Opinion | A Generation of Women Named for Connie Chung
To the Editor:
Re “I Bought My Title From Connie Chung. So Did They,” by Connie Wang (Opinion visitor essay, Might 14), concerning the many Asian ladies named after the TV journalist:
It feels unusual to know that there are such a lot of Asian Connies on the market, all shut in age vary in our 30s and 40s. Nevertheless it’s a very good unusual feeling. It feels as if I’ve serendipitously entered an enormous sisterhood, the place the profound bond amongst us was fashioned by the affect of 1 lady on our moms over 30 years in the past.
In my household, watching Connie Chung host “CBS Night Information” within the early ’90s was a household occasion. There have been barely any Asian faces on TV on the time, not to mention on a significant information program. Connie Chung stood out in each method.
“You may’t be what you’ll be able to’t see.” When Ms. Chung got here on the display, my mother noticed what was attainable for the subsequent technology proper in entrance of her, removed from the sights of Asian ladies working in menial jobs that outlined my mother’s day-to-day life as a brand new immigrant.
So once I instructed Connie as my English identify, my mom favored it straight away. “Preserve it. It’s good, it’s identical to Connie Chung,” she would say. With that alternative of a reputation, my mother had poured all her hopes for me. Little did I do know then that throughout the nation folks had been being named Connie for that exact same purpose.
Occasions are completely different now. There may be much more range within the media and different professions. Whereas we nonetheless have a lot work forward of us, allow us to take a second to have fun this progress.
Connie Wu
San Francisco
To the Editor:
My daughter was adopted from Guangdong Province, China, in 1998 when she was 13 months previous. She has no reminiscence of the next story besides by way of my retelling.
It was a spring afternoon within the yr 2000 on the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, N.C. My toddler and I took our locations on the open-air prepare for a experience by way of the grounds.
“It’s who you suppose it’s,” the ticket taker whispered, nodding over her shoulder. Two seats forward, surrounded by guests, had been Maury Povich and Connie Chung.
Celeb watching prevailed over surroundings and animal sighting throughout that experience. Afterward, as a cluster of holiday makers lingered with Mr. Povich, Ms. Chung strolled forward alone. However not for lengthy. My daughter, not often greater than an inch from my facet, leery of all strangers, let go of my hand and trotted as much as seize Connie’s leg. Stunned, smiling, Ms. Chung lifted my daughter into her arms.
Connie Wang’s fantastic article describes the shock that Ms. Chung expressed when advised: “There are such a lot of of us out right here. Named after you.” One thing about that shock, of not figuring out her impact on others, stays with me.
Anne Toohey
Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Harmful Debt Restrict Debate
To the Editor:
Re “Ignoring the Debt Restrict Would Be Harmful” (Opinion visitor essay, Might 15):
I disagree with my longtime buddy Michael McConnell concerning the politics of the debt ceiling.
After all Congress has the ability of the purse. However the issue right here just isn’t Congress as a complete; it’s a slim majority within the Home. And that majority is managed by a handful of its most excessive members.
The debt ceiling debate is actually not politics as traditional. It’s a risk to destroy the nation’s funds and its place of world management except the Senate and the president give in to that faction’s excessive calls for.
Neither the nation nor the Structure can operate if each choke level within the system of checks and balances is exploited for max leverage with out regard to penalties. If one facet is keen to wreck the economic system except it will get its method, why not each side? If one faction, why not many alternative factions with inconsistent calls for?
The Home, the Senate and the president cut price over spending within the finances and appropriations course of, not by way of threats to destroy the economic system if I don’t get my method.
Douglas Laycock
Charlottesville, Va.
The author is a professor on the College of Virginia Legislation Faculty.
Ron DeSantis, Authoritarian
To the Editor:
The efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to harass Disney for exercising its rights of free speech and to ban books from the classroom that don’t assist his political or racial beliefs are the mark of an authoritarian tyrant. They present that right-wing politicians are the perpetrators, not the victims, of “cancel tradition.”
Republicans ought to think about how they’d react if a Democratic governor retaliated towards an organization for opposing a Democratic program or embarked upon a program to ban conservative books.
This isn’t the type of one who belongs anyplace close to the White Home, and this isn’t the type of individual whom anybody ought to assist. Laborious to consider that Mr. DeSantis attended two superb tutorial establishments — Yale and Harvard Legislation — and realized so little about free speech, democracy and American constitutional values.
David S. Elkind
Greenwich, Conn.
The author is a lawyer.
Forming a Neighborhood With Homeless Neighbors
To the Editor:
“In New York Metropolis, Making the Invisible Seen” (The Story Behind the Story, Might 7) yields a query: To what extent is the psychological sickness we see in homeless folks the results of — not the reason for — their being homeless?
A whole lot of individuals silently move them by every day, turning away, ignoring a hand-held out for a donation. In plain sight, day after day, they reside in public solitary confinement, the type that’s now being attacked within the courts as an inhumane, merciless and strange punishment that usually results in psychological sickness when utilized in prisons.
A civic group I belong to in Florida lately started refurbishing a public park, lengthy referred to as the house of the homeless in our metropolis, by organizing periodic cleanups by volunteers and portray a mural honoring a neighborhood eccentric lady, lengthy lifeless.
After some time, the homeless people started approaching our volunteers and the painter, viewing the artwork after which putting up tentative conversations. One homeless lady turned out to be an newbie painter, and a small portion of the mural was turned over to her to design and paint.
Inside weeks, the homeless frequenting the park started policing it — selecting up trash and chastising individuals who dropped it. And, most essential, collectively and individually, some weird behaviors pale away, changed by social interplay.
I now surprise what the outcomes can be if the general public at massive started acknowledging the homeless, even by saying, “Hiya,” or “I don’t have any money with me right this moment, sorry,” somewhat than merely strolling on.
As somebody who lived in New York Metropolis for 30 years, I do know that the town is crammed with visible-yet-invisible folks and am, frankly, ashamed that I didn’t catch onto this notion earlier.
Stephen Phillips
St. Petersburg, Fla.
U.S. Position in Intercourse Exploitation in South Korea
To the Editor:
Re “South Korea Created a Brutal Intercourse Commerce for American Troopers” (entrance web page, Might 3):
As your article so painfully makes clear, the brutal pressured prostitution of younger and weak South Korean ladies and ladies was triggered not simply by the federal government of South Korea however by the US as properly.
There may be a lot that the U.S. can and will do. It must be paying reparations. The federal government and the armed companies chiefs ought to provide apologies to the ladies who went by way of this and to their households.
And those that are in control of curbing sexual harassment within the navy right this moment ought to redouble their efforts as they develop to grasp simply how systemic sexual assaults and misogyny have been within the armed forces for thus lengthy.
Jean Zorn
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
