We Hear You: Teaching Our Children, Taming Woke Moralism, Unpacking Green New Deal
Ken McIntyre /
Editor’s note: The left’s blind appeal for young Americans stirs concern among The Daily Signal’s audience. This week’s mailbag leads off with such comments. Please write us at letters@dailysignal.com.—Ken McIntyre
Dear Daily Signal: Regarding Daniel Davis’s commentary, students are just that—kids in school (“Pulling Young Americans Back From the Brink”). Many of them, the ones doing all the complaining, are spoiled kids whose “educations” are paid for mostly by their parents and grandparents.
How ironic that the parents and grandparents who have sacrificed to send these kids to colleges and universities, so that they may be able to make a better life for themselves, are being labeled by the “professors” at these institutions as racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and consumed by self-interest.
These kids in the pictures “protesting” are getting their 15 minutes of fame. I’m not interested in their phony outrage or all the things that offend them. They haven’t earned the right to be offended.
They, for the most part, have no families to feed, no mortgages to pay, no boss to satisfy, and no income taxes to pay. Most have never served in the armed forces, or put their lives at risk in war zones.
They, like the fool governor of New York, claim that America was “never that great.” What have they ever done to make America great? What has been their contribution?
It is very apparent their contribution has been nothing but complaining about how terrible life in the USA is, and how offended they are.
If these kids are really that angry and disillusioned, there is a simple remedy: Get out, move, find a country that’s better. There is nothing stopping them from doing so, except their own hypocrisy and common sense.—Drew Page
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When I was registering for a few different colleges, the school advisers sent me home with all kinds of financial forms for my parents to fill out.
So I figured I would just do what they told me. My old man’s reaction to filling out all these forms: “Why? I’m not the one going to college.”
Boy, I wished those words would echo through the ears of every college student, professor, and college administrator. Every time we try to fix the problem of the affordability of “higher” education, these professors and administrators raise the price and lower the standards.
No matter what they tell you, a great deal of that hard-earned cash you fork over for education does not go to teaching your child. Many of those teachers don’t want to be anywhere near a classroom.—Wayne Harmon
Daniel Davis writes of young adults: “A recent study showed that 1 out of 5 Americans under the age of 37 do not think Americans should be proud of their history. One out of 5 millennial Americans see the flag as a sign of intolerance and hatred, and 2 out of 5 said it’s OK to burn the flag.”
They don’t know American history or world history. They just know a piece of it that was massaged before being delivered to their impressionable ears, and they bought it hook, line, and sinker without investigating further to see if what they were being taught is true.
This also demonstrates just how bad a job the parents of these young people’s parents did. Many of their parents and grandparents are swamp people with Ivy League educations. Tell you anything?—Curtis Conway
In the ’60s and early ’70s, there was a military draft and you might have been called to fight in a questionable war. Many were, and many made the ultimate sacrifice.
So if these children are so concerned about things they can do, join the military, join the Peace Corps, do regular and consistent volunteer work, or join organizations that provide help to persons in rural areas or inner cities.
To sit on their privileged back sides in the safety of their campus and protest is wholly meaningless as they actually have nothing at risk, unlike when the draft was active.
My guess is that few will do anything that requires any sacrifice. This is why the voting age should be raised again to 21. Or you shouldn’t be able to vote until you can prove you have moved out and are truly on your own, providing for your housing, food, and insurance.—Timothy Dayton
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While there are many stellar teachers, the professors at these universities who spew disdain for the Constitution and the history and pillars of our democracy are likely representative of George Bernard Shaw’s “Maxims for Revolutionists”: “He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches.”
Capitalism has apparently failed them (or they failed at it) and they retreated to the bastion of higher education in an effort to understand why. While there, they encountered others equally disillusioned by the world outside the ivory towers of the Ivy League, to whom they look for leadership.
Doubly ironic, then, that those same institutions are examples of runaway capitalism with stifling tuition to pay exorbitant salaries for deans, coaches, and professors while committing multiple acts of racism in admission policies.—Jonathan Freed
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Davis writes of the survey: “… and a full 14 percent of millennials said America was never a great country to begin with, and never will be.”
Perhaps we should have them do some comparisons? Travel is pretty much a global opportunity for all but the very poor.—Herman Mueller
Waking Up to Woke Moralism
Dear Daily Signal: Ben Shapiro is not wrong in his commentary, “The Woke Moral Panic of Today.” The regressive left, indoctrinated in government-run schools and abetted by the media, has taken to crushing wrong-thinkers in the modern marketplace of ideas we call “social media” like a latter-day Spanish Inquisition.
