Fears are founded for those Trump has vilified
Santa Monica, Calif.: Re “Celebrities who say they’re leaving the U.S. after Trump’s election win” (Nov. 14): There is genuine reason for fear. Whether you’re liberal, gay, non-white, foreign-born, female or vocally opposed to the new administration, the threats during the campaign and the people announced as appointees combine to indicate retribution and revenge. The list of appointees points to an era of kakistocracy — rule by the least qualified. It will be a literal den of iniquity.
If Jan. 6 rioters, including Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers, are pardoned, they are likely to patrol the streets as unofficial vigilantes, turning in disloyalists and targeting opponents without any objections from Washington. If Matt Gaetz is confirmed, sexual abuse may be ignored. If Kristi Noem becomes the head of the Department of Homeland Security, people won’t be eating the pets, but the government may put those pets’ owners in their gun sites. With RFK Jr. in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, the nation could experience a precipitous increase in preventable disease. And the return of Stephen Miller, whose resemblance to Josef Goebbels is uncanny, should be a warning sign to anyone who isn’t white and U.S.-born.
Yet, will leaving the country make it easier for it to be overrun by plutocrats, oligarchs, grifters and thugs? Or will it be better to remain and groom our own generation of American Alexei Navalnys who are willing to heed Ben Franklin’s warning that “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety,” and fight back? Peter Altschuler
Cause or concern?
Brooklyn: Some people are concerned about the possible confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health due to his controversial stance on vaccines. People fear that vaccination rates of children may decline. Those same people do not seem concerned about the thousands of migrants who cross our borders without complete health screenings. I doubt that migrants are given blood tests to determine which vaccinations are needed. I doubt they are given tuberculosis tests on any consistent basis. If most migrants do not have documents, how does the government know who needs vaccinations? Is the country concerned about the uptick of infectious diseases or not? Jessica Balter
Negative energy
Glen Oaks: Donald Trump’s energy secretary pick, fracking proponent and climate denier Chris Wright, is a deliberate kick in the teeth for the nation’s transition to clean, safe energy. The carbon Wright says is necessary for life is plentifully supplied by our natural environment. Burning oil and gas harms, not helps, nature. Severe droughts like the one triggering brush fires in the New York metro area, and larger and wetter hurricanes that can wash away whole towns are directly caused by the warming atmosphere and oceans due to fossil fuel burning. Trump will give us more of the same and worse. Gov. Hochul and the state Legislature must act to protect New Yorkers from private plans to drill thousands of fracking wells across three upstate counties, plus up to a dozen new gas plants. Using carbon dioxide has the same risks as fracking with water already banned for creating industrial wastelands. Please stop this dangerous fracking plan. Kanwaldeep K. Sekhon
Define ‘done’
Manhattan: Voicer Brian Deasy compare’s Trump’s deranged “caustic” personality to that of Deasy’s commanders in Vietnam, where, he writes, “we got the job done.” Really? Remind me, please, how did that work out? Mark Portnoy
Culpability
Basking Ridge, N.J.: Monday’s killing spree (“3 killed in random Manhattan stabbings,” Nov. 19) by a homeless repeat criminal — released eight times and who has mental issues — is, in my opinion, the fault of Andrew Cuomo, Gov. Hochul, Alvin Bragg, Mayor Adams and his City Council. New Yorkers better wake up. They’re at risk! Richard Mac Dowell
Drastic action
Brooklyn: May the goodness of helping fellow New Yorkers outdo the wrongness of Daniel Penny’s charges for manslaughter. The woman using her carriage to protect her child should make this jury find him not guilty! That alone is the deciding factor. Maria Ciarametaro
Cold-hearted calculus
Elmont, L.I.: To Voicer Thomas Murawski: Placing the entire onus on Jordan Neely’s family at the egregious expense of the overreaction by Penny in anointing himself judge, jury and executioner in the moment truly reveals the frailty of your humanity. Derek K. Evans
Divine defense
West Hempstead, L.I.: To Voicer Carmela Ingwer: Jewish teachings do not call for surrender to an enemy. In fact, they teach to fight until victory. Jewish teachings say there is a time for war, for hate and for peace. This is a time for war. Tikkun olam has to do with living the commandments, not universalism. The protection of the land of Israel is one of the foremost commandments. This is a milchemet mitzvah — a mandatory war, an actual commandment. If the people in Gaza want peace, release the hostages, all of them, immediately and surrender. As for the two-state solution, it died forever on Oct. 7. Samuel J. Mark
Conscientious withholding
Lackawaxen, Pa.: The Green family (Hobby Lobby) pulled off a major con, getting the U.S. Supreme Court to install a concept of some heretical Christian sects — i.e., that every person is a priest — in our legal system, allowing every person to be a legislator. The contradiction, of course, is that in dismantling the religious and governmental hierarchies, the Greens’ beliefs were imposed on their employees. But we should make the most of it. If generally applicable policy can not be neutral when it interferes with religious beliefs (Hobby Lobby’s saving on contraceptive costs in its health plan), then those who oppose all the civilian casualties in U.S.-funded conflicts should be allowed to withhold a portion of their taxes because clearly, peace is a less restrictive (and less costly) alternative to war. John A. MacKinnon
Every win counts
Brooklyn: Re “Bills insist win over Chiefs not a ‘statement’ victory” (Nov. 19): Considering that the Bills played in four straight Super Bowls and lost every single one of them, they shouldn’t take anything for granted. Herman Kolender
Proven prediction
Bayonne, N.J.: I owe Pat Leonard an apology. Months ago, you printed my letter excoriating him for predicting only a three-win season for the Giants. Now it looks like he was being optimistic. My bad, Pat! Marty Wolfson
Wrong lane
Rockaway: Gov. Hochul, shame on you! You enabled congestion! Too many TLC licenses, reducing the number of lanes, bus lanes that aren’t being utilized — they don’t pull in to stop, buses block regular lanes. Bicycle lanes. No one wants to ride the subway because of crime. You need to get rid of the MTA boss. Not all of these projects are necessary. Janno Lieber is not the one to be running the MTA. So many of my friends are being overcharged due to E-ZPass not having a battery indicator informing the customer when their device is not working. They have a discount plan but are being charged over the plan’s price because they don’t realize that the device is not operational. What’s going to happen at $9 a pop? When Andrew Cuomo left, I had hope when it was you. Boy, was I wrong. Shame on you! Patricia J. McCabe
Forgone alternatives
Manhattan: It is tragic and disappointing that Hochul went back to the deeply flawed MTA congestion pricing plan. Even with the modified fee structure, it still functions as a dragnet that penalizes small businesses and low- to middle-income NYC residents, creates new traffic bottlenecks and will likely increase the cost of goods and services. The plan largely spares the main congestion culprits, namely the app-based rideshare vehicles and Amazon delivery trucks. A more rational approach would have been to design a narrowly tailored version of congestion pricing aimed at these two targets. This goal could have been achieved through a special congestion sales tax on large internet retailers, collected at the point of sale, and through increasing the existing $2.75 congestion surcharge on rideshares. Such an alternative plan would require no new physical toll infrastructure, would significantly reduce congestion and would raise similar if not larger amounts of funding. Ilya Kapovich
