Renee Nicole Good an unarmed American citizen was murdered by evil ICE agents when she driving away from the shooter!

Echo opinion letters to The New York Times: Dateline Minneapolis


Re “I’m the Mayor of Minneapolis. Trump Is Lying,”* 🤥by Jacob Frey (Opinion guest essay, January 10)- (see story lead below):

At some point, we have to ask ourselves as Americans whether we are willing to accept a country with no shared moral base line, no principle that rises above political affiliation.

Are we comfortable living in an America where a 37-year-old mother can be shot dead in the street and, almost immediately, have powerful figures justify it or attempt to construct an alternate reality that contradicts what we all plainly witnessed?

Are we comfortable living in an America where an insurrection that threatened our democracy on January 6th is minimized; where foreign and domestic policymakers increasingly act as judge; jury and executioner; and where blatant misinformation is delivered from behind the White House logo from 3D Barbie Karoline Leavitt❓

These are not abstract concerns. They cut to the heart 💔😟of whether we still agree on right and wrong, truth and falsehood, restraint and accountability.

We should be asking ourselves where the line is, and at what point we decide we simply will not tolerate the disregard for the democratic norms and human dignity that generations before us worked to preserve.

Red, purple or blue, the question is not about ideology. It’s about whether we can still come together to defend something as fundamental as basic decency.

From Seth Schlussel in San Francisco, California

To the Editor:  The killing of unarmed American citizen Renee Good by an ICE agent raises an urgent question: If the federal government won’t protect its citizens, when will the states step up? New York has ample but unused leverage to rein in ICE’s increasingly violent operations. It must act immediately to prevent escalating unrest.

Under the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, a constitutional principle articulated in the Tenth Amendment, states cannot be compelled to assist federal law enforcement. This principle affords New York lawful tools not to abolish ICE but to refuse to enable conduct that endangers citizens.

The state could, for example, prohibit rental companies from renting cars to ICE without a judicial warrant, restrict hotels and short-term rentals from staging federal operations without oversight, bar New York-regulated companies from sharing sensitive data with ICE without a criminal warrant or deny state contracts to entities that do business with ICE. These measures would not conflict with federal criminal law, but would ensure New York would not facilitate dangerous and unaccountable (evil❗) ICE operations.

From Alexander Thomson in Ithaca, New York

To the Editor: The recent killing of Renee Good, a 37-year-old unarmed American woman, by a federal officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota demands careful legal scrutiny, not political slogans or emotional reactions.

Under well-established constitutional principles and longstanding federal case law, the use of deadly force by a government agent is justified only when there exists an immediate, objective and unavoidable threat to the life of the officer or others. That determination must rest on observable facts at the precise moment of force is used, not on subjective fear or speculative danger.

In cases where an officer stands only a few feet from a vehicle that is stationary or just beginning to move, basic physics, human reaction time and standard police training all indicate that reasonable avenues of evasion are typically available.

Federal courts have repeatedly held that an officer may not voluntarily place himself in the path of a vehicle and then rely on that self-created risk to justify lethal force. The threat must be truly imminent and not reasonably avoidable by other means. This is not an ideological issue; it is a legal one. Whether the constitutional limits on the use of deadly force were respected or violated public trust depends on those limits being applied rigorously, transparently and without exception.

When the state exercises its ultimate power, the burden of justification must be equally exacting.

From Juan Carden in St. Louis, Missouri

To the Editor: Re “Early Comments Cast Doubts Over ICE Inquiry” (news analysis, front page, Jan. 11):

JD Vance’s false claim that ICE agents have “absolute immunity” not only suggests agents have something to hide; it also reveals an ignorance of federal law.

Civil rights crimes perpetrated by ICE agents and their bosses are addressed specifically in Federal Statute 242, “Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law.”

In the Justice Department’s own language: Section 242 makes it a federal crime for a person “acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. If those acts lead to the death of that person, the statue says, punishment could include imprisonment or a death sentence. It offers no immunity.

Statute 242 was intended to protect Renee Good’s civil rights, and the F.B.I. has a responsibility to investigate possible deprivation of those rights. If F.B.I. officials refuse to investigate, wouldn’t they themselves be violating Statute 242, in depriving Ms. Good of the right to due process, as well as of one of her legal protections❓

From Mark Thurmond in Kneeland, California

Jacob Frey the mayor of Minneapolis

*Minneapolis:  On August 1, 2007, the Interstate 35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed into the water during rush hour. Thirteen people died, and dozens more were injured.

In the immediate aftermath, the president, a Republican, showed up in a city full of Democrats ready to help.

Minneapolis leaders were passionate and vocal critics of President George W. Bush’s policies at the time. 

But when the crisis struck, it didn’t matter. We were partners in what mattered most: saving lives, steadying our community and rebuilding infrastructure. 

Cities could count on the administration in a crisis. Politics stopped, quite literally, at the water’s edge.

Blue largely Democratic cities like Minneapolis used to be able to count on good-faith partnerships with the federal government under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Under the Biden administration, our police officers worked with federal agents and the U.S. attorney’s office to bring down shooting rates in North Minneapolis. The effort wasn’t political — it was practical, and it continues to keep people safe.

But such partnerships, in both crisis and ordinary governance, are not the experience of big-city Democratic mayors under the Trump administrations. I learned that the hard way in 2020, during the civil unrest that came in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer. I’ll never forget the shock I felt when Donald Trump not only encouraged violence during the unrest, but denied federal approval for disaster relief.

After I learned that a Minneapolis resident had been shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, I didn’t feel the shock in my gut that I felt over five years ago. Nothing about this was shocking. The chaos caused by ICE and the Trump administration have brought Minneapolis to this sadly preventable, although predictable, tragedy. In mid-December, ICE agents were filmed dragging a pregnant woman through the street. Heavily armed agents have been deployed to arrest lone individuals in public libraries and malls. Even in the aftermath of this week’s shooting, ICE agents continued to spread chaos, apparently deploying chemical agents at a local public high school.

