<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-the-editor/2019-02-05/letter-the-editor-duckworth-breaks-oath-with-vote.html">http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-the-editor/2019-02-05/letter-the-editor-duckworth-breaks-oath-with-vote.html</a></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-title" id="gmail-page-title" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:15px 0px 0px;font-size:2.5em;font-family:Oswald,sans-serif;line-height:1.1;color:rgb(51,51,51);padding-top:4px;border-top-width:9px;border-top-style:solid;border-top-color:rgb(34,34,34)">Letter to the Editor | Duckworth breaks oath with vote</h1><div id="gmail-content-content" class="gmail-clear-block" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><div class="gmail-col-md-12" style="box-sizing:border-box;min-height:1px;padding-right:15px;padding-left:15px;float:left;width:710px"><div id="gmail-node-1673075" class="gmail-node" style="box-sizing:border-box"><form id="gmail-bookmark" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px"></form><span class="gmail-submitted" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Oswald,sans-serif;margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:10px">Tue, 02/05/2019 - 4:15am | <a href="http://www.news-gazette.com/users/digitalmedia" title="View user profile." style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(19,41,75);text-decoration:none;background-position:0px 0px">The News-Gazette</a></span><div class="gmail-p402_premium" style="box-sizing:border-box"><div class="gmail-content" style="box-sizing:border-box"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth's vote for S.1, the "Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act," is a Constitutional disgrace.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">This legislation will encourage state and local governments to restrict Americans' right to free speech, a right that all members of Congress take an oath to protect.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">The time-honored sanction of boycotts was used in Montgomery, Ala., South Africa and currently in Iran, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela, Syria and many places around the globe — purportedly to pressure governments to become more democratic and more humane, at least that's what successive administrations and Congresses have told Americans.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">Whether this is what our government should be doing (or actually is doing) is left for other debates.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">This letter asks: Why has Duckworth hypocritically voted to restrict Americans' right to use boycotts to fight Palestinian oppression, the same boycotts the U.S. uses across the globe?</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">Duckworth's support of S.1 demonstrates her contempt for democratic freedoms. It violates her oath to uphold the Constitution.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">How can Duckworth vote against the very freedoms at home that she presumably fought for in Iraq?</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">Emma Lazarus, whose sonnet "The New Colossus" is engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, also wrote: "Until we are all free, we are none of us free." Duckworth's vote is insensible to understanding freedom, or she just doesn't care about some people, which amounts to racism.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">She allows liberal use of sanctions everywhere but Palestine. This makes her motives and actions suspect.</p><div class="gmail-insertAdRight" style="box-sizing:border-box;float:right;margin:10px;clear:both"><div id="gmail-div-gpt-ad-1392329065879-20" style="box-sizing:border-box;text-align:center;margin:0px auto;width:300px;height:250px"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/4073248/NG_Stories_MR_0__container__" style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0pt none"></div></div></div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">SHERI DALEY</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">Champaign</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.2em;font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:1.5em">===</p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">===</div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Robert Reuel Naiman<br>Policy Director<br>Just Foreign Policy<br><a href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">www.justforeignpolicy.org</a><br><a href="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">naiman@justforeignpolicy.org</a><br><div><span style="text-align:left">(202) 448-2898 x1</span></div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>