To the Editor:
Re “A Startling Admission From a G.O.P. Senator: ‘We Are All Afraid’” (news article, nytimes.com, April 17):
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, says “we are all afraid.” But she is not alone. We the people are also afraid.
We the people want our democracy; we want our government to be for the people and not for billionaire nihilistic libertarians.
We want competent professionals to run our government, not incompetent political sycophants.
Senator Murkowski, please keep speaking out, and vote against all the undemocratic measures such as the SAVE Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Speak out every time you know something is not good law.
We the people urge your colleagues to join you in standing firm for our democracy.
Alice Schaffer Smith
Palo Alto, Calif.
The writer is the executive director of the National Voter Corps.
To the Editor:
Yes, we should all send a thank you to Senator Lisa Murkowski for speaking the truth. Her frankness and honesty are both somewhat shocking and invigorating!
While the Trump administration is an abomination of corruption and ill will, we are better than that. She is better than that.
Colby Allerton
Redondo Beach, Calif.
To the Editor:
Senator Lisa Murkowski says she and her colleagues are afraid of retribution from Donald Trump if they speak out against him. So what? We’re all afraid.
Your job as a senator has just been expanded to that of a warrior. You and your colleagues need to fight like hell as though our country’s future depends upon it. Because it does.
Doug Williams
Minneapolis
To the Editor:
If Senator Lisa Murkowski wants to do the right thing and make a difference, it is time for her to leave the Republican Party and become an independent — caucusing with the Democrats, as Senators Bernie Sanders and Angus King do. Otherwise, the hand-wringing, while welcome, will accomplish nothing.
To the Editor:
Re “Trump Wants Sixfold Increase in Funds to Detain Immigrants” (front page, April 8):
The Trump administration has justified cuts to public health, education and international aid programs in the name of “government efficiency.” At the same time, it is passing billions of taxpayer dollars to private prison executives to expand an immigration incarceration system that is notorious for abuse, mismanagement and waste.
The private prison executives who run 90 percent of immigration detention personally pocket millions in public funds by cutting costs through understaffing, overcrowding and denying minimum services like suitable food and medical care.
These ICE facilities aren’t just abusive. They’re also ineffective and wasteful. While community-based alternatives to detention like case management programs cost only $14 a day per participant and have returned a 100 percent court appearance rate, detaining one adult immigrant costs more than $160 a day.
Furthermore, the cities and towns meant to house and staff these new facilities have little interest in funding bonuses for out-of-state executives. From Leavenworth, Kan., to southwestern Wyoming to Newark, N.J., people across the country are fighting back against ICE’s private prison expansion and its broken promises of economic boom times for local workers.
These communities have made their voices clear. We don’t need more private prisons that profit off human suffering.
Medha Raman
Anthony Enriquez
The writers are attorneys at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Too Much Noise
To the Editor:
Re “Concerts Shake, Rattle and Roll Urban Oasis, Splitting Neighbors” (front page, April 19):
I and countless other New Yorkers sympathize with neighborhoods like Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, suffering from unrelenting noise during live outdoor concert events.
New Yorkers are never promised quiet in the best of circumstances, but that is why we have the New York Noise Code. Events throughout the year in my Inwood neighborhood in Manhattan exceed the code limits and harm public health. The police do little to stop it.
This problem will not be resolved until we make this electoral issue clear to our political leaders.
This has nothing to do with Not in My Back Yard. It has everything to do with Not in My Ear Drum.
Ted Gallagher
Paris
