S A T U R D A Y, O C T O B E R 5 , 2 0 1 9 . T H E W A S H I N G T O N P O S T EZ RE A
Free For All
The Sept. 23 Metro article “In 19th-century Alexandria,
cruelty was their business” did a good job in telling the story
of the 19th-century slave-trading cruelty that was a success-
ful business in Alexandria. Finally, we are able to read about
how the most prominent slave traders in American history
not only greatly profited from their brutal business but also
were accepted by society then, and their reputations
remained intact for generations. Until now.
However, the article overlooked one very notable post-script to the story: how those slave-trading offices eventually
became in 1996 the headquarters of the Northern Virginia
Urban League. I served for almost a decade on the board of
NVUL, and our meetings were held, literally and figuratively,
over the remains of the slave prison in the basement below, a
true spin of poetic justice if ever there were one.
Steve Meyerson, Arlington
The writer was a member of the board of directors of the
Northern Virginia Urban League from 2000 to 2012.RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST
The exterior of the former Franklin and Armfield Slave Office, now the Freedom House Museum, in Alexandria.Regarding the Sept. 21 Politics &
the Nation article “Biggest Arctic ex-
ploration in history heads to the
North Pole”:
I applaud the efforts of these scien-
tists and coverage by The Post.
But there was no mention of the
first polar expedition to do this:
Fridtjoh Nansen’s Fram expedition
sailed from 1893 to 1896. The Fram
and crew remained icebound for
more than two years. There were no
icebreakers, no rotations of scientists
or resupplies, and no possibility of
rescue. There was not even science to
ensure their controversial idea was
achievable or survivable. Success and
great contributions to the new field of
oceanography were made.
Please, we all stand on the shoul-
ders of giants. Let’s give them their
due.
Paul Jarris, SpringfieldOn giants’
shoulders
I admire Tom Toles’s work as a political
cartoonist and always have. As a Christian, I
wish he hadn’t fueled a widespread misconcep-
tion about the Ten Commandments in his
Sept. 19 editorial cartoon. (This misperception,
sadly, exists even among some Jews and Chris-
tians.)
To wit: There is no commandment that reads:
“Thou shalt not lie.”
The only commandment that relates to truth-
telling at all is No. 8: “Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor.”
The authors of the Old Testament knew it was
neither unrealistic nor unreasonable to forbid
people from committing murder, theft or adul-
tery, but no one can live a normal human life
without telling a certain number of lies along the
way.
Accusing another person of wrongdoing of
which the accuser knows the accused is not
guilty is an entirely different order of ethical
offense, hence the prohibition.
President Trump is morally odious not because
he has lied in his life (who hasn’t?) but because he
lies frequently, even about matters that are, in
themselves, of little importance. (Witness the
size-of-the-inaugural-crowd nonsense and the
recent Alabama hurricane debacle.)
An artist as imaginative as Toles can certain-
ly get plenty of creative mileage out of this
repellent character trait without doing violence
to the Decalogue.
Thomas Anthony DiMaggio, York, Pa.Face it. Thou shalt lie.
Regarding the Sept. 18 front-page obituary for
Cokie Roberts, “Pioneer, champion of women in
media”:
Ever prescient, first lady Betty Ford asked Cokie
Roberts to deliver Ford’s imminent eulogy. President
Gerald R. Ford had served in the House with Rep. Hale
Boggs (D-La.), Roberts’s father, and the two men were
great friends. They were able to put aside their
political differences and enjoy each other’s company,
often at the end of the workday. Betty Ford noticed
how Washington was losing this atmosphere and the
moniker “City of Conversations” was waning. She
asked Roberts to address this troubling trend of party
enmity and to implore the baby boomers to put aside
their differences and follow the lead of her husband
and Roberts’s father. Roberts certainly embodied that
spirit in her professional life. One could always count
on her to deliver a most objective report on events
occurring in either political party. She will be missed.
Rand Moorhead, Birmingham, Mich.This summer, I had the privilege of attending
what was to be one of Cokie Roberts’s last public
events. Joined by her husband, Steve Roberts, at a
forum hosted by the Robert C. Byrd Center for
Congressional History, she engaged the audience with
many of her personal and professional memories.