The actions of the ICE agents deployed to my city are dangerous, and now, even deadly. But that danger has been compounded by the administration’s claim that the victim committed an act of domestic terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi "Evil ICEDiva" Noem, baselessly insisted the shooting was an act of self-defense. Mr. Trump falsely claimed that the victim, Renee Nicole Good, “behaved horribly” and “ran him over,” referring to the ICE agent. I’ve watched multiple videos, from multiple perspectives — it seems clear that Ms. Good, a mother of three, was trying to leave the scene, not attack an agent.

Renee Nicole Good killed by an evil ICE agent in Minneapolis

The Trump administration’s false narrative about this week’s shooting, and the demonization of the victim, are only part of a bigger lie. It wants the American public to believe that ICE’s heavily militarized crackdown across this country is an effort to keep cities like Minneapolis safe. It is not. It is about vilifying not just immigrants, but all who welcome them and their contributions to our communities. By defending the lie about this clearly avoidable shooting in Minneapolis and refusing to allow Minnesota officials to investigate the crime, the administration is sending a message to the entire country: If you show up for your immigrant neighbors, or even are simply present when those neighbors are taken, your rights will not be protected by the law and your life will be at risk.

Under both the first and second Trump administrations, the country has learned from watching Minneapolis that the federal government holds no regard for cities or the people who live in them. When coupled with this administration’s open contempt for democratic norms — indeed, our Constitution — this is a threat to the long-term endurance of our Republic.

My hope is for no more of my fellow mayors find their cities in this administration’s cross hairs. 

But, for those who do, here is my advice: The best thing you can do is to build cities that work, and love those streets and those citizens above any ideology. By bringing down violent crime, Minneapolis has been able to successfully push back against those who have tried to portray our city as a postapocalyptic hellscape. By building housing and focusing on affordability, we have made our city a place that immigrants, transplants and native Minneapolitans can all call home. By supporting immigrant-owned small businesses, our city has become living proof that immigrants make our city and our nation stronger.

Cities are on the front lines of this dark hour in our national politics. But after we weather this moment — and we will weather it — it will be on us to light the way forward. The best way to convince the country that welcoming and lifting up immigrants is good for its communities is by proving it in our own cities.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans have completely failed to provide America's working class with health coverage

Echo letter to the editor of The New York Times:

Medicare for All is very popular. Even people who distrust government are in favor of it. It is a crime and a disgrace that our rich country does not provide Medicare for all of us. Every other wealthy country has figured out how to do this.

Unfortunately in the US the influence and political power of the for-profit corporate health insurance companies cancel out the movement for Medicare for All. (Maine Writer: All working Americans already pay in into Medicare. Makes perfect sense for all who pay for the benefit to receive access to the coverage.) 

Therefore many go without health insurance because they cannot afford it. They are one illness or injury away from bankruptcy due to medical debt.

When will we join every other wealthy country and provide health care for all? I fear that I, at 82 years old, will not live to see it.

From Elizabeth R. Rosenthal in Larchmont, N.Y.
The writer is a retired dermatologist.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are hearing wrath from voters about the wrong being done when they cut Medicaid funding

To the Editor: I read the New York Times opinion about Mrs. Aldhizer from North Carolina and her severely disabled son. I felt compassion and sadness, not just for her and her family, but for the countless others in our country who have been — or who soon will be — subjected to the cruelty of an administration that refuses to see each of us as human beings.

Mrs. Aldhizer’s concern is the instability of Medicaid over the coming months and years and its impact on her family, and she asks us to help her, a stranger, ensure that the program continues. 

I wonder if she herself extends her call for charity to other issues that are less personal to her, such as the right to protest peacefully without the threat of armed soldiers standing nearby, or the concerns among young people about the effects of climate change, or the trauma of a child sitting in a classroom after seeing a parent dragged off by ICE agents.

It is human nature to see one’s own needs as being of greater importance than the needs of others. I hope Mrs. Aldhizer's brand of conservatism allows her to step outside her own situation to extend the same charity to those whom she will never meet, but who are just as deserving of that charity as her son.

From: Chris Swenson in La Jolla, California

To the Editor: I sympathize with Rachel Roth Aldhizer and her severely disabled son. My own daughter has cerebral palsy and cannot walk, talk or feed herself. She still needs constant care at age 28. Medicaid has been essential for her, and soon she will live in a group home for disabled adults, funded by Medicaid.

Mrs. Aldhizer describes how Medicaid helped her family. My question is this: would she feel the same way about Medicaid if she didn’t have a disabled child❓

In my experience, conservatives are concerned about people different from them only when it affects them personally. They are against gay marriage until they find out their child is gay. They are against gun regulations until a loved one is shot. They are against abortion care until a family member nearly dies from a miscarriage. There are conservatives who were against rights for transgender people but found understanding and empathy within themselves when their child came out as trans.

Perhaps Mrs. Aldhizer has always supported government aid. But when conservatives govern, they typically lower taxes for the wealthy and reduce services for the vulnerable. Kentucky expanded Medicaid in 2014, North Carolina in 2023. Both states had Democratic governors who supported Medicaid expansion. North Carolina had a Republican supermajority that blocked expansion for nearly a decade.

Liberals, for all our faults, are the ones who stand with people unlike ourselves. We insist on help for the disadvantaged. We support Medicaid whether our family needs it or not.

From:  Hedy Kalikoff in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.

To the Editor: As a fellow North Carolinian and former Medicaid provider, I fully sympathize with the plight of Rachel Roth Aldhizer’s family and others like them. But I find her call to appeal to the compassion of our legislators misguided.I believe we had ample evidence of the Republicans’ intentions, and preserving Medicaid funding was not a priority for them.

The time to have made our voices heard was at the ballot box. Sadly, (especially to all those who could have voted but chose to stay home....) now it’s too late.

From Cyndy E. Lively in Winston-Salem, N.C.

To the Editor:  I empathize with Rachel Roth Aldhizer and her 4-year-old son. However, we collectively voted for an administration that does not. This sentiment was expressed by Elon Musk when he said, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”

As long as we embrace indecent behavior, or remain silent and passive in the face of indecent behavior, we will be a nation unmoved by the suffering of our fellow citizens or the death of an innocent child.

