EGN NEWS DESK
To the Editor:
Re “Mitch McConnell: We Cannot Repeat the Mistakes of the Thirties” (Opinion visitor essay, nytimes.com, June 6):
I hardly ever discover myself agreeing with Mitch McConnell, and even then it’s often on a place he shortly backtracks from to maintain himself within the good graces of the party that has pulled away from conventional Republican values. But his name to finish isolationism is compelling.
Now, if he may solely persuade what’s left of the Republican Party of that, the world can be a safer place. America wants and thrives on a real two-party system, however when one in all them is blindly sure to a narcissistic wannabe dictator, that system will fail.
Mr. McConnell wants to revive his party to at least one that argues over coverage variations with the left, versus one which exists solely to help a person who would lead us again to the errors of the Thirties. Show some guts, Mitch.
Robert Wallenstein
San Diego
To the Editor:
Bravo to Senator Mitch McConnell for praising the brave American troopers, sailors, airmen and Marines who fought in World War II to protect freedom and democracy. And bravo to him for taking a swing on the “disgraced isolationists” who strove to influence Americans in 1940 that the destiny of our European allies was irrelevant to our personal nationwide safety.
Senator McConnell, nonetheless, doesn’t point out that the influential, pro-fascist and antisemitic isolationist group was referred to as America First, a slogan that Donald Trump has adopted to encapsulate his nationalist and unilateralist views.
In the months and years forward, I counsel that we keep in mind the phrases of Henry L. Stimson, the Republican who served as secretary of battle beneath Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and who believed that America should act with a way of worldwide duty.
“No non-public program and no public coverage, in any sector of our nationwide life,” he wrote in 1947, “can now escape from the compelling undeniable fact that if it isn’t framed just about the world, it’s framed with good futility.”
Susan Dunn
Williamstown, Mass.
The author is emerita professor of humanities at Williams College and the writer of “1940.”
To the Editor:
It required a substantial amount of restraint to learn by way of the piece written by the Senate minority chief. Does he not see the irony in every sentence he wrote, or does he suppose that amnesia is so pervasive that the general public gained’t keep in mind his personal complicity in creating the atmosphere he warns us of?
Perhaps this can function a confession, a way towards easing a really responsible conscience. Sorry, Mitch, too little, too late.
Matthew Levanda
Manalapan, N.J.
To the Editor:
Mitch McConnell has written an fascinating essay. However, if he’s actually involved concerning the risk that the world will repeat the errors of the Thirties, I counsel that he watch the six-part docudrama “Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial,” which is now airing on Netflix.
If he can’t see the well timed parallels between the occasions which might be recounted in that tv sequence and what’s occurring politically in America at this time, I might counsel that Mr. McConnell wants new glasses.
Ken Cuthbertson
Kingston, Ontario
D-Day at 80, and the Lessons for Today
To the Editor:
Re “D-Day Shows What Democracy Can Achieve,” by Garrett M. Graff (Opinion visitor essay, June 6):
As I learn Mr. Graff’s sensible article, for me, it raised the query: Are we as much as the duty of defending our democracy at this time because the Greatest Generation was?
What we do know is that at this time we’re a really totally different folks than we had been in World War II. We usually tend to query authority, whereas obeying authority is crucial to the graceful working of a navy. We are used to creature comforts that didn’t exist then, and people who did had been reasonably priced to a smaller portion of society.
The reply is, We can’t know except we’re put to the take a look at, and that’s a take a look at I hope we by no means need to take.
John A. Viteritti
Laurel, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Dozens of veterans in wheelchairs, their eyes glistening with tears however nonetheless vibrant. Row after row of reverently maintained white grave markers. Grainy movies of troops storming the Normandy seashores with unrelenting and lethal fireplace raining down from a well-entrenched enemy.
As I watch protection of those overwhelmingly transferring scenes on TV, why can’t I cease considering of the query posed by former President Donald Trump throughout a go to to Arlington Cemetery: “What was in it for them?”
It is as much as us to make it possible for the person who may make such an extremely inconsiderate inquiry by no means turns into commander in chief once more.
Stephen F. Gladstone
Shaker Heights, Ohio
‘The Party of Law and Order’?
To the Editor:
Re “Biden Denounces G.O.P. Moves to Subvert the Decision of a Jury” (entrance web page, June 1):
Silly me, I assumed the Republicans prided themselves on being the party of regulation and order. It appears that this party of regulation and order is identical party that has endorsed the Jan. 6 revolt, and the party that has determined to discredit a correctly rendered jury verdict from a jury that Donald Trump’s personal attorneys helped to choose.
I’m at a loss to know how the G.O.P. can presumably nonetheless declare that it’s the party of regulation and order out of 1 aspect of its mouth and nonetheless denounce the very system that it professes to uphold out of the opposite aspect.
Joanne Rosen
Paramus, N.J.
Universities Should Say More, Not Less
To the Editor:
Re “Harvard Should Say Less. Maybe All Schools Should,” by Noah Feldman and Alison Simmons (Opinion visitor essay, June 2):
Schools ought to say extra. Universities are priceless belongings of cities and the worldwide group. Their influence is nice and goes past their partitions. They needs to be engaged and lively.
Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., is in a neighborhood straight affected by destruction that occurred after the homicide of George Floyd in 2020. Scars from the aftermath had been seen for months. It was crucial that the president, Fayneese Miller, communicate out on behalf of the college, and he or she did.
The divestiture by universities (and cities and different establishments) in investments that supported apartheid South Africa was appropriate and made a distinction. Today’s debate on the divestiture of funds that help the Israeli navy and the destruction within the Middle East is acceptable.
Universities ought to make statements on ethical and moral points, and might display how debate could be carried out with civility. Institutions of upper training construct higher communities and contribute to a extra simply society.
Jim Scheibel
St. Paul, Minn.
The author is a retired professor at Hamline University.
A.I. as C.E.O.? Not So Fast.
To the Editor:
Re “If A.I. Can Do Your Job, Maybe It Can Also Replace Your C.E.O.” (Business, May 29):
Not so quick.
As a longtime adviser to C.E.O.s, I’ve discovered that the top of an organization wants solely two attributes to succeed: imaginative and prescient and the judgment to seek out the proper folks to realize that imaginative and prescient. Yes, a lot of the job can (even ought to) be performed by others, even A.I., however solely people can exhibit these attributes.
Mark Perlgut
New York
