Should exemplary life be tarnished by teen behavior?

In 2012, Christine Blasey Ford had a breakthrough with her therapist. She remembered being assaulted at the age of 15 by a 17-year-old teenage boy. She has no memory of where it occurred or the exact year, only that she was at a party. She believes it was Brett Kavanaugh who held her down, tried to pull her clothes off and put his hand over her mouth. Why, in 2012, didn’t she report this to the police? Ford sent a letter to her Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, detailing the alleged attack and asking her to not make the letter public. In Feinstein’s desperation to stop Kavanaugh from becoming a Supreme Court Justice, she made Ford’s letter public, and in doing so victimized Ford. If Ford’s accusation is true – which at this point we have no proof it is – can an adult who has lived an exemplary personal and professional life now be held accountable for behavior as a teenager?

BECKY SMITH, ROSWELL

Diversity’s made U.S. stronger, richer nation

In “Heresy of perhaps being correct” (Opinion, Sept. 16), Mona Charen follows the current nativist meme that diversity is not a strength. She gives two examples of empires supposedly destroyed by diversity – the Soviet Union and Great Britain. The Soviet Union was created through brutal oppression after World War II when the Russians basically enslaved weaker nations to form a “union.” Charen states the British Empire was the greatest in modern history, but was torn apart by tribalism and the demands of people “rooted in blood and soil” (straight from the alt-right). The British Empire was not “torn apart” but waned because it lost the flower of a generation and much treasure in two world wars. We are a stronger and richer country because of the diverse origins of our people. The current fear being exploited by the racists on the right is not justified on any rational basis.

STEVE KING, BUFORD

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Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) (center left) speaks with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) as they leave a Senate Republican luncheon and the Senate holds a “vote-a-rama” to pass President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Monday, June 30, 2025.  (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)

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