Every responsible citizen should watch Jan. 6 hearings
I have heard from so many friends, both on the left and on the right, who are not watching the January 6 committee hearings. As a country, have we become so lost in our daily lives that relatively few are watching?
There was a violent insurrection mounted against our Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Whether you lean left or right, how can you not care about the information coming out when our very democracy is at stake? If you are left-leaning, you should want to hear the “evidence” presented so you can affirm your stand. If you are right-leaning, you should want to hear the “evidence” presented so you can intelligently refute what is presented.
To not watch at all is a dereliction of your duty as a citizen.
RANDY EIDSON, ROME
Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision turns back legal clock to 1868
How could the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, which for 50 years recognized the right of women to continue a pregnancy or not during the first trimester, a right supported by 60% to 70% of Americans?
Republican presidents chose nominees for the court determined to overturn Roe, and who misrepresented their positions on Roe and were confirmed.
The excuse for overturning Roe: declare the 14th Amendment as having the only enshrined rights as existing in 1868!
The problem: the Supreme Court invoked the 14th Amendment to end racial segregation and the illegality of interracial marriage, permit the sale of contraceptives and declare sexual activity between adults as a private matter.
Turning back the clock to 1868, segregated schools might still exist. Interracial marriage could be illegal, even a crime. Women could be denied a license to practice law (the Supreme Court so held in 1873).
Do we want the 19th-century discrimination against Roman Catholics?
I do not believe Americans are willing to turn the legal clock back to 1868.
Nor should they be.
BRUCE MENKE, ATHENS
