Mental Health: Getting help is OK

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Jackson Heights: Voicer Tamara Shulman is correct in stating that cops need affordable mental health care. However, given the recent suicides of four NYPD cops, it is also true that cops are extremely reluctant to seek such care for fear of appearing weak or even crazy. I think a possible solution to this latter problem would be to require that all members of the NYPD take the Mental Health First Aid course currently offered by Thrive NYC, the city program originated by Mayor de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray.

This course effectively destigmatizes mental health issues. It also teaches participants how to discuss, in a non-threatening manner, behaviors that colleagues might be reluctant to mention, such as depression, excessive alcohol use and possible suicidal thoughts. And the course enables participants to recommend ways that the troubled colleagues might seek help.

Receiving such encouragement from a peer might make it much easier for the troubled officers to get the help that they need. Judith Natkins

Interesting analogy

Bellerose, L.I.: Parents trying to sue the gun manufacturer for the Las Vegas shooting is like someone suing a flatware company because they gained weight. John van Acken

Grateful citizen

Whitestone: To all those who gave their dying breath so I can live in peace: I salute you with gratitude. You will always be remembered in our hearts and minds.

Sally DeFelice

Who’s to blame?

Kew Garden Hills: Re your July 2 report “Salvador prez: Drown tragedy partly our fault”: I’m glad that El Salvador’s president admits his nation’s responsibility for the drowning of a father and his daughter in the Rio Grande. But, Mexico shares the blame. If Mexican police and military had done their job, those victims, along with thousands of other migrants, would never had gotten as far north as the Rio Grande. And there’d be no horde of illegal aliens if our nation’s openborder boneheads didn’t offer them free healthcare and driver’s licenses. Richard Reif

Dressing down

Flushing: First it was the women on TV with their sleeveless dresses in the winter. Now the men on TV and many of the politicians are going casual — no tie, no jacket, rumpled looking shirt.

Stations should have a dress code, maybe even a uniform. When you don’t care about your appearance, your work suffers. When you look nice, you can do a better job.

Evelyn Zorovich

Lou Gehrig’s dignity

Halifax, Nova Scotia: Wow, amazing reading your column, Dennis Young, reprinting a 1939 piece from UPI sportswriter Jack Cuddy pooh-pooh-ing Lou Gehrig’s illness (“It’s the 80th anniversary of a sportswriter calling Lou Gehrig soft and washed up,” July 3). After Lou died two years later, would Cuddy still have been willing to swap bodies with him? Probably not, since the writer lived another 36 years. Cuddy wouldn’t have been worthy to shine Gehrig’s shoes. When I visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015, I made a point of touching Gehrig’s locker. Perhaps there have always been people with no compassion for those less fortunate than themselves. Scott Baker

For the thrill of it

Brooklyn: I think the socalled “sport” of hunting should be outlawed. The killing of an innocent animal for no good reason is totally beyond my comprehension.

Arthur Mazlin

Loved it

Norwalk, Conn.: A big thank you for the Field of Dreams contest. My daughter truly enjoyed her once-in-a-lifetime experience of being on the field at Yankee Stadium standing with Brett Gardner for the national anthem. The seats were awesome, the weather was beautiful and the Yankees played a great game. John East

Overlooked rock star

Beach, N.J.: July 3 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Brian Jones, the founding member of the Rolling Stones. To my astonishment, the Daily News didn’t even mention it even though The News ran a story about Michael Jackson on the 10-year anniversary of his passing. Jones named the band; he managed the Rolling Stones in the early ’60s. Brian’s musical skills with many different types of instruments catapulted the Stones to rock stardom. Jones laid the foundation for the featured act that the Stones still are today. If it weren’t for Jones back in the ’60s with his diverse instrumentation, the Rolling Stones would have been just one more “nothing special” English rock band. Igor LaManna

Cartoonist hall of fame

Bayside: I’ve enjoyed your 100th anniversary tribute pages and the special section. But, there’s one section that has glaring omissions. When it comes to saluting cartoonists, you emphasize Bill Gallo. Fine, but what about his predecessor, Leo O’Mealia, and his lion icon? He goes virtually unmentioned except for his famous 1955 “Bums” front page cartoon. (And of his two mentions in the special supplement, his name is misspelled once!) Another of your great artists who was overlooked: Bruce Stark. I still remember both cartoonists fondly, maybe because I once wanted to be a cartoonist myself! Jim Forkan

Stop the nonsense

Richmond Hill: To blacks who attack Jewish people: Jewish people marched with Martin Luther King Jr. down South for our freedom and died for us. Jewish people are good people, so stop the attacks. Don’t be a racist yourself. Thomas Adams

You in?

Monroe Township, N.J.: One question I would like to ask those running for the Democratic nomination who call for the elimination of private health insurance and want to replace it with Medicare for All: Will they and all members of Congress also give up their taxpayer-funded health coverage and accept the same coverage they are promoting? A simple yes or no answer please. John Kaczorowski

Even then!

Brooklyn: If President Trump discovered a vaccine for cancer and it was eradicated

GETTY from the face of the Earth and all cancer were cured, he would be accused of putting the oncologists, radiologists and Memorial Sloan Kettering out of business. Ain’t that the truth! Ruth Weiner

Were we ever?

Brooklyn: When President Trump says “Make America Great Again,” nobody asks what time period he’s talking about. People should know when and who made America great. Joseph M. Sellers

What’s he thinking?

East Patchogue, L.I.: In regard to the New York mayor deciding to run for president: I do believe he is “two quarts short up there” and is an example of how people make fools of themselves. What the mayor needs to do is take a long walk off a short pier and take Nancy Pelosi with him.

Catherine Lo Curto

Too busy for trouble

Woodside: I lived in a suburb of London which had a boxing club, swimming pool, soccer field and skating rink so the kids didn’t have time to form a gang.

Martin Lancaster

In good company

Bronx: Biden says that Trump used the Fourth of July to caress his own ego. I agree with that assertion. But Obama did the same.

Gene Roman