Let’s act like it’s a real emergency
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Roslyn Heights, L.I.: In August 1939, the esteemed Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard drafted a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt, imploring him to pursue the construction of a nuclear bomb. He knew what he was talking about. Szilard patented the idea of a nuclear chain reaction and a fission reactor in 1934. Were German physicists engaged in such a project? The prospect of the Nazis creating and wielding a weapon of such destruction was terrifying. This missive, signed by Albert Einstein, was delivered personally to Roosevelt in October by Alexander Sachs, a Lithuanian immigrant who would rise to become a respected member of the business community. Sachs’ integral work with FDR’s National Recovery Administration and his position as vice president of the investment company Lehman Corp. provided him with access to the Oval Office.
Voila! The Manhattan Project was born. When confronted with fear, the worlds of government, business and science can unite and achieve the most insurmountable of goals. Now it is time for another Los Alamos. Climate change is not going away. Energy derived from fossil fuels is killing our planet. Those who continue to deny such a reality rival even the most ridiculous anti-vaxxers.
A clean form of energy can be derived by uniting or fusing atoms. Speeding up those little suckers inside of an accelerator possesses the potential of creating an energy that does not cause a carbon dioxide cloud around our planet. Nor is there plutonium as a byproduct of fission. It is time for action. Research into nuclear fusion must be ratcheted up. It is time for the world’s top physicists to meet again 80 years later. We reacted out of enormous, legitimate concern once. We damn well better do it again. Nicholas Santora
Branching out
Edinburgh: As Britain descends further into the grey, flimsy, tired imitation that is Boris de-Kermit Johnson’s version of Trump’s failed MAGA world, I’m relieved to see he leaves no stone unturned in the search for mind slugs with the announcement of a new armed force. One can only hope it will be called Waste of Space Force. Amanda Baker
Advice ignored
Manhattan: From 1936 on, Gen. (then Capt.) Hoyt Vandenberg was tasked with formulating an air defense plan for the Philippines. He developed two, including one based on the successful air defense of England by the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain. Neither was adopted, as the Roosevelt administration was opposed to any plan that called for extensive reinforcement of the defenses in the Philippines. As a result, the country was overtaken in 1942, and thousands of Americans and Filipino soldiers either died or were forced into captivity, freed only after Allied forces returned and liberated the country in 1944. Fast-forward 79 years later: Another American president disregards military advice and orders a hasty withdrawal from another country, sentencing 40 million Afghans to an uncertain future, abandoning 20 years of bloodshed and sacrifice and damaging, possibly permanently, America’s security and reputation.
Michael Moss
Bad timing
Lindenhurst, L.I.: You’ve missed the point entirely there, Voicer Jay Cee, regarding the Jan. 28, 2020 phone call between Bob Woodward and Trump. The publishing date for “Rage,” the book you mention where he shared the details of exactly what Trump knew about COVID-19, was Sept. 15, 2020. This was fully eight months later and by then, the body count for dead Americans was approaching or had surpassed a half million. You and your loved ones were fortunate not to die from it in those critical early days. You still had to buy his book and I’m sure he appreciates your purchase. But don’t feel bad, I used to respect him, too.
Scott Daly
Deafening silence
Brooklyn: Teens killed every day in the five boroughs. Three teens slashed, shot and killed within hours and no one is protesting! Where are you? No protests? Does no one care about Black youth? No protests? Hello, de Blasio. Chirlane, are you there? This is how you have helped low-income communities? Where is Jumaane Williams? Where is Eric Adams? Where are you, liberal City Council? It’s obvious their narrative just works to divide. Go Curtis Silwa!
Maria Ciarametaro
Furry friends
Forked River, N.J.: I read Curtis Sliwa’s op-ed on how he could make life much better for the animals of New York City (“A better NYC for us and our animals,” Sept. 28) and his words (if true) could mean a world of difference for those who are the innocent and voiceless of this city. Most people don’t know that kill shelters can euthanize an animal after just three days. If you had a pet go missing, it could have died alone when it still had a good home to go back to. Sliwa wants to put an end to the kill shelters that also kill many feral cats who could instead live out their lives in colonies that are maintained by people who have chosen to be the caretakers for those four-legged souls while also controlling the cat population.
Jim Hughes
Early release
Scranton, Pa.: Hey Jude, don’t make it bad / Take a sad song and make it better / Remember to let her into your heart, / Then you can start to make it better. John Hinckley, who shot President Reagan and three others in an assassination attempt in 1981, was recently approved by a judge for an unconditional release from custody. I’d rather see him in a pay-per-view shootout with Sirhan Sirhan and the guy who killed John Lennon. Anyway, as Hinckley was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster and has taken up singing over the years, perhaps he will serenade her with the following rendition of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”: Hey Jodie,
I was bad / Then I got a gun and I was badder / I was only trying to win your heart / And shooting the president was better than writing you a letter. Vin Morabito
Objectionable
Forest Hills: When did the FCC allow pornographic commercials on television? The ads with Kim Kardashian posing in her bra and underwear (in one she even said she never wore underwear) and one with her getting her fat lips made up are beyond disgusting. It’s bad enough we have to deal with her sister’s ad for a migraine drug with her big lips (also Medicare and Car Shield commercials every 10 minutes, not to mention the ones that look like radio interviews). Do we have to deal with this worthless, self-absorbed family?
Sherri Rosen
New hazard
Bronx: Whose asinine idea was it to put scooters all over the city that you need your credit card to operate, to be driven on sidewalks with crowded people and children? It’s waiting for an accident to happen. Just saying.
Mary Caggiano
Divergent interests
Monsey, N.Y.: To Voicer Chris Schulze: Your insinuations regarding the voters of the East Ramapo School District reeks of bias. Do Orthodox Jews such as myself, as well as my Hasidic neighbors, vote for
a school board that protects our interests? Of course we do. Why should we not have a say in how our tax dollars are spent? East Ramapo is one of the highest-taxed school districts in the country. Had the then-mostly-public-schoolparent-body-controlled school board not exorbitantly raised our taxes year after year, there would have been no reason to vote them out. Would you be making the same statements if the community were primarily Catholic, choosing to send their children to private Catholic schools and voting for a school board to protect their interests? I think not.
Jonathan Gruenebaum
Raw deal
SHUTTERSTOCK
Long Beach, L.I.: The Municipal Labor Council and the Office of Labor Relations reached an agreement for retirees’ health benefits starting in January 2022. The agreement eliminates the choice of carrier for retirees regarding Medicare Part D and this change has a profound economic impact upon retirees. The premise told to retirees all along was that a change to Medicare Advantage would keep costs lower than current rates. I now will pay 833% more each month for Medicare Part D with the Medicare Advantage plan. The agreement is set and I will have a financial burden that was created by the MLC agreeing to the elimination of choice.
James D. McFadden