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To the Editor:
Re “Biden and the Messiness of Being Human,” by Patti Davis (Opinion guest essay, Dec. 30):
In America, we still often refuse to acknowledge that aging and death are inevitable. As long as we continue to insist that we are “just fine,” and of course we will have good days and bad days, we do ourselves an enormous disservice because we don’t plan for what happens as our capabilities diminish, not to mention what happens after we’re dead.
In the case of President Biden, this denial has put our entire country, and by extension the world, in jeopardy. I have a hard time feeling compassion for Mr. Biden and his “handlers” under these circumstances, and I’m trained in the art of gentleness and compassion.
While I personally wish Mr. Biden all the best, I am mad at him, too. He has done our country an enormous disservice.
Mitzi Schwarz
Los Angeles
The writer is a hospice chaplain and a cantor.
To the Editor:
Patti Davis’s essay about President Biden was so sensitive and so beautifully written that I felt tears welling up within me as I read it. I am a Biden admirer, but have been churned up by his denial of the realities of his situation — and even more so by the apparent blindness of his family relative to what seems to me a clearly accelerating decline in his mental acuity and his physical stamina. Patti’s words make me more empathetic.
Suzanne Farnham
Baltimore
To the Editor:
I don’t blame President Biden. He’s behaving normally for someone declining as he ages. I blame journalists for not investigating the rumors, which were well known, about his decline.
The media chose to cover these rumors as G.O.P. smears and/or excuse him as just a kindly older gentleman who has minor memory lapses. This portrayal effectively hid his decline from Americans, who relied on the media to inform them honestly.
Andrea Economos
Hartsdale, N.Y.
To the Editor:
I was so heartened to read Patti Davis’s thoughts about President Biden’s last year in office, as well as her memories of her father, President Ronald Reagan. Having lost my mom a year ago to dementia, I clearly recall the sharp pangs of loss, frustration and doubt as Mom slowly succumbed to that awful disease. She also had “good days” and “bad days” before her diagnosis.
Like Ms. Davis, I believe that all of us, regardless of our political views, need to make space in our hearts and minds to remember that our leaders and their families are also human beings — on journeys that are not unlike our own.
For all the name-calling and vitriol, I’m convinced that so many of us Americans are finding ways to connect in kindness with one another every single day. We don’t do ourselves any favors by reducing the “other side” to a monolith that carries all our blame and hatred.
No matter how we fall on the political spectrum, let’s find a way to extend the same grace to those who lead our nation. Yes, we’re all messy and complicated; valuing the humanness in each other is crucial to our country’s healing process.
Beth Cullinan
Blacklick, Ohio
A Peaceful Jan. 6, Unlike Four Years Ago
To the Editor:
Re “Peace, Not Mobs, as Ritual Seals Trump’s Victory” (front page, Jan. 7):
I forced myself to watch the joint session of Congress certify the election of Donald Trump and JD Vance as president and vice president of the United States. I watched as the president of the Senate, Kamala Harris, and loser to the convicted felon, announced the results of the certification. Although I suspect that she was shaking inside, she did her duty and upheld her oath to the Constitution.
The contrast between this Jan. 6 moment and that awful day four years ago was stark and depressing, but was also uplifting in that the Democrats, and especially Ms. Harris, ensured that there would be a peaceful transfer of power.
My hope is that Mr. Trump will view this validation of the rule of law as a sign of unity and bipartisanship for the nation, but hey, I am speaking about the instigator of the 2021 insurrection. Hope springs eternal.
Henry A. Lowenstein
New York
To the Editor:
Did you see the way the dirty, nasty, radical Democrats tried to storm the Capitol on Monday — assaulting police officers with American flagpoles, bear spray and clubs — to stop the certification of the 2024 presidential election and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power?
Neither did I.
Mark Sarconi
Lafayette, Calif.
The Palestinians’ Future
To the Editor:
Re “The Case for Hope for Palestinians,” by Khaled Elgindy (Opinion guest essay, Jan. 6):
Like Mr. Elgindy, I yearn for a better future for the Palestinian people. Unlike him, I do not view the international protest movement, International Criminal Court rulings or International Court of Justice cases as reasons for hope.
The only party that can grant Palestinians the freedom and dignity they deserve is the Israeli people — and they will do so only when they are convinced that Palestinians are willing to live peacefully with them as neighbors.
The Palestinian national movement has failed for the past century because it refuses to come to terms with the equally legitimate claims of the Jewish national movement for self-determination.
Until Palestinians relinquish their maximalist fantasy of “Palestine from the river to the sea,” recognize the equal right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historic homeland, and choose to build a prosperous, free society next to Israel and not instead of Israel, I fear there will be little hope for a better future for them or the Israeli people.
Joshua A. Brook
Weehawken, N.J.
The writer, a lawyer, is a former aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Mind-Altering Drugs
To the Editor:
Re “Is Everyone Getting High?,” by Mike Jay (Opinion guest essay, Dec. 24):
It’s true that chemical substances are not inherently good or bad for people depending on their own personal circumstances. But social policies regulating their use can be either good or bad, depending on whether they follow sound scientific evidence on the benefits and risks to individuals and the population at large.
Although language on the value or danger of mind-altering substances is often arbitrary and influenced by cultural mores, the most important word determining their impact on public health is “greed.” Promotion of mind-altering substances by profiteers, venture capitalists, manufacturers and unscrupulous providers is already rampant.
If any of these substances are federally approved for sale, we can expect to see commercials across media platforms extolling the virtues of getting high for a variety of ills, with enormous profits for investors but uncertain consequences for the rest of us.
Stanley N. Caroff
Philadelphia
The writer is a professor of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
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