‘Trans Lives Matter’

Regarding “Transgender protection revoked” ( June 13): Medical care should be a human right. Other people’s religious beliefs should not be used to deny service to anyone. This is inhumane and unAmerican. To coin a phrase: “Trans Lives Matter.”

A break from grim news

Thank you for the huge belly laugh your article on “Farting fine” (News of the Day, June 17) gave me at breakfast. I tried to read it aloud to my husband and was overcome with hysterical laughter. What a welcome relief from the plethora of grim (but important) articles involving issues gripping the country and the world today. Laughter has definitely been in short supply. This brief but hilarious paragraph immediately brightened my outlook for the day. Please print more of these!

American arrogance

Regarding “Armed forces’ role; Keep military out of politics” (June 14): I share with Sandy Alderson the same Marine Corps period of active duty (196973) and theater of deployment, although I was flying Grumman A6 Intruder aircraft. Our squadron was part of a task force to blunt what would ultimately be the final push of North Vietnam’s invasion. From my experience with leadership at that time, I also share his appraisal of the quality. But most significantly, now I share his lament about how it has apparently dissipated.

History is riven with bad leaders of all sorts, but American arrogance has seduced us into believing our rotten apples ain’t so bad. Just the opposite is true. Our purported national character demands we hold ourselves to a higher standard.

If someone aspires to, arguably, the top job on the planet, you not only must be beyond reproach, you must also appear to be beyond reproach. Agent Orange has failed miserably on both counts. That he has violated his oath, the same one officers swear, does not relieve them of their fiduciary duty of serving the commonwealth. To be a prop with a mea culpa sure ain’t semper fidelis.