To the Editor:
Re “Biden and the Messiness of Being Human,” by Patti Davis (Opinion visitor essay, Dec. 30):
In America, we nonetheless typically refuse to acknowledge that getting old and demise are inevitable. So long as we proceed to insist that we’re “simply wonderful,” and naturally we can have good days and unhealthy days, we do ourselves an infinite disservice as a result of we don’t plan for what occurs as our capabilities diminish, to not point out what occurs after we’re lifeless.
Within the case of President Biden, this denial has put our whole nation, and by extension the world, in jeopardy. I’ve a tough time feeling compassion for Mr. Biden and his “handlers” below these circumstances, and I’m skilled within the artwork of gentleness and compassion.
Whereas I personally want Mr. Biden all the perfect, I’m mad at him, too. He has carried out our nation an infinite disservice.
Mitzi Schwarz
Los Angeles
The author is a hospice chaplain and a cantor.
To the Editor:
Patti Davis’s essay about President Biden was so delicate and so fantastically written that I felt tears welling up inside me as I learn it. I’m a Biden admirer, however have been churned up by his denial of the realities of his scenario — and much more so by the obvious blindness of his household relative to what appears to me a clearly accelerating decline in his psychological acuity and his bodily stamina. Patti’s phrases make me extra empathetic.
Suzanne Farnham
Baltimore
To the Editor:
I don’t blame President Biden. He’s behaving usually for somebody declining as he ages. I blame journalists for not investigating the rumors, which had been well-known, about his decline.
The media selected to cowl these rumors as G.O.P. smears and/or excuse him as only a kindly older gentleman who has minor reminiscence lapses. This portrayal successfully hid his decline from People, who relied on the media to tell them truthfully.
Andrea Economos
Hartsdale, N.Y.
To the Editor:
I used to be so heartened to learn Patti Davis’s ideas about President Biden’s final 12 months in workplace, in addition to her reminiscences of her father, President Ronald Reagan. Having misplaced my mother a 12 months in the past to dementia, I clearly recall the sharp pangs of loss, frustration and doubt as Mother slowly succumbed to that terrible illness. She additionally had “good days” and “unhealthy days” earlier than her prognosis.
Like Ms. Davis, I imagine that every one of us, no matter our political beliefs, want to create space in our hearts and minds to keep in mind that our leaders and their households are additionally human beings — on journeys that aren’t not like our personal.
For all of the name-calling and vitriol, I’m satisfied that so many people People are discovering methods to attach in kindness with each other each single day. We don’t do ourselves any favors by lowering the “different aspect” to a monolith that carries all our blame and hatred.
Regardless of how we fall on the political spectrum, let’s discover a strategy to prolong the identical grace to those that lead our nation. Sure, we’re all messy and sophisticated; valuing the humanness in one another is essential to our nation’s therapeutic course of.
Beth Cullinan
Blacklick, Ohio
A Peaceable Jan. 6, Not like 4 Years In the past
To the Editor:
Re “Peace, Not Mobs, as Ritual Seals Trump’s Victory” (entrance web page, Jan. 7):
I compelled myself to observe the joint session of Congress certify the election of Donald Trump and JD Vance as president and vice chairman of the USA. I watched because the president of the Senate, Kamala Harris, and loser to the convicted felon, introduced the outcomes of the certification. Though I believe that she was shaking inside, she did her responsibility and upheld her oath to the Structure.
The distinction between this Jan. 6 second and that terrible day 4 years in the past was stark and miserable, however was additionally uplifting in that the Democrats, and particularly Ms. Harris, ensured that there could be a peaceable switch of energy.
My hope is that Mr. Trump will view this validation of the rule of legislation as an indication of unity and bipartisanship for the nation, however hey, I’m talking in regards to the instigator of the 2021 rebel. Hope springs everlasting.
Henry A. Lowenstein
New York
To the Editor:
Did you see the best way the soiled, nasty, radical Democrats tried to storm the Capitol on Monday — assaulting law enforcement officials with American flagpoles, bear spray and golf equipment — to cease the certification of the 2024 presidential election and intervene with the peaceable switch of energy?
Neither did I.
Mark Sarconi
Lafayette, Calif.
The Palestinians’ Future
To the Editor:
Re “The Case for Hope for Palestinians,” by Khaled Elgindy (Opinion visitor essay, Jan. 6):
Like Mr. Elgindy, I yearn for a greater future for the Palestinian individuals. Not like him, I don’t view the worldwide protest motion, Worldwide Legal Court docket rulings or Worldwide Court docket of Justice instances as causes for hope.
The one occasion that may grant Palestinians the liberty and dignity they deserve is the Israeli individuals — and they’ll accomplish that solely when they’re satisfied that Palestinians are prepared to dwell peacefully with them as neighbors.
The Palestinian nationwide motion has failed for the previous century as a result of it refuses to come back to phrases with the equally legit claims of the Jewish nationwide motion for self-determination.
Till Palestinians relinquish their maximalist fantasy of “Palestine from the river to the ocean,” acknowledge the equal proper of the Jewish individuals to self-determination of their historic homeland, and select to construct a affluent, free society subsequent to Israel and never as a substitute of Israel, I worry there will likely be little hope for a greater future for them or the Israeli individuals.
Joshua A. Brook
Weehawken, N.J.
The author, a lawyer, is a former aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Thoughts-Altering Medicine
To the Editor:
Re “Is Everyone Getting High?,” by Mike Jay (Opinion visitor essay, Dec. 24):
It’s true that chemical substances will not be inherently good or unhealthy for individuals relying on their very own private circumstances. However social insurance policies regulating their use may be both good or unhealthy, relying on whether or not they observe sound scientific proof on the advantages and dangers to people and the inhabitants at giant.
Though language on the worth or hazard of mind-altering substances is commonly arbitrary and influenced by cultural mores, crucial phrase figuring out their impression on public well being is “greed.” Promotion of mind-altering substances by profiteers, enterprise capitalists, producers and unscrupulous suppliers is already rampant.
If any of those substances are federally accepted on the market, we are able to count on to see commercials throughout media platforms extolling the virtues of getting excessive for a wide range of ills, with monumental earnings for buyers however unsure penalties for the remainder of us.
Stanley N. Caroff
Philadelphia
The author is a professor of psychiatry on the Perelman College of Drugs, College of Pennsylvania.