I choose to be an anachronism in this sterile, hectoring culture. So I’m going to go have a smoke and a drink and watch some “Blazing Saddles,” secure in the knowledge that somewhere, some whiny little Marxist is inexplicably bursting into tears without knowing why.—Edward Morgan
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Shapiro writes: “We’re told that the only proper type of sexual relationship is one initiated via contractual levels of affirmative consent, rather than mere affirmative body language or acquiescence.”
Newsflash to wokescolds: There is a contract for sexual relationships. It’s called “marriage.”—Trisha Swift
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Over the past 50 to 60 years, the only thing minorities of all types have been targeted for is “protected class status” and legislation regulating how nonminorities must deal with them.
“Minorities” have come to include not only black Americans but women, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims, homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals. Plus those who don’t know what gender they are, illegal immigrants, the poor, the disabled, those making the minimum wage, those under 18, and those over 55.
The latest group that leftists wish to include among protected classes are those I refer to as “the perpetually offended.” On the plus side, those who are perpetually offended by one thing or another most likely belong to one of the many protected classes.
Come to think of it, the only people not eligible for “protected class status” are straight, white, employed, Christian males between 18 and 55 who are legal American citizens who don’t belong to the Democrat Party.—Drew Page
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Morality is a standard dictated by the Creator, not defined by anyone else, particularly a comedian such as Louis C.K.
However, the human psyche responds to someone who understands and manipulates it so well.—Curtis Conway
The Price of That Green New Deal
Dear Daily Signal: Those congressmen who support the craziness described in Jarrett Stepman’s commentary obviously have not paid attention in their civics/government or economic classes (“The Green New Deal Is a Trojan Horse for Socialism”).
They have no idea how this
country has developed from colonies to the world’s great economic and freedom
engine that inspires people to want to migrate here. All they have to do is
look at Nordic countries that have turned from the socialist “dream.”
Do they have any idea what goes on in Venezuela?
They should also look at present-day Russia, which went from a monarchy with
little industrialization and an economy based in agriculture to a
Marxist-Leninist dictatorship and then into communism, and enslaved its
population.
Even though the Soviet Union has disappeared, Russia’s limited experiment with democracy has been crushed by those who still strive to maintain a semblance of the old order.
Cuba is another model that they should examine closely. Even if you are a small business in Cuba, your money has to be converted to Cuban pesos. If you work in the hospitality industry, which is widely owned by the army and government, you turn in your dollars for Cuban money. Look at how those people are suffering.
Part of the problem in the U.S. is that those who flirt with socialism have lacked the education in civics/government and economics that we had prior to our reliance on standardized test scores, and the result that we now teach to the test.
My personal mantra is, if you don’t like our economic and political system, get out of the country and move to a socialist one.—William Downey
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Who are the morons, the imbeciles, the idiots who vote for these radical left-wingers such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and their ilk?
If American voters were not so easily deceived by the liberal propaganda fomented by the mainstream media, we would not be facing this kind of garbage. Wake up, America.—Bruce L. Godzi
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This is a clever attempt to cover the massive fraud and those responsible for it. Ocasio-Cortez clearly lacks the depth and know-how to do her own research; by simple extension, this is an attributable trait of this generation that expects something for nothing.
A very contentious battle between silicon and graphene took place in the ’70s in industry manufacturing of solar panels, and guess which one is more expensive? Clearly, globalism did not want poor people to afford free energy when power grids are so much more profitable.
Yet now, graphene—a product of coal—is being explored in nanotechnology, as it does not generate the heat that silicone does.
Ocasio-Cortez proposes cutting our own throats, as leaping without looking is the foolhardy trait of reckless youth.—Denise Perez
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For multiple decades, American academia made the American Founding appear to be based upon slavery and evil; socialism and communism have been lauded and upheld as the social ideal that America needs to heal itself.
American academia promoted an unworkable ideal as the solution to all of America’s “past misdeeds and shameful history,” as though the USA had invented slavery.
That has been the underlying cause of what is now wrong throughout the entirety of American culture. And modern Democrats are now in full cooperation with those false assumptions, false premises, and real goals.—Herbert G. Branch, Easton, Md.
Walter Williams on What Ails Black America
Dear Daily Signal: No one has ever improved his or her situation or that of their future descendants by lifelong dependence on welfare, as Walter Williams affirms in his commentary (“The Worst Enemy of Black People”). It is only by moving beyond dependency that one can begin to improve that situation.
I live in “flyover country,” where our values are often seen as outdated by the coastal elites. We have a work requirement for welfare here, which requires work or training in exchange for welfare for many recipients.