We will not speak up because it becomes increasingly dangerous and scary to do so. We will wrongly believe that the indecent behaviors of our government will be inflicted only on criminals and people who deserve it. Someone else, not us. 

(Maine Writer: First They Came – by Pastor Martin Niemöller:  

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me)

We will misguided and believe this right up to the moment there is scary a knock on our door.

From Jay Ahlbeck in Plainfield, New Jersey

Donald Trump keeps maga Republicans in his evil cult using fear as leverage without regard for the U.S. Constitution

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Comment echo by David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker magazine:  The Politics of Fear

As a Presidential candidate, Donald Trump made his world view plain: there was “us” and there was “them.” Once he was in the White House, the fear factor would prevail.

“the man demeans anything he touches”,  Murray Kempton

The young Donald Trump was the Nelson Muntz (a major character and recurring antagonist of The Simpsons cartoon)  of Jamaica Estates, in Queens, New York. (Or was he its Draco Malfoy (as in Harry Potter) ❓ Scholars will debate such questions for generations.

In any case, Trump was, from his formative years, a spoiled bully. The Trump family, whose fortune was made in outer-borough real estate, had a cook and a chauffeur, and “Little Donny” was a pigtail puller, an unruly loudmouth who tormented his teachers and hurled insults and rocks at other kids. 

When Trump was thirteen, his father, Fred Trump, shipped him off to a military school, in Cornwall, New York. This was just the sort of place, it was hoped, where Donald would mature into a young man of rectitude and self-regulation.

That, in fact, did not happen. Trump made it plain that his delight in domination was the immutable core of him. Marc Fisher, who co-authored “Trump Revealed,” an astute early biography and character analysis, once told PBS that, as a cadet, Trump “used a broomstick as a weapon against classmates who didn’t listen to him when he told them what to do. He was in part enforcing the rules of the academy, but he was equally so enforcing the rules of Donald Trump.”

At home, Trump apprenticed with his father, collecting rents and learning the finer points of discriminatory housing. He eventually came under the tutelage of the attorney and sybarite Roy Cohn. What lessons Trump learned from Cohn were entirely malevolent: Never show weakness. Never apologize, never explain. Attack, never defend. Engender loyalty through intimidation. With his curious coif and self-satisfied expression, Trump made himself a presence in Page Six. Indecency and aggression were his brand. Cruel, narcissistic, duplicitous—the list is long and by now so familiar that even some of Trump’s supporters concede that his most poisonous attributes are, to use the D.C. lingo, baked into the cake.

In 1989, Trump took out a full-page ad in the New York papers after the arrest of five Black and Latino teen-agers who became known as the Central Park Five. (Their convictions for rape were eventually overturned.) His screed resonates as a credo today:

Former New York City Mayor Koch stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. I do not think so. I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes. . . . I recently watched a newscast trying to explain the “anger in these young men.” I no longer want to understand their anger. I want them to understand our anger. I want them to be afraid.

The ad led Murray Kempton*, New York’s greatest columnist, to consider the spectacle of Trump—“the man demeans anything he touches”—as he moved through the big city:

To boast of hating used to be an embarrassment for the worst of people. I knew the Birmingham police commissioner who jailed [the civil-rights activist] Fred Shuttlesworth, again and again. He was always a mean man and now and then a vicious one, but he went to his grave denying that he had ever hated anyone. Time was when people who sent hate letters had the shame to keep themselves anonymous.

But not Trump. His insistence on a message of contempt was not something that he concealed. To the contrary, his hunger for attention was, then as now, embodied by his preposterous signature. As a businessman, he was often accused of cheating his contractors; as the star of “The Apprentice,” he was himself only more so, a puffed-up cartoon C.E.O. who relished making his would-be employees stammer, quake, and cry. As a Presidential candidate, he made his world view clear: there was “us” and there was “them.” And, with him in the White House, the fear factor would prevail. (Or, as he once told Bob Woodward, “Real power is—I don’t even want to use the word—fear.”)

“I’m scared,” a twelve-year-old girl in North Carolina told Trump during his first Presidential campaign. “What are you going to do to protect this country?”

“You know what, darling?” Trump said. “You’re not going to be scared anymore. They’re going to be scared.”

Six months into his second term, Trump has made it evident who “they” are; the population of the unnerved is diverse. (If that word is still legal.) It includes immigrants, university presidents, media executives, the heads of cultural institutions, librarians, scholars, scientists, trans people, government contractors, and dedicated federal employees. Some suffer for Donald Trump's pique (i.e., his irritation) and are deported in handcuffs and leg-irons. 

Some are forced to pay millions in tribute in order to go on conducting scientific research or broadcasting the news. Others must hire lawyers to fend off phony accusations of treason. In Congress, fear keeps the Republican majority in line and causes all too many Democrats to mind their language. Trump once derided his own Secretary of State and national-security adviser as “Little Marco,” and he has been an entirely obedient satrap ever since. The Cabinet is a quivering collection of yea-sayers.

This response brings the President no end of titillation. “They’re all bending and saying, ‘Sir, thank you very much,’ ” he bragged, after certain law firms started making their pitiful arrangements with the White House. “They’re just saying, ‘Where do I sign?’ ”

Fortunately, there are encouraging instances of self-possession in various corners of the country. There are civil-rights groups and judges who have refused Trump’s most blatant challenges to the rule of law. Some artists, too, have set an example. Lately, there is Amy Sherald, who withdrew her solo show scheduled for September at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, D.C., rather than have her painting “Trans Forming Liberty” “contextualized” by an accompanying video. And then came Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s still vital, still scabrous “South Park,” which recently ran an episode about a naked President, his shortcomings pitilessly exposed.

But, even as Trump’s disapproval ratings climb, the Democratic Party continues to languish; its leadership is woefully scattered and deficient. Still, resolve comes in many forms. 

Cartoon bullies line Nelson Muntz do not inevitably prevail. If individuals and institutions can muster that resolve in far greater numbers, neither will Donald Trump prevail. ♦

* Murray Kempton obituary in The New York Times: "He wrote about everything and anybody -- Tonya Harding and Warren Harding, Fidel Castro and Mussolini, Harry Truman and Sal Maglie, St. Francis of Assisi and James Joyce and J. Edgar Hoover.

