New York Times Letters

7/18/19

ICE?

This is what I wish ICE could become: “I Celebrate Everyone.” Whenever a potential immigrant arrives at our border, we would welcome them and tell them we’re glad they have come. They may know that not everyone will be able to stay, but we will help them in every way we can if they qualify. If they have criminal records or are disqualified for other reasons, then we will have to have them return, but if they do, then we will welcome them warmly.

As Philo is reputed to have said centuries ago: “Be kind to everyone, for everyone is fighting a great battle.”

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August 6, 2019

In July, 2019, Trump wandered back and forth behind a microphone at a campaign rally in North Carolina with a look of utter contempt for Mulla Omar while the crowd chanted “Send her back.” He wandered, radiating disgust, for thirteen seconds which is a long time in front of a live microphone, and his silence clearly energized that odious crowd reaction. This sort of behavior is deeply threatening to the targets of his contempt who may justifiably feel that their physical safety is being endangered by his provocative behavior. Might not one psychopath in that crowd feel empowered to carry out his assumption of the crowd’s wish to see her no more? And might not most Muslim citizens feel a similar sense of endangerment? Anger begets anger. Contempt begets contempt. People on the other side of such positions will often feel a reciprocal fury. There is a real risk that democratic contenders for the presidency may yield to the temptation to bring similar affect to their own presentations. This country needs a reduction of affect, not an augmentation of it.

October 1, 2019

From the outset of his tenure in office, Trump seems somehow to have muzzled every Republican Senator, despite having demeaned them only weeks or months earlier. How has he managed to wield this influence? Has it not occurred to us that his trove of information from his Russian pals may have included plenty of “dirt” on his erstwhile allies sufficient to have cowed them into a guilty silence? We have just seen him trying to do precisely this to Joe Biden; why should we suppose he hasn’t done precisely the same to his “family?”