January 15 2021
Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley will again seek to end the legacy of a clause long used as a tool of control over people of color.
America was founded on beautiful principles of equality and justice. And our nation was also founded on horrific realities of slavery and white supremacy. If we are ever going to fully deliver on our founding principles, we have to directly confront those gruesome realities.
One deeply disturbing reality is that when our nation ratified the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery, it included an exception. In the second clause, often referred to as the Punishment Clause, are the words that allowed thousands of Black Americans to be re-enslaved during and after reconstruction, and set off a chain reaction that has destroyed the lives of generations of Black Americans: except as a punishment for crime …
Letters: Readers respond to editorial calling for Sen. Cruz to resign
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), wearing a face mask featuring the embroidered words come and take it, leaves after a vote at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, Nov. 17,, 2020. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)ERIN SCHAFF, STF / NYT
Regarding “Resign, Sen. Cruz. Your lies cost lives,” (A16, Jan. 10): Thank you for your editorial urging Sen. Ted Cruz to resign. Cruz, like Donald Trump, doesn’t want the job he was entrusted with. Again, like Trump, he wants the role to play and the personal prestige and self aggrandizement that comes with the title while taking no personal responsibility for actually serving the country, his constituents or the Constitution. His cynical and pandering attempts to now decry the violence he helped unleash is absolutely disgusting. He was prepared to lie to the American people for his own political gain, with no regard for the consequences to others. Now he need