Donald Trump continues to spew dishonesty. Trump's litany of lies are dangerous to our nation and the world

Dear Editor of the East Aurora Advertiser, in New York:

“That Is So Donald Trump”—a (rhetorical) phrase that now serves as a grim shorthand for deception, chaos and the corrosion of democratic norms.  Too many people are acquiescing to Trump's deliberate cruelties.

Donald Trump doesn’t just lie—he industrialized lying. From the size of his inauguration crowd to the Big Lie about the 2020, election, he built a political career on a foundation of falsehoods. And too many Americans came to accept that dishonesty was just part of the deal. That’s what’s so dangerous: the normalization of behavior that once would have disqualified anyone from public office.

“That is so Donald Trump” also means self-enrichment at the public’s expense. He turned the presidency into a family business, funneled taxpayer dollars into his private clubs and used the power of the office not to serve the nation, but to serve himself. The line between state and personal gain was not blurred—it was erased.

And in the process, he wages war on the very institutions that uphold our democracy: the courts, the press, the intelligence community, even the peaceful transfer of power. He has shown nothing but contempt for accountability, civility and truth.

So, when people say “That is so Donald Trump,” let’s be clear about what that really means: manipulation, exploitation and an unrelenting assault on the principles that make this country worth fighting for.

We cannot allow this to become the American standard. We should demand better—from our leaders, and from ourselves.

From Geoffrey K Hintz in East Aurora

Immigration policies based on racism and junk science like evils of eugenics cause harm to generations of innocent people

Echo report published in the Times Union  newspaper, published in the North Country of the Adirondack Mountains, New York.

In the North Country, fear of the 'other': French Canadians in the Adirondacks once faced hatred and discrimination. Considering their history may help us see today's hostility toward migrants in a new light.  By Jason L. Newton

French phrase for "the more things change, the more they stay the same" is "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose". 

On February 18, 2025, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (aka "ICE") agents detained nine immigrants working at Tupper Lake Pine Mill in the Adirondacks and scheduled them for deportation. ICE said the workers were in the country illegally, though lumber mill officials said they had met all work eligibility requirements.

This raid was surprising: Tupper Lake is not an immigration hub, and while the lumber industry persists in the Adirondacks, the region is now known more for its logging restrictions.

Yet, logging has been an ever-present part of regional history and once drew immigrants from across the globe. A look at the history of the Adirondacks affirms that immigrants have been essential to the economy and have positively shaped regional and national culture.
Immigrant workers are embedded in the traditions of the Adirondacks. In Tupper Lake there is an 11-foot tall lumberjack statue, the school mascot is the lumberjack, and the baseball team is the Riverpigs, a moniker for log drivers. The workers that created this venerated lumberjack, the embodiment of strength, hardiness and determination, came largely from the Adirondack’s northerly neighbor, Quebec.

In 1870 about 24% of residents of Franklin County, where Tupper Lake is located, were foreign born. 

Into the 1920s, about one in 10 were Canadian and probably half of them were French Canadian. 

During this period, there were consistently about 3,000 French Canadians in the county. And not all this historical immigration was legal. Into the 1920s, the border was lightly policed. Americans and Canadians crossed at will.

In the 1900s, my great-great grandfather Louis Auguste Deschene and his wife, Anna, made this journey from Quebec to the Adirondacks. He Americanized his name to Angus and in 1910, was living in a lumber camp in Fine, New York, with Anna, five children and four workers. Angus’ son Ernest became a logger and settled in Tupper, and my grandmother Delia spent time in logging camps.
Though it seems strange now, there was a time when these French Canadians, like immigrants today, were not welcomed.

The time of high immigration to Franklin was the apex of eugenics, the powerful but pseudoscientific study of racial difference that is now fully discredited. 

People like the Deschenes were not initially considered to be “white” people, according to immigration experts and the public. Eugenicists argued that the French developed differently than other Euro-Americans: They retained medieval traits and a primitive dialect, and had an innate predilection to Catholicism. Their often-reported “swarthy” complexion was evidence of inferiority and intermingling with Native Americans.

In 1881, the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics declared the French Canadians “the Chinese of the Eastern States” — a damming comparison because that year, the U.S. was debating the exclusion of Chinese immigrants. In 1904, the Watertown Re-Union newspaper did an exposé on Adirondack lumbering, declaring that “these French-Canadian inhabitants of the woods are half-wild folk.” 

The paper depicted immigrant children as sickly, barefooted “untamed creatures” and “caged animals.” Eugenicist and historian Madison Grant wrote in a 1916 book that French Canadians were “a poor and ignorant community of little more importance to the world at large than are the Negroes in the South.”

Building off this type of “evidence,” in 1919 the state of Maine banned the use of French as the primary language of instruction in public and private schools. In 1924 the Ku Klux Klan intimidated union members who were organizing French Canadian lumber workers in Maine. A year earlier a Klan member addressed a crowd in that state, declaring, “This is not a Catholic nation.”

Claims of racial difference justified poor treatment and low wages for French Canadians. In the Adirondacks, three lumber companies — Emporium, Santa Clara and A. Sherman — conspired to set low wages for French Canadians. They were shot by bosses in logging camps, disciplined by force and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet French Canadians helped New York become the second most productive state in pulp wood production by 1920.

Industrial dependency on French Canadians became a government-sponsored contract labor program during World War II, similar to the Bracero Program for Mexican agricultural workers. French Canadians were “bonded” to one American employer for a six-month logging season. Employers could order workers by filing the “Woodsman Order Form.” 

The program continued after the war, and between 1951, and 1955, about 6,000 French Canadian workers were “bonded” to Northeastern logging companies each year.

Like the Mexican “Braceros,” French Canadians endured unbearable conditions. A Senate investigation found eight Canadians living in a dirt floor shack alongside horses in winter. Others were housed in an “abandoned bus.” A Maine logger wrote, “You can make them work harder [than Americans]. They will live under worse conditions.”

Another said, “I think we agree … [the French Canadian] has been exploited. … He knows he is not loved.”

