Dismissing serious maladies is no mere headache
Manhattan: Recently, President Trump resurrected his callous minimization of veterans’ brain injuries as just headaches, nothing serious. This again demands correction. Brain injuries can generally be so lastingly devastating that last summer, the CDC finally reclassified them as chronic conditions. Sadly, this major news was largely unreported outside the injury community’s networks.
Brain injury is one of America’s greatest epidemic challenges. They’re spawns of many varied causes, from common falls and collisions to sensationalized electrical injuries like mine, which I’ve tackled daily since 1997 — chronic indeed! And hidden! The systemic turmoil its often contradictory symptoms can impart — physical, cognitive, psychological — often eludes observation and useful perception by survivors, social circles and professional care providers. They’re often misdiagnosed, mistreated, misunderstood and disrespected, further taxing the grossly upended lives of survivors and caregivers. The best rehabilitations and resources are frequently unaffordable or have limited coverage.
To improve awareness, concerned citizens can engage with brain injury associations, request more and broader presentations in media beyond duly addressing veterans’ and athletes’ experiences, and openly insist that public servants wholeheartedly advance and protect public rights, benefits, care and research.
However, even optimum national awareness about all health concerns for Americans may no longer matter given the autocratic devastation of rights and resources by MAGA’s terroristic reign. Surging vociferous public outcry seems the only way to possibly stymie Trumpocracy and preserve any democratic remains. Wherever anyone stands politically, brain injuries, like other woes — though often preventable by proper means — will strike. Everyone is susceptible, even your good self or monstrous wannabe kings or queens. Phil Vanaria
Bureaucratic distress
Tomkins Cove, N.Y.: To Voicer Julia Golbin: I’m sure you are hardly alone in decrying what you went through trying to get your mother’s affairs corrected with the Social Security Administration. Please, Julia, explain how cheering Elon Musk and his chainsaw is going to help resolve anyone’s problems with any government agency that is being decimated on a daily basis. Doug Slotolowicz
Spite’s not right
Wyckoff, N.J.: I have nothing but empathy for Voicer Julia Golbin, whose mother faced repeated snafus at Social Security that threatened her already precarious financial circumstances. She is absolutely right to be frustrated with the lethargic and thus far ineffective response of SSA staff. However, if she thinks massive cuts in staffing and closing offices are going to improve that service for her and millions of others like her mother as she cheers Chainsaw Musk, I have a recalled Tesla I can sell her for cheap. Marc Schaeffer
Bad business
Bronx: Of course, former President Joe Biden and the Democrats will be blamed. It won’t be long now. In record time, our New York City native son and Wharton School “graduate” bankrupted three Atlantic City casinos, a profitable Boston-NYC-D.C. shuttle airline, Trump University, Trump Steaks and possibly the Plaza Hotel, etc. Now, apartheid sympathizer and non-elected Musk-Trump occupy the White House, setting up a very unpopular vengeance cabinet, unwanted tariff wars, an unhinged government shutdown threat, elimination of whole agencies, public fights and humiliations of allies and decent, stable men and women. The destroyers are here! How long before the U.S. Treasury declares bankruptcy? Rose Mary Lancaster
Public hurts
Manhattan: Our great country once pulled itself out of a Depression by having the federal government hire people to work on our infrastructure and even created an income for people in the arts (Works Progress Administration). We now have a president who can’t seem to learn from history. He is doing the exact opposite by firing thousands of federal workers who directly contribute to our economy with their salaries. So, our government decreases the deficit and pulls in money in tariffs while the rest of us pay dearly for higher-priced goods from the tariffs and confusion from the lost government jobs. Now Trump can say that the government has money to keep the tax rate low on billionaires so that they can buy million-dollar paintings that contribute nothing to our economy. Shame! Leonard Smoke
Judicial check
Peters Township, Pa.: Finally, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts endured enough of Trump’s meddling and shenanigans, issuing a stern rebuke to the president for his latest audacious, shameful denigration and endangerment of a federal judge, an action designed to intimidate the judiciary and to place its members and their families in danger from Trump’s minions. Trump had the audacity to reference Judge James Boasberg as a “radical-left lunatic” and to call for his impeachment because he issued a ruling Trump did not like regarding the ouster of immigrants. Roberts noted the obvious: For more than 200 years, impeachment has not been an appropriate response to a disagreement with a judicial ruling. Trump has asserted that he is a king. It is obvious he believes it. Roberts has performed a public service, making it clear that the executive branch is not the only branch of government with authority. Oren Spiegler
Due to all
Manhattan: To Voicer Gregory J. Topliff, who berates Boasberg for restraining Trump’s expulsion of 200 suspected Venezuelan gang members: As a former law enforcement officer, you must know something about the law that says, “No person shall… be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” It’s the Fifth Amendment to our Constitution, and take note that it specifically applies to “persons” — not just to American citizens, law-abiding folks or enforcement officers, but to everybody. “Persons” includes immigrants living in the U.S., documented or not, including dangerous criminals, and even includes youths who are suspected of being Venezuelan gang members. Boasberg is applying due process to this case, which is what judges are required to do. By the way, Trump, who swore an oath to “faithfully execute” our nation’s laws, is also required to follow due process, including for those he doesn’t particularly like. Douglas Clifford
Bailout blunder
Manhattan: Reading Voicer Kamala Patel’s criticisms of the French, one thing struck me hard: She said, “We bailed out the French in Vietnam,” and I thought, “Yeah, that worked out well.” Don Cerrone
Almost all-white
Manhattan: Thursday’s two-page article “FDNY dispatchers to the rescue” (March 19) pictures a team of 18 FDNY dispatchers. Of the group, I see one Black face way back in the rear. My 1987 FDNY Academy graduating class had more than 300 cadets with no females and only two Blacks — myself and another cadet. That was nearly 50 years ago, and that picture clearly shows that diversity is still nowhere near where it should be in the FDNY. Leonard Marshall
Hard to watch
Somers, N.Y.: As someone who is true to the orange-and-blue, I am disappointed that some 20 Mets games will not be telecast on SNY. These games will appear on Apple TV+, ESPN, Fox and possibly other networks. The excuse given is that this gives more national exposure to our team. OK, well and good, but then use announcers from the teams that are playing, not network announcers, who may not have the insights into the two teams. I would love to hear Gary Cohen, Ron Darling or Keith Hernandez for my team. I hear that many Mets fans turn off the audio and listen to the Mets radio broadcast while watching these games. I could never sync up that audio with the TV. I realize that the times are a-changing, but this just seems a limiting factor for many fans. I’m hoping the day never comes when more games are not on SNY. Play ball, and let’s go Mets. Michael Gold
Mistaken ID
Rye Brook, N.Y.: To Voicer W. Twirley: A few days before the attack on the USS Liberty in the June 1967 war, the U.S. stated at the UN that it had no naval forces within hundreds of miles of the battlefront. But when the Liberty was attacked, it was 14 miles off the Sinai coast, in the same area where an Egyptian warship had fired on Israeli positions the previous day. The U.S. claimed that communication failures prevented the Liberty from receiving instructions not to approach within 100 miles. Separate Israeli and American investigations stated that the Liberty was mistaken for an Egyptian warship. Israel apologized for the tragedy and paid reparations to the families of the victims established by the U.S. State Department. Demes Poulos