I found the recent article “For What It’s Worth,” written by columnist DC Duncan, somewhat confusing.
However, what truly unsettled me was Mr. Camille Cazedessus’s letter, “Misinformation from Mr. Duncan.”
In my view, Mr. Cazedessus rightly points out several factual inaccuracies in Mr. Duncan’s piece, which distort the narrative and make some of his claims come across more as sweeping assertions than carefully considered arguments.
I would also like to highlight a glaring error Mr. Duncan made in his article—one unrelated to current political matters but enough to cast doubt on whether he conducted thorough research before and during his writing. At the start of his column, Mr. Duncan attributes the famous saying, “those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it,” to the great statesman Winston Churchill. In fact, there is little evidence that Churchill ever uttered this phrase. The correct quotation is, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” from George Santayana’s 1905 book The Life of Reason, or The Phases of Human Progress.
That said, I want to acknowledge Mr. Duncan’s valid concerns regarding the current political climate. Many actions taken by the Trump administration have rightly been blocked by the Supreme Court and lower courts for violating laws and the Constitution. Trump’s absurd tariff calculations led to tariffs imposed almost worldwide — including on our allies and even a penguin-inhabited island.
Pointing out Mr. Duncan’s errors does not mean the Trump administration was without fault. From my perspective, I firmly believe Trump’s mistakes were far more numerous and far graver in consequence. To this day, Kilmar Abrego García has not returned to the U.S., and Supreme Court rulings have clearly shown the Trump administration illegally transferred him to a terrifying prison outside American jurisdiction.
Honestly, I was disappointed in the Biden administration as well. But I cannot agree with Mr. Cazedessus’s position, as there is no indication — or reasonable basis to believe — that Trump would have handled matters better than his predecessor. Trump is firing at the very foundations of our democracy, our history, and our education — and we must stand against him.
Finally, I would like to conclude by quoting a Chinese scholar. In an article commemorating Giordano Bruno, who was executed over 400 years ago for adhering to the truth, Mr. Bowen Yang, an insightful scholar, wrote: “A strongly fleeting fire may muzzle a person’s voice and consume a person’s life, but it cannot forever extinguish the sparks of thought, cannot destroy the most precious crystallization of wisdom in human civilization, and cannot stop the reason and freedom that will ultimately break through their shackles.”
Delilah Morris
Denver, CO