There is a pattern in American immigration history: Racism drives fear and disdain of immigrants, forcing them to accept low wages and poor conditions. Industries become dependent on low wages, furthering native workers’ disdain of foreigners. The French Canadian example is important because through hindsight, it shows how ridiculous these types of racial divisions are.
Today some Americans see Latin Americans as racially and ethnically different from “white” Americans. 

But history shows that whiteness as a racial category has no historical or scientific mooring. For example, between 1850, and 1920, the census counted most Mexicans as "white."

The Trump administration’s mass-deportation promise forces those interested in history to ask: What would the Adirondacks be like today if Americans had banned French Canadians like we did the Chinese? What would the Northeast be like if the KKK had abolished Catholicism? 

If we can entertain these hypotheticals, we can ask what today’s immigrants will add to Adirondack history. Might future generations carve statues depicting them? What will the children of immigrant workers become?

If the Trump administration succeeds in spreading race-based division, if they end birthright citizenship and expel immigrant workers, what will future Americans think of people today who allowed this? Through our actions today — capitulation or resistance — we will shape future history. What do we want the future of the Adirondacks — and of America — to be?

Republicans wrongfully support Trumpian mass deportations will put all Americans at risk for deportation

Echo opinion letters published in The New York Times: 

Dear Editor:  Although President Biden has promised a smooth transition for Donald Trump after this election, we Americans should take strong steps, including mass protests and smart political strategies to oppose and stop all efforts of the Trump administration to conduct mass deportations of immigrants.

The New Colossus:  "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breath free", Emma Lazarus

The former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and now Trump’s choice to be “border czar,” Thomas Homan, said that immigrants can avoid the horrific family separation by being deported together. I guess he means that those immigrants who are here legally can choose to leave the U.S. with children and relatives who are being deported.

We Americans who value justice, liberty and morality must oppose and fight against the ruthless and fiendish plans of Mr. Trump and his acolytes, who have little respect for the traditional values of our great nation. The time to fight for justice is now, and powerful and peaceful protests should start now so Mr. Trump knows what he faces when he takes office.

From: J. Gorman in Queens, New York
The writer is a retired New York Police Department lieutenant

To the Editor:  How will government officers find all those undocumented immigrants they plan to round up in the largest mass deportation of immigrants in American history❓

Undocumented immigrants look no different than anyone else walking down the street. Which means that you and I — all 345 million of us in this country — are subject to being stopped and forced to prove we are here legally.

To limit the field, officers may be forced to stop only people who look “foreign.” Of course, many people born here look “foreign.” Many people who are foreign don’t look foreign. Will courts allow profiling based on appearance?

When we are stopped, how will we even prove we are legal so we can stay out of the planned detention camps? We all don’t go around with immigration or naturalization papers. We don’t all have passports. I don’t carry ID unless I’m driving, drinking or using the AARP discount. My only proof is my birth certificate, which I can’t even find.

Even if courts say it is legal to stop anyone for any reason, how long would Americans put up with their own government harassing them?

The government may try to ease the pain by setting up offices in every city and requiring everyone to go there with proof of citizenship. Employees will then issue us cards to carry at all times to show officers. Or the government might force us to get tattoos on our arms or foreheads so we won’t even have to be stopped.

Mass deportation will encroach on our liberty. But the sacrifice will be worth it to rid America of the scourge of “illegals,”, so Trump will tell us. If you are legal, he’ll say, you shouldn’t mind having your rights violated.

From Joe Kollin in Lake Worth, Fla.

To the Editor:  I have some questions for those who favor mass deportation:

Do you grow your own food❓ Do you kill, gut and process the beef cattle, hogs, poultry and fish yourself❓

After the men, women and children, who do these jobs are deported, will you step up❓ Will you❓ (Maine Writer:😔 IDTS)

Food for thought.🍲🥘🥫

From: Florence England in Kansas City, Missouri.

Maine Writer post script:  All Americans who are not Native Americans are here today because we have immigrant ancestors.  Suppose we cannot prove where our parents were born....❓❓❓

Experience hope over fear as Democrats plan about how to repair Trumpzism's incompetent leadership

Echo opinion letter to the editor of The New York Times: I am a first-generation American. My parents were Holocaust survivors.

My mother was born in Vilna (now Vilnius) in 1930. Her deportation* to Siberia at age 10, saved her life, and the lives of her parents.

Reading Tolstoy and other great works of literature, and never losing hope, were among the beacons that helped her to survive during the five years she spent in Siberia. 

Similarly, many of the (all too few) survivors of the Vilna Ghetto found ways to cope by retreating into reading and writing fiction, making art, composing and performing music.

Meanwhile, my father, a pianist studying at the Vienna Academy, escaped at age 16 in 1938, on a music scholarship to Palestine. Music saved his life.

I firmly believe that the arts can help us survive the Donald Trump era. It has been proven to help people to survive and flourish in the face of war, cruelty, racism, sexism, fascism and all other threats to human dignity.

From Deborah Hautzig,  New York
The writer is the author of dozens of children’s books and two novels.

A group of Lithuanian deportees in Ziminsky District, Irkutsk Oblast in Russia.

*Soviet deportations from Lithuania were a series of 35 mass deportations carried out in Lithuania, a country that was occupied as a constituent socialist republic of the Soviet Union, in 1941, and 1945–1952. At least 130,000 people, 70% of them women and children, were forcibly transported to labor camps and other forced settlements in remote parts of the Soviet Union.  Among the deportees were about 4,500 Poles.

Donald Trump must be accountable for deliberately deceiving voters

Echo opinion reported in the Manchester New Hampshire InkLink:

Trump’s conviction in New York should remind us all that no one—including a former president—is above the law. It should also remind us of the danger that Trump still poses to our democracy.

In the final weeks of the 2016, election, Trump covered up his affair with Stormy Daniels to dupe voters and improve his chances of winning the election. As it turns out, this would only be his first foray into undermining our elections. The New York trial may be over, but Donald Trump still faces three additional indictments and 54 criminal charges for a litany of crimes, including federal charges for his efforts to incite violence and overturn the will of voters after he knew he’d lost the 2020, election. 