Often laced with humor, her recollections wereinspirational and loaded with insight about both the
past and current state of politics. She charmed and
enlightened a packed auditorium of eager listeners.
After the event, I had the chance to tell her about
our newly organized Bonnie and Bill Stubblefield
Institute for Civil Political Communications at Shep-
herd University. She encouraged me to make it a
success because the need was so great for Americans
to relearn the importance of healthy and meaningful
(“civil”) debate. We can learn a lot of lessons from
Roberts’s principled and tenacious but always fair
approach to covering the news. The Stubblefield
Institute will not forget her high-minded example.
David R. Welch, Shepherdstown, W.Va.
The writer is director of the Bonnie and
Bill Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political
Communications at Shepherd University.Kitty Eisele’s Sept. 22 Outlook essay, “Cokie
Roberts loved being in the know, and not just because it
was her job,” called Roberts “a centrifugal force, pulling
into her orbit Washington’s greenrooms and hearing
rooms, its church aisles and carpools, its unsung
women and kids and elders and friendships spanning
generations and party lines, in a place that, every year,
feels more balkanized.” Centrifugal force pushes away
from the center. Eisele meant centripetal force.
Hank Wallace, WashingtonCokie Roberts was a force for civility
MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST
Journalist and author Cokie Roberts at her home in Bethesda on Feb. 5.“Nancy” is a beloved character from my childhood
but hardly an apt replacement for “The Knight Life.”
Keith Knight, with his German wife and two kids, is
a delight, insightful at times, always crazy. I sincere-
ly hope this is one of thousands of letters requesting
the return of “Knight Life.”
Gretchen Dunn, New Carrollton“Nancy” outlived any humor she ever had, if she
ever had any at all. Get rid of the strip; it’s a waste of
ink and paper.
Peter Zimmerman, Great FallsI am disgusted with losing “The Knight Life” and
The Post running the tired, old, irrelevant “Nancy.”
I’ve ignored half of the comics section for a while
now. Whom is The Post trying to reach?
Roger L. Powell, Fairfax CityThey loved ‘The Knight Life’; ‘Nancy,’ not so much
KEITH KNIGHTPanels from the “Knight Life” comic on Sept. 15.
Keith Knight has ended production of the strip.The Sept. 17 Style article “The trickiest tango yet
on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ ” devoted a lot of ink to
its implied criticism of “Dancing With the Stars”
producers having included former White House
press secretary Sean Spicer as a contestant on the
show. All Spicer ever did to merit media scorn was
tell a bunch of whoppers on behalf of President
Trump. The article overlooked the notoriety of
fellow “Dancing With the Stars” contestant Ray
Lewis, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in
2000 in connection with a nightclub brawl that
resulted in two stabbing deaths. The Post should not
lampoon Spicer without mentioning Lewis. Can
anyone at The Post write without a political slant?
Charles Sullivan, GaithersburgThe politics of DWTS
Poetic justice
The Sept. 23 Metro article “Poll finds support for
more school funding, little awareness of plan to do
so” stated that 77 percent of residents say they have
heard nothing at all about the Kirwan report.
If this is the case, why was the article buried on
Page B4 in the Metro section? Placing the article on
the front page of the section would have brought
needed light to the report, its origins and ultimate
goals of bettering education in Maryland. I look
forward to reading more in-depth articles about the
Kirwan report and, as also stated in the article,
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) plans to deny
funding for its important initiatives.
Jack Hume, Silver Spring
One way to raise awareness
The Sept. 13 news article “After Politico report,
Israel denies it set up spying devices in Washington”
stated that Jonathan Pollard “was a former U.S. Navy
analyst who was found guilty of spying for Israel in
the 1980s and spent three decades in jail. He was
freed in 2015 by President Barack Obama, but his
fate remains a source of discontent for Israelis, with
the United States continuing to refuse his request to
immigrate to Israel.” The decision to parole Pollard
after 30 years was made by the sentencing judge in
1987, when Ronald Reagan was president, and by the
U.S. Parole Commission in 2015. “Mandatory parole”
after 30 years was the applicable law for Pollard’s
“life sentence.” Bringing Obama (or any other presi-
dent) into it only stokes the confusion already in too
many American minds.
