Letter: Scalia cartoon - disturbing or telling?

ISSUE | ANTONIN SCALIA

Disturbing cartoon

Signe Wilkinson's editorial cartoon was an insult to the memory of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (Wednesday). It depicted a black man in a shirt labeled "Slaves: 3/5th" standing in the rain while the Founding Fathers mourned at Scalia's grave beneath an umbrella labeled "Original Constitution."

Scalia's "originalist" legal philosophy referred to the Constitution as it's now written, not to the original version, which was flawed with respect to slavery. His philosophy is more accurately called "textualism": The law is only what is written. And what is written in the Constitution includes the 13th and 14th Amendments, which gave slaves freedom and the right to vote.

To suggest that Scalia ignored the words of those amendments in his decisions was hopefully an act of ignorance and not shameful intent.

|Anthony P. Schiavo, Lafayette Hill, ant31415@aol.com

Superb message

Signe Wilkinson's cartoon depicting a slave at Justice Antonin Scalia's grave, unprotected by the "Original Constitution," was a wonderful visual answer to those who ask why African Americans are so committed and loyal to the Democratic Party.

Every time I think about a Republican administration - local, state, or federal - that is what I see. How can I support an ideology that seems to wish for the restoration of slavery and my disenfranchisement? One that chastises me for failing to pull myself up by my bootstraps but ignores the fact that I have no boots, much less straps? One that considers access to the most basic needs - food, safety, and decent housing - as something that must be earned? One that considers the marketplace the best determiner of quality in education? One that believes that the only personal belief system that matters - and the only one that should be allowed - is theirs?

I can't.

|Cecily Banks, Philadelphia