Trump Wall of Lies exhibit in Soho New York

This is a pattern. The jury has done their job to hold Trump accountable. Now, it’s time for the American people to do our part and hold him accountable at the ballot box.

From Alan Brown in  Manchester, New Hampshire

Trump paid illegal hush money to Stormy Daniels because he had sex with her and wanted to keep her quiet

Echo OPINION //EDITORIALS published in the Houston Chronicle

Trump’s felony conviction over porn star hush money recalls a simpler time – when sex scandals mattered | Editorial

Manhattan after the #Trump34 jury's guilty verdict 

There was something almost quaint about the particulars of the Donald Trump hush-money case that ended Thursday with a guilty verdict: a time capsule from a bygone era when political candidates assumed their transgressions still carried consequences.

After all, Trump’s rationale for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels was that their lurid affair — which she reportedly was shopping around to news outlets and that he denies took place — would do irreparable damage to his 2016, presidential campaign. His former fixer Michael Cohen confirmed as much. Cohen testified that the payments to Daniels were made shortly after the leak of the Access Hollywood tape of Trump boasting about grabbing women’s genitals, suggesting the campaign feared Trump could not withstand another “October surprise” in a close race against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

So in the final days of his campaign, he sought to bury the Daniels tryst the same way any wealthy lout would: with cold, hard cash. 

He directed Cohen to funnel $130,000 to Daniels by siphoning the cash from his family business and falsely labeling the transactions as legal expenses. We’ll never know whether doing so saved him from defeat that year, but it’s fair to say this was just the beginning of Trump corrupting the electoral process behind the scenes.

Four years later, his attempts at election interference would be far more grandiose. Armed with the power of the presidency, a legion of supporters in denial about his decisive loss to Joe Biden and an inner circle of obsequious aides and advisers eager to overthrow democracy, he would hatch an insidious plot to keep him in the White House. What happened next — a violent insurrection at the Capitol — was one of the most disgraceful events in American history and put the danger of a possible second term in stark relief.

How far would he go if he got another crack at leading the country?

That we even had to entertain such a hypothetical speaks to the steady erosion of norms and values that both parties once claimed to cherish. In no sane universe should Trump have a second chance. Congress had two opportunities to extinguish his flame, send him back to Trump Tower with his tail between his legs, a disgraced president that the annals of history would frown upon as a cautionary tale for our fragile democracy.

Of course, those impeachment attempts failed, giving the Republican Party a chance to test just how short our collective memories are. The party leadership easily could’ve disavowed him in favor of a fresh face for the GOP, one who could ably take on Biden, who, despite a mountain of accomplishments, is perceived as weak.

Alas, the GOP’s pact with Trump is apparently signed in blood. 

Even the few Republicans who spoke out against him in the wake of January 6th, quickly came running back. Now it’s as if they never left.

Combing through GOP politicians' statements after Trump’s conviction is to witness an exercise in delusional sycophancy. You’d expect the shameless boot-lickers such as Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham to spin the verdict as the result of a sham trial in a rigged system. When respected voices in the so-called “party of law and order” — looking at you, John Cornyn — parrot these ridiculous statements, it’s fair to question just how far Republican leaders are willing to debase themselves just to regain power.

Even those clinging to the prospect of a reversal of the verdict based on the lack of specificity in jury instructions are tethering their integrity to a technicality, not any evidence exonerating Trump or proving wild conspiracy theories that he was framed by the Biden administration. And no, this verdict isn’t based solely on the word of confirmed liar Michael Cohen. It was based on reams of documents and corroborating testimony.

Still, you don’t have to be a political pundit to understand that the gravity of the hush money case was far less than Trump’s other alleged crimes. For those of us waiting on real accountability for Trump, the New York verdict provides cold comfort. The felonies he was convicted of are all of the low-tier, non-violent variety, each carrying a maximum sentence of four years. The fact that this is Trump’s first conviction, he’s old, and he’s running a national campaign for president will likely weigh on the scope of Judge Juan Merchan’s sentence. One thing both presidential campaigns, and constitutional scholars, agree on: Trump can return to the White House with a felony conviction.❗😡😠

If there’s any hope to be gleaned from Trump’s conviction, it’s that the myth of the Teflon Don has shattered. For all his bluster that he could murder someone on Fifth Avenue and walk away scot-free, it had to be humbling for him to be treated like any other perp in a Manhattan courtroom, with no TV cameras for him to preen for. Only his frumpy visage immortalized by bizarre courtroom sketch caricatures. Even Trump’s post-conviction statement lacked his usual bite, a low-energy burst of recycled Trumpisms — “rigged, disgraceful trial,” “country gone to hell,” etc. — which played like a sad trombone.

And yet, this verdict isn’t the death blow his opponents have longed for. It remains to be seen whether our justice system can navigate the absurd uncharted territory of a felonious ex-president fighting off 54 other criminal charges across three jurisdictions. It’s an open question whether Biden will even attempt to weaponize Trump’s criminality. After all, if there’s anyone who can spin a felony conviction as an act of martyrdom, it’s Trump. Naturally, within minutes of his conviction, his campaign sent out a fundraising pitch on his TruthSocial platform. And he claims the money is rolling in, more than $34 million since the verdict.

“I am a political prisoner!” Trump’s post read.

Not really, Donald.😒 Chances are you won’t see the inside of a prison cell at all. Maybe not ever. But one can dream. And we do.

President Biden impressively presidential during West Point graduation speech 2024

Remarks by President Biden in Commencement Address to the United States Military Academy at West Point | West Point, NY

President Joe Biden at West Point graduation 2024

In his address to the Army's newest officers, President Biden reaffirmed his commitment to fight against tyrants and threats to peace, freedom and openness. He vowed to support Ukraine and called for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that includes the return of all hostages. Biden also condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran for escalating conflicts in their regions.

President Joe Biden: Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)

General Gilland, Secretary Wormuth, General George, members of Congress. And, by the way, one of the members of Congress up here, I’m flying up with him, and he’s bragging about being from this district and maybe graduated from this academy. Stand up, Ryan. Stand up, Congressman Ryan. Stand up, Congressman (NY18). Fellow graduate right there. (Applause.)

