On whose side is our CIA?
What I would say to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who is clearly a mainstream media outlet for the CIA, is that the United States cannot solve all the word’s problems and that realpolitik, as practiced by every power broker from time immemorial, understands that you have to get the attention of the regional players if you are going to get them to engage.
I believe he knows this, which begs the question, “Which side is the CIA supporting in this internal American gladiatorial circus?”
Harry Clark, Decherd, Tenn.
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Lawmakers not dealing with reality
My “sentence” for Chattanoogans who voted for the state constitutional amendment giving the conservative-controlled Tennessee General Assembly leeway to curtail access to safe and legal abortion care would be this eye-opening learning experience:
1. One year teaching high school at a school with “at- risk” students.
2. One year as a food stamp eligibility counselor.
Joan Farrell
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Slaves not ‘stolen labor’ from Africa
I cannot help but be offended by the Dec. 30 commentary by Anne Farrow.
I am a 61-year-old white male married to a beautiful and fiscally conservative African-American female for over five years. Like every other living American, I am sure Ms. Farrow has never owned slaves, and I do not feel we should be apologetic for actions of prior generations of Americans.
The actual facts liberal elites like Ms. Farrow fail to mention is that the African slave trade to America wasn’t based on “stolen black labor,” per Ms. Farrow, but rather perpetrated by African slave owners selling their conquered fellow Africans to buyers coming to Nigeria to purchase the readily available slaves from conquering African slave owners.
I lived and worked in Nigeria in the early 1990s and personally stood on the auction block in Nigeria’s Lagos Harbor, where African slave owners auctioned their slaves to American buyers. No one mentions that Americans purchased slaves from African slave owners.
Having lived in Nigeria as a wealthy ex-pat, I can assure that all African-Americans are much better off today than if they had stayed as captive slaves in Africa.
Joseph A. Malin, Kimball, Tenn.