However, the program allows those who are exempt the option to opt in. Unfortunately, more people want to opt in than the program can handle, and the wait for opting in is up to a year.
Imagine if, instead of spending money fighting these requirements, liberals spent the money on expanding the program to reach all who want help with getting off welfare. Liberals will never buy into our belief that people want a hand up, not a handout.—Anna Clare
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Thank you to Walter Williams for his commentary. I always appreciate the gems and pearls of history that he blesses us with. May 2019 open many eyes through his efforts.—Theresa Rodriguez
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Walter Williams doesn’t disappoint.
I read Malcolm X’s autobiography and I ended up liking him. He was a racist against whites, then through inquisitiveness, travel, and education, learned that the real enemy was liberalism, whether it comes from blacks or whites.
Malcolm X was dangerous to their power-grabbing scam, so they killed him. That’s what you get for stepping off the liberal plantation.—Joey Smith
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Booker T. Washington was an outstanding American. Take the time to look up information concerning the philosophical debates between Washington and W.E.B. DuBois a bit over 100 years ago—what a contrast.
For those not familiar with DuBois, who many African-Americans practically deify, he was a socialist-turned-communist, who renounced his American citizenship and died a broken man in Ghana. He was very elitist, and preached about the “Talented 10th.”
DuBis also was on very friendly terms with Margaret Sanger (of Planned Parenthood fame), an avowed racist who wanted to limit the number of black babies being born.
Seek truth, use facts, and curb emotionalism. And just maybe black America can free itself from the Democratic Party’s shackles.—Frank Schaddelee
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The only problem that blacks in America have is their own party, the far-left, communist Democrat Party of Jim Crow laws.
Rational people don’t expect common sense and rationality from the media, NAACP, Southern Poverty Law Center, Antifa terrorists, and the Black Lives Matter terrorists. And that will never happen.
As a group, blacks support Democrats by 90 to 95 percent. These are some of the insane facts:
—The vast majority of slave owners were Democrats, and several slave owners were black themselves.
—The Ku Klux Klan was founded and populated by Democrats.
— The Emancipation Proclamation was set forth by a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, and opposed by Democrats.
—Jim Crow laws were instituted and enforced by Democrats.
—The Civil Rights Act never would have passed if it weren’t for Republicans who voted for it in larger numbers than the Democrats.
—Sens. Albert Gore Sr. of Tennessee and J. William Fulbright of Arkansas filibustered the Civil Rights Act. Fulbright became one of Bill Clinton’s mentors.
—The people who stood in front of the doors of schools and universities in the South in the ’60s, ordering the use of fire hoses and dogs to keep out black children, were Democrats. Bull Connor, Lester Maddox, and George Wallace were all Democrats.
—Margaret Sanger, a Democrat, started Planned Parenthood as a way to control the black population.
—Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a Democrat and longtime KKK member, opposed civil rights legislation in the 1960s. He characterized Martin Luther King Jr. as a “troublemaker” and impenitently used the N-word on TV as late as 2001.
And yet blacks vote for Democrats year after year after year after year.—Bob Shoemaker
What Ben Carson Has to Say
Dear Daily Signal: Dr. Ben Carson, interviewed on your podcast, is the most focused person I have heard in decades, and I have seen many decades (“Ben Carson’s Prescription for a Better Life”).
I am very glad that the president named Dr. Carson as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Whose background has more proof that the correct way of doing things is a catalyst for spreading around the way out of devastation? God bless him.—Karin Callaway, Florida
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What a wonderful interview with Ben Carson. So informative and so uplifting. I will save this and refer back to it, if only for a breath of inspiration and hope.
We once used HUD to provide affordable housing. But with the past administration, it was a nightmare–so full of the wrong people.
We have prayed for Dr. Carson in his many challenges. And God is with him. Knowing we are blessed to have a leader like Dr. Carson revives my hope in our country.
I will send the interview to all my friends to enjoy. I have been wondering what Dr. Carson is up to, and now I see why the fake media has ignored and neglected him.
But this is the very reason I am a member of The Heritage Foundation. Never forget who you influence and inform.—Shirley Sclafani
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I cannot tell you how refreshing the Ben Carson interview was. Golly, that helps my spirit and, I believe, the spirit of everyone who read it.
Up to this point, I was thinking maybe we should get our Cabinet positions back to the original three plus maybe Justice. So we’d be back to State, Defense, and Treasury. I then add Justice, Environment, and now one I’d entitle EnVision (Human Services).
Ben Carson was my original choice for president. I hope he’s right about President Trump, as I always feel we’re one tweet away from disaster. Nothing and nobody could possibly be as bad as this administration and president have been portrayed.