Faculty, staff, soldiers, officers, family, and friends –most of all, West Point Class of 2024.

In 1776, British forces had driven General Washington’s army out of New York City. The British Navy dominated the coast of New England. If they could control the Hudson, they could cut colonies half — divide and conquer, a classic strategy.

But General Washington saw it coming. He knew there was a place on the Hudson where the river bent with a plateau overhead. The Americans placed artillery batteries along the river, stretched an iron chain across the water, and built a fort on a plain called West Point.

West Point, George Washington said — (applause) — George Washington said West Point was the “key of America.” He was right. The British never captured the Hudson. They failed to divide and conquer us. And a few years later, they surrendered at the Battle of Yorktown. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah!

THE PRESIDENT: You got it, man. (Applause.)

The most powerful empire in the world defeated by an army of ordinary people driven by the sacred cause of freedom. And I might add, you’re about to become full-time members of the most honorable and the most consequential fighting force in the history of the world — that’s not hyperbole — of the world. That’s the truth. (Applause.)

Ever since, men and women of West Point have stayed true to this mission. And today, 1,036 graduates of the Class of 2024 will join the Long Gray Line that has never failed us and never, ever will. (Applause.)

Together, you survived the Beast Barracks and countless hours of PT. You completed rigorous academics at th- — America’s first, toughest engineering school in the country. You met the highest standards of discipline.

And, of course, no one is perfect. Even Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower were written up from time to time — you know I’m not kidding — (laughter) — when they were cadets here at West Point.

If that sounds familiar to you, maybe I can help you today. In keeping with a longstanding tradition, as Commander-in-Chief, I absolve all cadets on restriction for minor conduct offenses. (Applause.) If you have any questions, the Superintendent can clarify what “minor” means. (Laughter.)

Of course, your time here wasn’t all difficult. The class did plenty of celebrating every time you beat Navy. (Applause.) Now, look, lots of West Point classes have some wins over Navy. But not every class, over a four-years period, beats Navy 51 times. (Applause.) As they say in Delaware, “You done good.”

A few weeks ago, I was honored to present the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy to the Black Knights at the White House. I told them I don’t take sides. But my son, Beau, was a decorated major in the United States Army. He spent a year in Iraq. And he always made it clear who he expected the family to root for in the game in Philadelphia. (Laughter.)

Parenthetically, I was appointed by my — the fellow I ran against when I was 29 years old to the Naval Academy. I was one of 10. I wanted to play football. And my — the day I was supposed to go down for the interview, a classmate of mine who was also one of the 10 appointed to be chosen from — a kid named Steve Dunning — came to pick me up. And I had found out two days earlier they had a quarterback named Roger Staubach and a halfback named Joe Bellino. I said, “Hell, I’m not going there.” (Laughter.)

I went to Delaware. (Laughter.) Not a joke. (Laughter.)

And, by the way, that — that same fellow, he was a wonderful man. I had — in our last debate, when I was 29 years old, he — the first question he was asked at the debate was, “Do you have any regrets, Senator Boggs?” And he said, “No.” Then we came to the very end of the debate, where I spoke and then he was to conclude. He stood up, and he said, “You know, I was asked if I had any regrets. I said no, but I have one: Had Joe Biden gone to the Naval Academy when I appointed him, he’d still have seven months left on and wouldn’t be able to run.” (Laughter.)

Cadets, as proud as your country is today, your families are even prouder. (Applause.) At R-Day four years ago, because of the pandemic, they could not spend the day on post. It was a challenging way to begin the West Point experience. So, I’m thrilled today so many of your loved ones get to see you here.

To everyone who helped raise these remarkable young people, this is your day as well. Because we know, as the English poet John Milton wrote, “They also serve who only stand and wait.”

Cadets, it’s time for you to stand up now and thank your parents. Stand up. (Applause.) Turn and thank them. You owe them big.

The Class of ‘24 is an extraordinary group. You include the Army’s all-time home run leader; athletes who have swum laps around Manhattan Island, which I could never quite figure out — (applause) — and the son of an Iraqi interpreter for the American forces, one of your class’s two Rhodes Scholars.

You hail from all 50 states and 12 countries. Some of you are third-generation West Pointers. Others are the first in your family to join the U.S. Armed Forces. (Applause.) And at least one of you has a twin brother graduating from Annapolis this year. (Laughter and applause.)

I tell you what, I don’t want to be at that family reunion. (Laughter.) Every time you show up to the Army-Navy game, I don’t know how the hell you’re going to do it. But any rate. (Laughter.)

Look, I wish I could praise every single cadet one by one, because you deserve it. You make our entire nation proud, and that’s not hyperbole. You do.

As your Commander-in-Chief, let me say again: Congratulations. You’ve earned every bit of what you’ve (inaudible) going to get today.

Look, the motto of this class, “Like None Before,” was an appropriate choice for your class, because you’re graduating into a world — as a student of history, I can tell you — “like none before.” I’ve been a senator since I was 29 years old, never left government. And ladies and gentlemen, the world is not only changing rapidly, it’s also the pace of change is accelerating. And the range of missions that our servicemen are carrying out are “like none before” as well.

There’s never been a time in history when we’ve asked our military to do so many different things in so many different places around the world all at the same time.

Right now, American soldiers are supporting brave Ukrainians in their fight for freedom. Our soldiers are working around the clock to keep munitions and equipment moving by land, sea, and air. They’re training Ukrainians on how to use advanced weapons systems, like HIMARS, Patriots, and Abrams tanks, and they’re sharing lessons in Tactical Combat Casualty Care with Ukrainian medics and surgeons.

There are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. I’m determined to keep it that way. But we are standing strong with Ukraine, and we will stand with them. (Applause.) We’re standing against a man who I’ve known well for many years, a brutal tyrant. We may not — we — and we will not — we will not walk away.

Putin was certain that NATO would fracture. I remember them — right after being elected president, before — right after I was sworn in, and we talked about this very issue. In the fall, he had tied — that fall, he decided to — look, I shouldn’t get into this, probably — (laughter) — because it gets me a little excited. But Putin was certain that NATO would fracture.

