19 Comments
User's avatar
Cathi Connelly's avatar

Your words speak Volumes. Mr Katyal I heard you speak in Boston last year. I was profoundly impressed. I hounded my brother, an attorney in DC, to look up your presentation.

As a proud American, please use your incredible knowledge and expertise to have the President removed from office. Our standing within the world needs you NOW

Joyce's avatar

Thank you, Margaret! As a retired college reading instructor who taught comprehension, vocabulary development, and critical thinking/reading skills, I’m grateful for voices like yours. Watching the constant gaslighting, and the glazed-over discouragement and exhaustion of the public, I think most of us just need reassurance that we are not mistaken, and the next step is to SPEAK UP.

US Taxpayer's avatar

An English teacher enforces the constitution when all three branches of government will not. Bravo!

Amy's avatar

Brilliant! šŸ’œ

Linda Cascio McNamara's avatar

Retired French teacher here. Yes, Margaret. Words do matter, especially those in a document as crucial as the Constitution. Take heed, Neal.

This morning, I was bemoaning the fact that our local grocery store's "newsstand" did not have a single copy of a single newspaper on it. Not even the local Buffalo News. Forget about trying to snag a copy of the NYTimes. Doesn't ANYONE read any more?

You can't make sense of words that aren't even available to read. It's like being held responsible for teaching students who are not in their seats. Pas possible.

This country is failing in ways too numerous to count.

Merry's avatar
31mEdited

Exactly. I’m not a ā€œteacherā€ per se. I’m a licensed physician. And throughout my 35 years as a doctor, teaching has always been fundamental and essential to my work. Not only do I educate my patients. I also teach students doctors and colleagues. I also do a lot of research and writing and I create simple, informative hand-out and flyers.

And I’ve always been a voracious reader, including numerous, reputable, national newspapers everyday, which - as you stated - are no longer available.

In any case, I greatly appreciate your comments.

Following is my response to this important post - šŸ‘‡šŸ»

ā€œNeal Katyal is among the best legal scholars in our country.

And YES. Words matter.

And THIS is exactly why EDUCATION MATTERS. The BASICS - reading, writing and arithmetic. Of course those fundamentals can be expanded through more education. But even younger students can be taught how to use commonsense, logic, and how to evaluate information.

But unfortunately, when the primary goal is to ā€œdumb-downā€ a society by cutting funds for public education, then eventually voters become increasingly dependent on who they listen to without the ability to assess the validity of the information they’re being fed. Instead they tend to simply believe what they’re being told.

And that’s exactly what we’re now witnessing in the world according to trump. Uneducated people still get to vote. And it’s also why corrupt, convicted felons who lie with impunity can still be elected as POTUS.ā€

(ā€œBe impeccable with your words.ā€)

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/71463-1-be-impeccable-with-your-word-speak-with-integrity-say)

Linda Cascio McNamara's avatar

Merry,

You have truly hit a nerve in mentioning the prevailing dumbing down of the American populace, starting with Linda McMahon as US Secretary of Education whose primary goal has been to completely dismantle and destroy public education. The sciences, math, languages, art, music, social studies, literature, -and honestly- just thinking, have all become suspect in the eyes of Felon47’s ā€œuneducated.ā€ Why else are they incapable of responding and voting in any way other than as they are told by right-wing media?

I admire your accomplishments in medicine and applaud you for educating those you treat, work with, and instruct in countless ways. You and your honored profession have my utmost respect.

Neal Katyal has long been a voice of reason and legal activism. We should all be grateful for his passion and commitment. I am hopeful he will continue his work and prevail in ways perhaps most of us cannot.

Here on Substack, we may sometimes feel as if we are preaching to the choir, but that in of itself, ought to give us hope. It keeps the flames of resistance alive and leaves each of us feeling a little less alone.

Be well.

Joyce Osburn's avatar

As a teacher/librarian for 35 years I concur with Margaret. Words do matter whether written or spoken. It is time to stop wishing and hoping and do something. Mr. Katyal I have heard your eloquent words and am a great admirer of your legal abilities. As I believe Margaret is implying, it is time to use them. The U.S. Constitution applies to everyone.

Barbara Casey's avatar

"Ring the bells that still can ring" (L. Cohen in Anthem).

B Lynn Adcock's avatar

It does say ā€œor hold any office, civil or military, under the United States…who having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States…

Marjorie's avatar

Thank you for your words. Too many people dance around the disturbing issues we live with every day. Excuses, claims of ignorance, blank stares. That's the norm when asking the current lemmings to comment one of DT's daily word spews. No one wants to go against a tyrant, especially an unhinged tyrant.

US Taxpayer's avatar

Margaret Ellison: Please consider taking this request to the Supreme Court yourself, on behalf of the American citizens. You, and all those who work for a living, are being injured daily as a result of our diminished buying power, constitutional rights, and human rights. Please consider being the plaintiff representing US citizens, et al. Thank you.

Merry's avatar
1hEdited

Neal Katyal is among the best legal scholars in our country.

And YES. Words matter.

And THIS is exactly why EDUCATION MATTERS. The BASICS - reading, writing and arithmetic. Of course those fundamentals can be expanded through more education. But even younger students can be taught how to use commonsense, logic, and how to evaluate information.

But unfortunately, when the primary goal is to ā€œdumb-downā€ a society by cutting funds for public education, then eventually voters become increasingly dependent on who they listen to without the ability to assess the validity of the information they’re being fed. Instead they tend to simply believe what they’re being told.

And that’s exactly what we’re now witnessing in the world according to trump. Uneducated people still get to vote, and it’s also why corrupt, convicted felons who lie with impunity can still be elected as POTUS.

(ā€œBe impeccable with your words.ā€)

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/71463-1-be-impeccable-with-your-word-speak-with-integrity-say

Lynda Phoenix's avatar

I'm with Margaret!

Hound's avatar

In the book 1984 written by George Orwell back in 1949 some people see it as an attack on language. George Orwell called it Newspeak. It was about canceling words and when you cancel words you’re not able to have certain thoughts.

The educational system in America is a farce. A lot of kids can’t even recite the Pledge of Allegiance. They don’t even know the preamble of the constitution nor can they name the three branches of government. They don’t know what the meaning of citizen is. They don’t realize that there is no liberty injustice for all in the United States of corporate criminality.

Kids might get told that we are the greatest country on earth and they will believe it because an adult told them that but it’s a great big giant steaming pile of shit of a lie. If the United States was a great country there would be liberty injustice for all and government for and by the people.

The secret to liberty is an informed population. The way you create tyranny is by keeping people ignorant. Trump said it best when he said how much he loves the poorly educated. And the worst thing about that is that not one single dirty filthy depraved MAGAT was insulted by that remark coming out of the pecker sucking lie hole of the orange menace Donald J Trump.

mary thiel's avatar

I think Katyal, who has argued successfully other cases before the Supreme Court deserves more credit than this. Urge to do better, but don’t accuse him of being remiss. We’re all a bit remiss at times.

Marie vitou's avatar

Good letter but I'm not sure Margaret realizes what the 14th Amendment Section 3 entails. No way 2/3 of both the House and Senate would vote for it. And forget this Supreme Court.

Dr. Sandra K Gangstead's avatar

They might, if they knew that the insane orangeman was planning to disband Congress- just like his hero, Adolf Hitler, destroyed the Weimar Republic’s legislative branch in Germany!!!

Newtonian67's avatar

Scholars and courts have debated whether the clause applies to the presidency itself, given that the text explicitly lists members of Congress, state officers, and electors but does not name "the President".