Thank you for your efforts. I love The Daily Signal and The Heritage Foundation. They rank right up there with my favorite, Hillsdale College. Talk about a lot of bang for the buck.—Jeff Parker, Greenville, S.C.
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At some point, it should be made more public that HUD was a major cause of the financial crisis.
It’s a very different place under Ben Carson. But back in the 2000s, HUD officials were forcing lower lending standards (caused the housing bubble) and prompting Fed-controlled banks such as Fannie and Freddie to buy or write millions of subprime mortgages, which was illegal, so HUD authorized them to simply change the name from subprime.
So millions of subprime loans were not recorded as such and destroyed the ratings of trillions of securities. It’s easier for the left just to blame the “evil” banks.
I grew up in a small city, in a half-black and half-white neighborhood. It was never a black or white thing. My friends had Irish, German, African, Italian, and Scottish roots.
Virtually all of us had two-parent families and were raised with discipline. Almost everyone became a success. That was in the ’50s and ’60s, before the left decided that they wanted to own blacks. To make them dependents, to assure their vote.
The left also started the “whites are oppressors” narrative, that when you fail, it’s due to racism and not your horrendous life choices.
Go look at the stats on how blacks were catching up fast by the end of Jim Crow and how, since the Democrats took charge, we’ve seen the greatest retrogression in U.S., or maybe world, history. They destroyed half of black America.
Painting rural whites, conservatives, gun owners, GOP voters, white Christians, etc., with a single, broad brush is like saying that all blacks are criminals, all Jews are cheap, and all women are delicate.
I spent a lifetime being told that we were individuals, only to have the left turn into a massive hate group.—Anthony Alafero
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This podcast showcases Ben Carson extremely favorably. I donated to his presidential campaign, then concluded he was too kind a man to survive national politics.
If the nation would have him, we might be saved.—Greg Brown
The Wall and the Government Shutdown
Dear Daily Signal: You keep publishing articles stating Chuck Schumer voted for this at the southern border, Hillary Clinton voted for this, this one voted for this, and so on.
Please publish the name of every congressman and senator and what they voted for on the border, word for word. It is all in the public record, but John/Jane Q. Public (me included) doesn’t know how to access the public record to obtain these specific congressional voting records.
This would be proof positive that Democrats as well as Republican did, in fact, vote for better border protection. Then every time one of them tweets against Donald Trump concerning border protection, we could tweet the link to the appropriate vote in response.
It might take a lot of real Americans to battle the fake and misleading tweets, but if the links are available and cannot be challenged, real Americans can win this war.
Why do we allow our border patrol and police officers, as well as average Americans, to be murdered by illegal aliens? Enough is enough.—Wayne Dula, Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.
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I think Heritage Foundation policy analyst David Inserra missed the point on border security and only at the end of the podcast urged all Americans to support the president (“Do Walls Work?“).
For the person who did not get to the end, his talk sounded like a person from the left.
Consider that properties often have walls around them. It isn’t that people think their wall is insurmountable. They usually have locks on their doors, too. It isn’t that locks can’t be picked.
These things are deterrents, and definite signs that if you trespass them, you are engaging in criminal activity.
No border is foolproof. Criminals spend a lot of time figuring out how to enter places they are not supposed to be.
Walls do work. By Inserra’s own admission, people simply go around a stretch of wall to a place where none exists, and cross there. Look at the Berlin Wall. It worked. It’s exactly because people go around walls to a place where none exists that we need barriers.
The main point is that Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and others have voted for walls in the past. They know it is necessary. Why are they opposing it now?
Drug cartels put drugs on small boats and float them into San Diego. There are tunnels that drug cartels use to bring drugs into the U.S. Why would they risk a port of entry?
Why would illegal immigrants, some of whom become killers, go to Canada to get into the U.S. when it has been so easy to get in over the southern border? Motives for opposing Trump are the real issue. Look at those.—Andrea Anderson, Los Angeles
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President Trump’s Oval Office appeal to America was completely on point, followed immediately by obvious, uncaring, liberal, hateful retaliation.
Two summers ago, we visited the libraries of Presidents Andrew Jackson and Abe Lincoln. We were stunned to learn that both of these presidents were presented by the media of their day as incompetents from backwoods Hicksville.
They both (as did our current president) came from nowhere to acquire our nation’s highest office, bypassing all acceptable insider processes to deserve that office. Today, these media attacks continue with our current president, Donald Trump.
Lincoln became one of our nation’s greatest presidents only after he was assassinated. His elevation to presidential greatness is thankfully supported by his historical record, as I propose will occur with Trump when the historical record is eventually written.
