Harriet Tubman

In his letter of March 10, Joe Gil relates an incident that occurred in his teacher wife’s classroom. As part of Black History Month, the students were learning about Harriet Tubman, a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. When asked if they could think of something similar in their own experience, several students replied “coyotes.”

Harriet Tubman risked all to help an enslaved people to escape the horror and degradation that existed in one part of the country to the hope and freedom of another part of the same country. We honor her for that. To compare her in any way to the criminal and often vicious coyotes who, for profit, smuggle illegal immigrants across the borders of a sovereign nation is not only absurd, but an insult to the memory of a great woman.

ALEX LANDI

North Hills