Debt bill
After several weeks and long debates, the House finally passed the debt ceiling bill. This is a great win for many people who benefit from essential programs related to health care, education, child care, food stamps, student debt forgiveness, and so many other programs. Virginia Organizing sends a “thank you” to Rep. Jen Kiggans for voting in favor of the debt ceiling bill. During a visit to Kiggans’ office Wednesday, Virginia Organizing members were assured that she wouldn’t contribute to any cuts of Social Security benefits; we are pleased that she kept her promise.
While it is great that Congress is moving in the right direction toward not going into default, there is still more work to be done. The fight continues. We need more affordable child care, food programs and Medicaid benefits. We need better work requirements that won’t risk people losing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
Patrice Smallwood, member of Virginia Organizing, Norfolk Chapter and State Governing Board, Chesapeake
No way
President Joe Biden should not consider pardoning former President Donald Trump as several have suggested. E.J. Montini’s column “President Joe Biden should pardon Donald Trump” in The Arizona Republic states that a presidential pardon of Trump is “the right thing to do.” Montini relies on Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon quoting Ford as saying that he was “absolutely convinced … that if we had had an indictment, a trial, a conviction, and anything else that transpired after this that the attention of the president, the Congress and the American people would have been diverted from the problems that we have to solve.”
Trump is not Nixon. Nixon was unprincipled. Trump is in an unprecedented league of thuggery. Nixon was principled enough to “disappear,” to rehabilitate himself and to give the nation time to heal. Trump appears incapable of considering what is best for the nation. A pardon would further embolden him, and the nation would still be diverted from the problems needing solutions — bigotry, violence, climate, economy, etc.
Acknowledging that he is “not naïve enough to believe that granting a pardon to Trump would — in any way — begin the process of healing or put the tragedy behind us,” Montini still says it is “the right thing to do.” “Right” for whom? Surely not the majority of Americans — many of whom are weary of a man who would rather destroy the nation than admit that he was fired.
Biden should continue to decline to comment on Trump’s legal issues and let justice prevail. That is the right thing to do for our country.
Barbara Tuck Lovell, Norfolk
Wake up
Before COVID-19, the United States was flying high. China was in check, for the most part, the economy was roaring and people were making money in their retirement accounts. Cue COVID-19, the world shut down, and we have not fully recovered.
I feel we are not going to recover with the current occupant of the White House trying to lead us. Mass shootings are up, law enforcement is handcuffed by corrupt district attorneys, people’s work ethic is in the toilet, the American nuclear family is under attack, transgender women are winning in women’s sports, and school teachers are under a tremendous pressure to teach our children right from wrong and they are getting zero support from local school boards. The common denominator is failed leadership across the board from liberal politicians. If you can’t see this, you are blind. Wake up, America, before we go the way of Rome.
Steven Duke, Hampton
