‘I Do Not Recall Feeling So Anxious or Powerless’
Donald Trump’s Inauguration
1. This day does resemble an episode of “Game of Thrones” or some other such dramatization of real life. I’m an immigrant, I’m brown-skinned, and I have young daughters. I do not recall feeling so anxious or powerless of my own destiny or that if the family I am responsible for. It seems we have billionaires coming to power who have no platform for being the slightest bit concerned about the environment, the economy, or peace.
— Andy V. in Los Angeles, reacting to an article about the inauguration of Donald J. Trump.
2. Thank God America is turning the country back over to the professionals and putting the J.V. team out to pasture, for which they are long overdue. This is a great day for America and a ray of hope for all the freedom loving nations of the world. Without America, there is no freedom.
3. We all need to get our act together — Democrats, make it clear you’re protesting values, not the position of the presidency. We owe it to our democracy to respect that Donald Trump is president without question. That said, Republicans, you can’t be hypocrites here. If there is conclusive evidence from our intelligence agencies that Russia interfered with our elections, we need to investigate that. Next time it may not work out in your favor. If being conservative means sticking to your values, prove it here. Keep our democracy great.
And to you, President Trump, I sincerely hope you will extend a hand out to the majority of the country that did not vote for you. Acknowledge their concerns and speak of peace. It’s over ... we all need to move on and get to work.
— T. in Boston.
John Lewis’s Feud with Donald Trump
4. Lewis saying [Mr. Trump] is not the legitimate president is the same stance that Trump was called to task for by Democrats on the campaign trail (when he said he may not accept the outcome of the election). Lewis (and all of us) should follow Obama’s lead in accepting the fact that, like it or not, Trump is the President.
— Joe Gorman in Philadelphia, reacting to an article about a feud between President Trump and prominent African-American leaders that was fueled by remarks made by Mr. Trump on Twitter in response to criticism by Representative John Lewis of Georgia that his election victory was “illegitimate.”
This comment received more than 200 reader recommendations and more than 40 reader responses.
5. How stupid … [Mr. Trump] not only denigrated one of the Icons of Civil Rights, he just angered about 5.7 million citizens that live in metropolitan Atlanta. I’m one of them and very proud to have John Lewis as our Representative.
Beyond being the icon that Mr. Lewis is, he is one of the best serving Representatives to Congress. Always, always looking out for the poor and needy.
This comment received more than 1,000 reader recommendations.
Obama Commutes Chelsea Manning’s Sentence
6. I’ve really gone back and forth on this case. I’m a vet, actually worked in the Military Occupational Specialty that Manning was trained in, and maintain a Top Secret Clearance. She violated her security clearance and put lives at risk. At the same time she is clearly suffering from significant mental issues. At this point, I’m satisfied with the sentence served if only that it takes a huge burden off of the detention center staff at Leavenworth and will alleviate a huge cost to the government.
— Ted in Alabama, reacting to an article about the commutation by President Obama Tuesday of all but four months of Chelsea Manning’s prison sentence for leaking information about American military and diplomatic activity to WikiLeaks when she was an Army intelligence officer.
This comment received more than 600 reader recommendations.
7. This Manning pardon is similar to President Carter’s disgraceful pardon of the deserters and draft-dodgers who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War. It makes the people who did and continue to do their duty feel like suckers and chumps. Pardons of most criminals may offend a few people who are their victims, but this type of pardon offends the whole nation and large groups of similarly-situated people who obeyed the law.
This comment received more than 450 reader recommendations and more than 100 reader responses.
An Educational Boost Up the Economic Ladder
8. I am the definition of the American dream thanks to CUNY. My parents immigrated from El Salvador in 1980 during the war. I graduated from CUNY Queens College with a full scholarship in 2007. This gave me the opportunity to advance further and go on to medical school at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. I have completed my residency in Internal Medicine, and now I am six months away from finishing my subspecialty in Rheumatology.
— Karen Fernandez Espinal on The Times’s Facebook page, responding to an Op-Ed about a subset of American colleges, including the City College of New York (CUNY) system, that excel at propelling students from low-income backgrounds into the middle- and upper-middle classes.
Insomnia and Aging
9. You miss the most important thing — the idea that people should sleep throughout the night is an Industrial Revolution era idea. It is actually normal and natural for many people to sleep a couple hours, then be awake for part of the night and then sleep again. If one accepts that this is normal, then the whole idea of “insomnia” becomes very different. For many people, it is best to just embrace it, as much as they can. For people who are older, it is easier to live in the way their bodies want because they can be more flexible with their schedules. For working folks, you can still help this along by napping on the weekends and then finding things to do at night when you are awake. But we really need to change our paradigm on “insomnia.”
— Carol in Minneapolis, reacting to an article about the effects of insomnia that may increase as people age.
Banned Books as Teaching Tools
10. Banning books is absurd. Literature is a teaching tool and I know that many banned books have helped me through extremely difficult times. When characters can talk about difficult things children and young adults can relate to, more children are going to want to read to find more connections and solace because they’re not the only ones.
— Alison in New Jersey, reacting to an article about the teaching opportunities parents gain by encouraging their children to read books that have been banned over certain types of content.
P.C: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/nytnow/i-do-not-recall-feeling-so-anxious-or-powerless.html
Post a Comment