To the Editor:
Re “Senate Confirms Patel to Lead F.B.I. as Agency Faces Turmoil” (news article, Feb. 21):
The cowardly Senate Republicans are now guilty of giving the tyrant in the White House the cabinet he so desperately sought.
With Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Health and Human Services, and now Kash Patel at the F.B.I., America is in for the roughest and most dangerous ride in perhaps all of our history.
These are sycophants of Donald Trump who will do anything and everything this president tells them to do. Instead of “the shining city on a hill,” we are now a symbol of distrust and evil around the world.
The damage these now confirmed cabinet officers will do is incalculable, not only because they are sycophants, but also because they are completely unqualified for their vitally important positions. Beware, America, this is what 77 million of you voted for.
Henry A. Lowenstein
New York
To the Editor:
To the Republican senators who confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services:
We in the medical community now consider you personally responsible for the unnecessary deaths, and there will be many, that will occur because of Mr. Kennedy’s ineptitude as health secretary.
I somehow doubt that the grieving families will be comforted by your thoughts and prayers, knowing that you betrayed the American people solely because you are afraid of Donald Trump.
If you had any decency, you would not avail yourselves or your families of the miracles of modern medicine and science, since you saw fit to burden the American people with an anti-vaccine, anti-science man with crackpot ideas to oversee our health and well-being.
Steve Turner
Raleigh, N.C.
The writer is a physician and the owner of Garner Internal Medicine, a private primary care practice in Garner, N.C.
To the Editor:
“Wrecking ball,” a term commonly used these days, is not an accurate description of what Elon Musk is doing. Wrecking ball operators are skilled and in control of the consequences of the wrecking ball.
Mr. Musk is out of control and has no idea of the consequences of his actions.
David W. Gallagher
Tucson, Ariz.
The Pastor and the Gay Son: ‘Love Before All Else’
To the Editor:
Re “How My Dad Reconciled His God and His Gay Son,” by Timothy White (Opinion guest essay, Feb. 16):
Having been steeped in a conservative evangelical church from birth to adulthood, I was moved by this article.
Growing up, I noticed that among church leaders much of what was deemed morality was founded more in a profound lack of humility than in any of the words ascribed to Jesus, not to mention simple human kindness.
Much of the rigid biblical interpretation through which “morality” was dictated arose as much from fear, insecurity and a core need for certainty as it did from the much translated, human-altered text.
As a result, even slight variations from conformity were seen as threats and quashed, sometimes viciously.
Though the piece raised some unpleasant memories, and though I’ve been an atheist for over 50 years, the pastor Bill White’s struggles with convictions and his church, born of his integrity and love for family, were touching and inspiring.
Thank you very much for publishing this piece, and deep thanks to the Whites for sharing their story.
Brad Wheeler
Phoenixville, Pa.
To the Editor:
As a gay man of a certain age, I appreciate reading gay coming out stories, then comparing others’ experiences with my own. As a clergyperson, I relish studying how other people in my profession come to reconcile tenets of their faith with homosexuality — again, comparing their journeys with mine. Coming across Timothy and Bill White’s stories was, for me, moving and edifying.
Their example demonstrates how positive transformation can be achieved when we put love before all else. Combining that with the courage to take leaps of faith and the willingness to wrestle with hard issues and ask tough questions accomplishes something nothing short of miraculous.
As Katy and Bill White thanked God for the gift of their gay son, Timothy, I thank God for inspiring the White family to share this positive and powerful witness for us all.
(Rev.) S.S. Brown
San Diego
To the Editor:
Thank you for publishing Timothy White’s beautiful story of love and reconciliation. We are sadly lacking those elements in America today. Our country is riven by extremes of anti-everything, it seems.
The current administration seems intent on doing away with America’s sense of humanity and responsibility for promoting what is good and helpful to our fellow human beings here and across the globe.
That is what makes America great. We must not lose that to selfish, powerful egotists who have no moral compass.
To the Editor:
Re “Can We Please Stop Calling These People Populists?,” by David Brooks (column, Feb. 14):
In this column and others by Mr. Brooks inveighing against “liberal elites,” I’m feeling left out. I’m a John Stuart Mill liberal, certainly well educated — my father, a science teacher and a Republican, insisted on it — but not an academic. I’m a member of the professional class (a retired trade journalist), but I never made a salary of more than five figures per year. I am anti-bigotry, anti-authoritarian, pro-labor. I am pro-democracy and believe in “liberty and justice for all.”
My many liberal friends fit much of the same description: What makes us “elite”? It seems to me that Mr. Brooks, like other professional observers of the political scene, has a limited set of boxes he wants to fit us all into. Could it be that they are not sufficiently in touch with the full diversity of the American public? Could it be that they, too, are the elite?
George Stubbs
Durham, N.C.
To the Editor:
David Brooks inexplicably misses an essential hallmark of populism. Let’s start with a basic definition of the populist: “a member of a political party claiming to represent ordinary people against the Establishment.” The key word here is claiming. The claims of certain populists may strain credulity more than others, but make no mistake: Deception is a defining feature, not a bug, of the populist calling card.
The litmus test for a populist, then, cannot possibly hinge on his actual devotion to “boosting the destinies of working-class Americans,” as Mr. Brooks writes. What did the French Revolution do to boost the destinies of the French citizen? Nothing. It brought only destiny-destroying tyranny.
Americans will realize the deception only when it hits them where it hurts: in the pocketbook.
Rod Thompson
Holland, Mich.