I said to him in Switzerland that, “You want the Finlandization of Ukraine; you’re going to get the Finlandization — you’re going to get the NATO-ization of Europe.” He had a brazen vision, which we stepped up and stopped. Instead, today, the greatest defense alliance in the history of the world is stronger than ever. Finland and Sweden are our newest members, and they’re tough.

In the Middle East, while we conduct urgent diplomacy to secure an immediate ceasefire that brings hostages home, our Army and Navy have deployed a temporary pier in — on the Mediterranean in record time to increase lifesaving aid to the Palestinians. The U.S. Air Force has conducted food drops, delivering tens of thousands of meals to the people of Gaza.

In the face of Iran’s recent unprecedented attack on Israel, we brought partners together, including Arab nations, to repel the sustained assault.

The man running the operation on the ground: General Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, West Point ‘88. General Kurilla did a superb job.

I was in the Situation Room with our national security team. He was on the screen from the region. He knew the attack was coming, but we weren’t sure precisely when it would begin. Then, at 6:34 p.m., the general said to me, “Mr. President, we just got multiple ballistic missile launches from Iran toward Israel.” Six minutes later, he said, “There are 30 missiles in the air.” Four minutes after that, he said, “There’s 75 missiles in the air.” Then he said, “Over 100 missiles in the air.”

Under incredible pressure, General Kurilla and the Combined Joint Task Force performed exceptionally from sea, air, and bases nearby. Thanks to the — 99 percent of the missiles and drones of Iran never reached their targets because of the quality of our forces. We swiftly ended — (applause) — we swiftly ended what could have been a devastating attack, and we deescalated the conflict, when it easily could have gone the other way.

On the other side of the world, in the Indo-Pacific, we deepened our alliances. We’ve created new ones, like AUKUS, our new strategic partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom. Or the trilateral cooperation we’ve forged with Japan and the Republic of Korea that no one thought was possible: two of our allies cooperating on strategic defense thanks to our leadership. We’ve begun the new trilateral partnership with Japan and the Philippines as well.

We elevated the Quad — together with Japan, India, and Australia — to advance free, open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. We’re standing up for peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits. And we’ve depended on our strategic partnership with Vietnam.

I wonder if the classes of ‘74 are here today could have imagined that they were sitting where you were at the same time and during Vietnam.

The upshot of all this: Across vastly different regions and very different challenges, our women and men in uniform are hard at work strengthening our alliances, because no country has allies like ours; investing in deterrence, so anyone who thinks they can threaten us thinks again; defending our values by standing up to tyrants; and safeguarding the peace by protecting freedom and openness.

Thanks to the U.S. Armed Forces, we’re doing what only America can do as the indispensable nation, the world’s only superpower, and the leading democracy in the world.

Never forget: America is the strongest when we lead not only by our example of our power but by the power of our example. You can clap for that. (Applause.)

I want to mention one additional way we’ve made progress. Every member of our Armed Forces must always be safe and respected in the ranks. For the first time in nearly a decade, rates of sexual assault and sexual harassment have gone down across the active-duty forces. (Applause.) It’s long past time to end the scourge of sexual violence in the military once and for all. And we can do this.

Cadets, make no mistake, there remains a hard-power world. You can’t draw any other conclusion when powerful nations try to coerce their neighbors or terrorists attempt evil plots. That’s why I’m making historic investments in our military, overhauling our defense industrial base.

For decades, America has had the most powerful military in the world. And that happens because we choose to make it happen. I have always been willing to use force when required to protect our nation, our allies, our core interests.

And when anyone targets American troops, we will deliver justice to them. That happened earlier this year, when three heroic members of the U.S. Army Reserve were killed in an unmanned drone attack near — in northeast Jordan.

In response, we launched dozens of successful airstrikes against Iran-backed militants. And we’ll never forget to honor the memory of those warriors who gave their lives in the fight against terrorism.

Cadets, West Point had made you — has made you leaders of character. In minutes, you’ll be United States Army officers. In time, some of you will serve in powerful roles at headquarters, the Pentagon, even in the White House. You’ll confront challenges that previous generations of soldiers couldn’t imagine.

When that happens, hold fast to your values you learned here at West Point: duty, honor, country.

Hold fast to your honor code, which says, quote, “We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate those who do,” end of quote.

And above all, hold fast to your oath. On your very first day at West Point, you raised your right hands and took an oath — not to a political party, not to a president, but to the Constitution of the United States of America — against all enemies, foreign and domestic. (Applause.)

Members of the Long Gray Line have given their lives for that Constitution. They have fought to defend the freedoms that it protects: the right to vote, the right to worship, the right to raise your voice in protest. They have saved and sacrificed to ensure, as President Lincoln said, a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.”

West Pointers know better than anyone: Freedom is not free. It requires constant vigilance.

And for ev- — from the very beginning, nothing is guaranteed about our democracy in America. Every generation has an obligation to defend it, to protect it, to preserve it, to choose it. Now, it’s your turn.

Remember what over a thousand graduates of West Point wrote to the Class of 2020 four years ago: The oath you’ve taken here, quote, “has no expiration date,” they said. Not for you, not for your country. It’s important to your nation now as it’s ever been. Keep it, honor it, and live it.

Cadets, let me close with this. In the early days of our nation, as General Washington said, West Point was the “key of America.” Today, you’re still the key because of your commitment to protect what makes America “America.”

We’re unique in the world. We’re the only country in the world founded on an idea. Other countries are founded based on geography, ethnicity, religion, or other attributes, but we’re the only one founded on an idea — not figuratively, literally. And the idea is we’re all created equal, deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.

But ideas need defenders to make them real. That’s what you, the Class of 2024, are all about: defenders of freediom –fr- — freedom, champions of liberty, guardians — and I mean this — guardians of American democracy.

And just as this historic institution helped make America free over two centuries ago, and just as generations of West Point graduates have kept us free through every challenge and danger, you must keep us free at this time, “like none before.”

I know you can. I know you will.

For we are the United States of America, and there is nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.

May God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.

Congratulations, Class of 2024. (Applause.)