Fightin’ words, but no fight, in Dems’ reaction to abortion draft | Letters
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I just got home from the May 2 rally for reproductive rights at Planned Parenthood in Montclair, and it left me feeling even more defeated than I did heading into it.
With the exception of one or two speakers, it became abundantly clear that the people running this show are in no way prepared for what is at our doorstep. The right wing has been chipping away at our civil rights and bodily autonomy for decades. We are now at the point that the structures our ancestors poured their blood, sweat, tears and lives into are crumbling before us.
The proposed solution? According to most speakers, including U.S. Reps. Donald Payne Jr. and Mikie Sherrill, and Planned Parenthood workers: Vote. And, give us money.
Democrats like those named above have had almost 50 years to codify the Roe v. Wade decision into law, something President Joe Biden promised to do as recently as 2020. They had a supermajority in the Senate under Barack Obama and squandered it. They refused to fight back in 2016 against Republican Mitch McConnell, then Senate majority leader, when he “stole” an Obama appointment to the Supreme Court.
The Democrats have refused to expand the Supreme Court. They have failed to nuke the filibuster rule that makes passage of most legislation impossible. They have failed to effectively revive attempts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, pass the Women’s Health Protection Act or do literally anything that would meaningfully help the people who voted for them.
They are telling us to bring hugs — and donations — to a war, because that’s what this is.
It is infuriating and quite frankly insulting to be told that all I need to do to ensure my bodily autonomy is vote and donate. Democrats are Lucy Van Pelt pulling the football away and, we, the voters are Charlie Brown, falling on our asses over and over.
Our lives are at stake. Stop playing at activism and do something real.
Lauren Brennan, Bloomfield
Remove Alito’s name from local street
Years ago, I thought it was ill-conceived when the road in front of the Hamilton Township (Mercer County) Public Library was renamed Samuel Alito Way, simply because Supreme Court Justice Alito grew up in the township. But Alito’s conservative views and rulings have proven me right.
He voted to chip away at the Affordable Care Act, and then to invalidate it. He voted to expand gun rights. He voted to strike down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, now making it harder for people to vote. He voted against same-sex marriage. And, now he is the author of a draft of a ruling on abortion that would take away a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.
Is this someone Hamilton Township thinks its citizens should look up to and honor? I call on Hamilton Township Council to rename the road in front of the library. Call it Library Way, or John Lewis Way (for the late congressman and civil-rights leader). Or, choose to honor a local activist by renaming the road James Stevenson Way, for the township’s first elected African-American school board member.
Give the road a name the people of Hamilton can look up to with pride.
Bonnie Tillery, Hamilton
Follow justice’s logic into absurdity
Looking only at the legal reasoning in the draft opinion of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito regarding abortion rights, it is important to note that it could have impacts beyond this subject.
Alito’s main argument for reversing Roe v. Wade is that the U.S. Constitution is silent on abortion. This is true. It is also true that the Constitution is silent about Miranda warnings.
If Alito’s rationale is extended, could this eliminate the protections that U.S. citizens have had since 1966 to be warned of their rights when arrested?
In addition to Miranda rights, there are other rights that citizens have had for years, if not decades, that Justice Alito — in order to be intellectually consistent — would need to conclude should be overturned by the high court.
In short, Alito’s reasoning should be the subject of discussion and concern.
Martin Barbato, Madison
N.J.-owned bank makes more sense than ever
The Star-Ledger reports that Newark has become the city with the highest rate of corporate homebuyers in the nation, just as the city is trying to increase home ownership and mitigate the impact of the rising appeal to wealthier buyers that drives out longtime residents.
A Rutgers University report states that corporate buyers thwart Newark’s goal of increasing home ownership because they outbid the city’s community development corporations, which work to purchase properties to sell to first-time buyers and to keep rents lower. And, of course, corporate buyers compete with individuals seeking to buy a home, perhaps for the first time.
Home ownership is a primary source of generational wealth. It deepens community ties and reportedly increases public safety. David Troutt, author of the Rutgers report that uncovered the corporate buying trend, confirms the point: “Traditionally, Americans believed homeownership to be the individual path to collective security. Corporate buying up of the residential market forecloses all of that.”
One way to assist individual buyers and level the field would be making low-interest loans available to nonprofit community development corporations and low-interest mortgages available to individuals.
Once again, a question that goes unanswered is this: When will Gov. Phil Murphy’s promise of creating a taxpayer-owned state bank materialize?
Certainly, now, with coffers overflowing, the state is in a position to finance that bank. I can’t think of a more compelling public need for such a bank than to provide loans for housing and nonprofits compete with corporations to secure affordable housing for our state’s citizens.
Linda Stamato, Morristown
Democrats are party of vices
On a trip into New York City recently, I was disappointed to smell the sickening sweet odor of marijuana both on NJ Transit — for which I blame Gov. Phil Murphy’s legalization efforts — as well as and every once in awhile in New York.
Also disappointing to is the increased presence of gambling advertisements, and expanded gambling was assisted by Murphy’s Democratic Party.
I wish more people would notice that when Democrats are in power, the quality of life goes down while crime and violence to innocent citizens increases.
Why does anyone vote for this party?
Frank Higbie, Bound Brook
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