George Diffenbaucher, Alexandria
Don’t bring Obama into this
Regarding the Sept. 18 front-page article “New
focus on crowd size as Warren rally rivals Trump’s”:
I’m sorry to say that in just the first paragraph
I was aware of a possible note of unseemly political
bias. I refer to where it said “the newly elected
president instructed his minions to exaggerate the
size of his inauguration crowds.”
While he might indeed have done that, I think the
loaded word “minions” should not have been
used. Does Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), a candi-
date for the Democratic nomination for president,
have “minions”? Does former vice president Joe
Biden — or even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)? I’m sure
most campaigns have operatives who could be so
described. Another term would be “flunkies.” But we
use the word “minions” to express our contempt for
such people, and especially for their bosses. Such
language does appear to reflect a certain contempt.
Peter Kenny, Glenn Dale
Why ‘minions’ are bad news
Facts do matter, even trivial ones. In describing
the state dinner for the Australian prime minister on
the evening of Sept. 20, the Sept. 21 Style article
“Brushing off controversy to wine and dine,” said, “It
was the perfect early autumn weather for a night in
the Rose Garden.” Actually, it was the perfect late-
summer weather, because fall did not begin until
Sept. 23.
David Sherer, Chevy Chase
Meanwhile, it’s spring in Australia
Regarding Richard Cohen’s Sept. 24 op-ed, “This
is my last column. I’ve been lucky.”:
I will miss Cohen’s columns. I may not always have
agreed with him, but I found his work to be well
argued and thought-provoking. I found his empha-
sis on luck to be interesting. There is a saying that
luck is the just and inevitable reward for the skillful.
I think this applies here.
Bob Rhodes, Richmond
Well-earned ‘luck’
For the love of all that is good and holy, can
The Post bring back Dr. Gridlock? It’s not as though
traffic has gotten better since he unfortunately
disappeared from the paper’s pages.
Andy Gefen, Bethesda
Lost without ‘Dr. Gridlock’
ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES FOR HARRAHS ENTERTAINMENTSteve Carell and Minions, not minions.
ERIK S LESSER/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCKAustralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and
President Trump at the Sept. 20 state dinner.
SETH PERLMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESSTOM TOLES/THE WASHINGTON POSTBONNIE JO MOUNT/THE WASHINGTON POST
Researchers hike in April in Alaska
to prepare for their upcoming year-
long Arctic expedition.I find it ironic that while climate-change issues
are covered frequently on the front page, a Local
Living article on Halloween promoted buying more
plastic throwaway garbage [“Halloween is scary
expensive. Try these saving tips.,” Home, Sept. 26].
Halloween junk should be pulled back, not ramped
up in this generation. It’s not a buy-and-give-plastic-
to-everyone way of life anymore.
Do the right thing. Encourage respect and respon-
sibility for a better way of life.
Lynda Dendtler, RestonScary Halloween advice
Regarding M. Carrie Allan’s excellent Sept. 18
Spirits article “Want to cause a stir? Talk about
martinis.” [Food]:
Let me correct or clarify a popular misconception,
even among bartenders. Martinis may be prepared
dry, sweet or perfect. In this context, “perfect” has
nothing to do with perfection but is the term used
for a middle ground between dry and sweet. Theratio of gin to vermouth has nothing to do with it. A
martini mixed with gin and dry vermouth is a dry
martini. One mixed with gin and sweet vermouth is
a sweet martini. One mixed with gin and both dry
and sweet vermouth is called a perfect martini.
Again, quantity is irrelevant. Also, garnishes (olives,
twist, etc.) change nothing, with the exception of a
garnish of a pearl onion. Then the drink is called a
Gibson. When garnished with a small potato, it is
called a Polished Gibson.
Bryon Stiftar, SpringfieldJust give it to us straight