It takes amazing courage or fortitude to ignore the screaming hornet’s nest, yet remain totally focused on initiating policies or agendas that are best for our nation’s longevity. How amazingly blessed we are to have this great American leader in our nation at this critical time.—Ron Dale, Idaho
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I feel for the people who didn’t have a job to do during the partial government shutdown. However, I did not hear the outcry for those who lost their jobs under the Obama administration, which lasted for most of his time in office.
Understood, the economy was not the best when Obama took office. However, he did not put policies in place to create a good economy. There were a lot of people who lost their homes, cars, and insurance. People had to go on food stamps and welfare to make it. Some never recovered.
In the private sector, we don’t have the luxury of not being able to be fired. We are not given days off from work to celebrate national holidays. Most private sector workers do not get retroactive pay because something has happened in the work place. We all have to be prepared for times like these, even those who work for the government.—Bonnie Wyne, Fredericksburg, Va.
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If the government shutdown taught us anything, it’s that a significant portion of the federal job force is as nonessential as their status during the furlough.
If Trump is serious about draining the swamp, he can’t ignore the fact that a large portion of these federal employees have waged a guerrilla war against his administration from before he was even sworn in.
Maybe it’s time to play chess while the Democrats are stuck in another boring game of checkers.
Private sector unemployment is at record lows. It’s a great time to look for a new job. Trump should direct his Cabinet to identify unnecessary or duplicative positions revealed by the shutdown and downsize them.
If nothing else, it will save taxpayers money. And who knows, it might even bring Democrats to the negotiating table.—Cody Callahan, Montana
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Many in my community and circle of friends support President Trump and pray he will continue to stand strong on the wall, even if it means a long government shutdown. Thank you for all you are doing, Mr. Trump.— Nancy Rettinger, Georgetown, Pa.
How Are We Doing?
Dear Daily Signal: Your information and coverage is extremely important to all Americans who have the freedom and ability to think for themselves. The Daily Signal has been and is responsible for presenting the news in a responsible, unbiased manner.
I am being informed of national and international situations as they occur. I am seeing and living the effects these situations have on me, a patriotic American, and on all Americans.
The Daily Signal keeps me abreast of news, which allows me to form my own opinions–the true test of responsible and unbiased news reporting. The Daily Signal accomplishes this true test every day.—Norman R. Noftsger, Rapid City, S.D.
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The Daily Signal is a big part of my day. Articles are routinely forwarded to friends and family. Articles are read before I start my day of work. Articles in The Daily Signal are the single most important benefit of being a member of The Heritage Foundation, in my opinion.
I don’t know what a podcast is, and I am in no hurry to find out what one is. I read books, newspapers, magazines, and articles in emails and websites. The clickbait in The Daily Signal for podcasts disappoint me. I really want the information advertised in the banner, but have no interest in going somewhere else to get it.
It took a while to get through The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, Second Edition, but I did it at a great expense of time and effort. I was rewarded with knowledge and insight into the Constitution that is not available anywhere else in an accessible format. Thank you very much for making this book available to members; it is a gift that I am truly grateful for.
Few people today take the time to read well-written and well-thought-out articles pertaining to current events. Only in print can the author express their thoughts and only in print can I interpret their thoughts.
Case in point, I read over a dozen books a year but sit though maybe four movies a year. The former is accurate and reliable, and the latter is entertainment. Each has its place. Thank you, and keep up the good work.—Vic Burri, Washington
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I enjoy reading articles that help me make better voting decisions.
The deep state has hamstrung millions of us Americans with taxes and interest rates and deception to the nth degree. We are living from SSI check to SSI check, and we don’t have the ability to hold the Democrats accountable.
I will donate at some point.—Garry Wormwood, Spokane Valley, Washington
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I read your articles for another point of view. However, many of the articles include false information that is only believable by the Kool-Aid drinkers of the Republican Party.
You need more editorial control or your stories will simply become ridiculous.—Steven Lister
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I am 73 and now the eldest member of my family. I enjoy reading your articles, especially since they don’t hype junk but rather report the facts. I also like some of your opinion pieces.—John Quigley, Brackettville, Texas
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Thank you guys so much for all your news. We want news, and not just negative, horrible, bad news 24/7. Yours is how news is supposed to be.
Thank you and God continue to bless your work to correctly inform the citizens of the U.S.—Joy S., Florida
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Never fake news. Keep up the great work.—Gary Nelson
Thank you for your timely news.— Hector Rivero
Two thumbs up.— Luis Uribe
Keep the truth coming.— Don Chisholm
Courtney Joyner and Sarah Sleem helped to compile this week’s edition of “We Hear You.”