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Letters to the Editor

Where would Trump send me?

To the editor: In an executive order on Jan. 20, President Trump declared that “the Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” My mother’s father arrived on Ellis Island in 1908 when he was 4 but was not naturalized until 1940. My mother was born in 1937, meaning that, according to Trump’s interpretation, she is no longer a citizen. To complicate things further, her mother was born in the U.S., but her grandparents were probably not naturalized at the ...

Return to small, limited government

To the editor: All government agencies, federal, state or local are supposed to be audited each year. So how do we end up with surprises from wasteful, if not outright illegal, spending by USAID? Should we expect more disgusting results from other government organizations? Once again though, except for national security issues (which the government selectively uses as a questionable cover), why are the audits not being put on the internet for the masters (the taxpayers) to look over? Are they even being done according to General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)? You might be ...

Removing DEI policies is not the answer

To the editor: In response to Feb. 6 letter DEI policies not American Feb. 6: DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. It is a framework that seeks to promote the fair treatment and full participation for all people. DEI includes people of different ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, disabilities, genders, religion, cultures and sexual orientation. It does not mean as you stated, “favoring those who have a certain skin color or lifestyle.” Our country is built on diversity. We are all different and bring a lot to the table when it comes to the United States of America. ...

The real story behind 14th Amendment

To the editor: In response to Roger Baumann: If you research why and when the 14th amendment was created, you would discover it was created Following the Civil War. Congress submitted to the states three amendments as part of its Reconstruction program to guarantee equal civil and legal rights to Black citizens. A major provision of the 14th Amendment was to grant citizenship to “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” thereby granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people. Birthright Citizenship is Fundamental to American Life. The Supreme Court ruled that ...

DEI polices not American

To the editor: I support President Trump in removing all DEI from all federal agencies and any others that get federal money. DEI — what that means is we should favor those who have a certain skin color or lifestyle. That is not American, is it? No. Is that what Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he said we should be judged by our character, not the color of our skin? No. The system in America, both economic and political, should reward hard work and merit. If a college admissions director gets an admissions applicant from a zip code that is knowingly in distress, and that student is ...

Look at key phrase in Constitution

To the editor: President Trump signed an Executive Order ending “birthright citizenship”, based on the original intent of the 14th Amendment ratified in1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” The words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is the key phrase. Meaning if a person comes from another country they remain subject to the country from which they came and therefore cannot obtain automatic ...