Letters to the Editor | April 10, 2025

Recently, the bodies of four Army members who died in a training exercise in Lithuania were returned to Delaware for a dignified transfer. Dedicated people serving our country. Presidents in the past have attended these transfers while keeping the press at a distance. It can be done respectfully. The president chose to skip this important ceremony so he could have personal business dinners and play golf. At a time of such financial turmoil in our country, this president wasted taxpayer dollars so he could receive another senior golf trophy instead of honoring true heroes and their families. We can and must do better than this disloyal and despicable man. We can and must remove politicians who support him.

John Boyce, Audubon

On March 25, on a sidewalk in Somerville, Mass., a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University was forcibly taken by federal agents, handcuffed, and transported to a detainment facility in Louisiana. Rumeysa Ozturk, from Turkey, came to the U.S. legally on a visa (since revoked). Ozturk was detained, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, because she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” The department has provided no evidence to support the claim. In fact, friends and colleagues of Ozturk say her only known activism was coauthoring an op-ed piece in the Tufts student newspaper that called for the university “to cut ties with Israel.” Our Constitution guarantees the freedom to express opinions, whether in print, electronically, or in person. If there is no clear evidence of terrorist activity against our country, Ozturk should be released immediately.

Richard D. Barton, Conshohocken

I would like to thank Stanley A. Plotkin, the inventor of the rubella vaccine, for his recent op-ed. As a sibling of a child affected by the virus, it is horrifying to think the MMR vaccine could be voluntary. My mother was infected with the rubella virus during her pregnancy with my younger brother. The MMR vaccine was not approved until the early ‘70s. My brother was born in 1964 with severe disabilities. He was blind and deaf and was diagnosed as mentally disabled. There was minimal communication with him. He remained in diapers until he was 15 years old. He could not tell the difference between night and day.

Many nights my family would remain awake for hours as he banged his bedroom door against the wall to feel the vibrations. He required 24-hour supervision. He remained at home until he was 21, when a program was developed for him. Prior to that, he had minimal schooling. He lived in a community living arrangement until he passed away from COVID-19 in 2020. We probably would not have chosen this path for our family, but the resources to prevent his disabilities were not available to us. To think there are people who choose not to be vaccinated and put people at risk — especially pregnant women — is incomprehensible to me.

Tara Kenworthy Monihan, Glenside, taramonihan@yahoo.com

The stock market is tanking, gas is up, eggs are out of range, the world hates us, Vladimir Putin is grinning, Gaza is crumbling, oil companies are back drilling, our allies are gone like the fight against global climate change, and our gardener’s been deported. If this is winning, I’m tired of it already.

Scott Hartley, Fairfield, Iowa

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