Jackson kept her head; GOP senators lost theirs

I write this email regarding The Baltimore Sun’s Page 1 headline for the story published in the Wednesday, March 23, issue, “Nominee spars with GOP senators at hearing.” While technically, this may be an accurate headline, I believe certain sensitivities should have been considered before this was determined to be the headline for the article, especially with The Baltimore Sun currently publishing the series regarding its past coverage of African Americans.

Historically, there’s been a perception of “the angry Black woman” when women of color have intelligently, confidently and authoritatively expressed their views, especially when those views are expressed to white men.

The “Nominee spars with GOP senators” can leave the connotation with many readers who did not view the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, that this was again a hostile Black woman arguing with someone, when in fact, in my opinion, it was the GOP senators sparring with her as she thoughtfully, respectfully and intelligently answered their questions, as well as in some cases, noting the inaccuracies in their assumptions and statements.

— Bernard S. Little, Dundalk

Sun just reported what the ‘experts’ said

Mr. Flynn accuses The Sun of “slandering all the honest applicants who have truthfully completed mortgage applications even when it costs them.” (“Sun gives honest mortgage applicants a bad name,” March 22) No, actually The Sun does no such thing. What the reporters did was quote so-called “experts” in the mortgage field who made the statements (“People lie on mortgage applications every day” and “It happens all the time”) to which Mr. Flynn so strongly objects. His concerns should be taken up with those “experts,” not with the newspaper’s reporters who quoted them.

— Harris Factor, Columbia

Don’t blame Russians for Putin’s actions

Shame on The Baltimore Sun for printing the hate-filled letter, “Russian citizens bear responsibility for Putin’s actions,” (March 21). Raising the level of xenophobia in the United States as the letter does and as we experienced during the Trump administration, only leads to heightened violence and even death of our fellow citizens of foreign descent.

As for the citizens of a country “suffering the consequences” of their government’s “murderous conduct” abroad when it “flagrantly violates international law and indiscriminately kills innocent civilians,” let us not forget the millions of Vietnamese killed in our name in the 1960s and ‘70s; or the Central American death squads paid for by our tax dollars in the 1980s; or the destruction of Middle Eastern civilization and peoples due to a lie told to us in 2003 about an impending “mushroom cloud,” to name a few examples. Our troops and their families have certainly suffered the consequences, but we as a nation have never paid reparations to the countries we have destroyed.

Far better for The Sun to print positive letters that offer a solution to today’s tense international situation, like the one by Charlie Cooper, printed on the same page as the hate-filled letter, that reminds us that while 56 nations have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the U.S. and Russia have not. Let us, for starters, call our congresspersons to sign that treaty and while we are at it, tell them we want diplomacy, not more weapons build-up in Ukraine.

— Margaret Baldridge, Govans

Right to protect unborn outranks right to privacy

In her letter, “Anti-abortion laws direct affront to privacy” (March 23), Usha Nellore asserts that a woman’s right to privacy regarding her health information means that the state has no right to pass anti-abortion laws. But some rights outrank others, Ms. Nellore. The Declaration of Independence declares that “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” are “inalienable” rights, and that governments are instituted among men “to secure these rights.” Science confirms that an unborn child is a separate human being, not an appendage of his or her mother, to be removed by her as she might have her appendix removed. The state has not only a right but a duty to enact laws prohibiting the taking of innocent human life.

— Diane Levero, Nottingham