif.
How Do Families Thrive?
To the Editor:
Re “The Heritage Foundation’s War on Gender Equality,” by Jessica Grose (Opinion, Jan. 28):
Ms. Grose’s essay criticizing the Heritage Foundation’s new family policy report offers an example of how political and social views can obscure factual evidence — in this case, what research and studies have shown actually lead to greater human flourishing and happiness.
In 1965, close to 75 percent of all American households were headed by married couples. Today, only 47 percent are. Some people see this change as a net positive, but married men and women with children consistently report higher rates of happiness than their unmarried and childless counterparts.
There is nothing regressive about wanting more children to be born to married parents. On average, children raised by their married, biological parents have better social, emotional and behavioral outcomes than children raised in single-parent homes.
Unfortunately, the nonmarital birthrate has risen from 8 percent in 1965 to 40 percent today, and one in four American children lives with a single parent — the highest rate in the world.
Policies and cultural norms that lead to lasting marriages and thriving families should have bipartisan support. It’s a mistake to see these goals as a step back for women.
Delano Squires Washington The writer is the director of the DeVos Center for Human Flourishing at the Heritage Foundation.
The post We Are Raising Our Voices in Protest appeared first on New York Times.
