Every week, The Post runs a collection of letters of readers’ grievances — pointing out grammatical mistakes, missing coverage and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong and, occasionally, offer praise. Here, we present this week’s Free for All letters.
There was a compelling reason to save Robert E. Lee’s statue from the furnace.
I had come to the opinion that it was time to remove the equestrian sculpture of Lee from public view because it was a focal point for the Unite the Right violence in Charlottesville in 2017, but I strongly disagreed with the decision to destroy it.
The Oct. 27 front-page article “Robert E. Lee’s secret meltdown” failed to identify the sculptor and his related work. Henry Merwin Shrady was an American sculptor most remembered for his creation of the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial on the west side of the U.S. Capitol. Daniel Chester French, another noted American sculptor, was originally asked to create the Lee sculpture, but because of other commissions, he recommended Shrady. Shrady designed the Lee sculpture but died in 1922. The statue was completed by Leo Lentelli, an Italian American sculptor. How wonderful it might have been for future artists and historians to be able to compare the two sculpted titans of the American Civil War created by the same artist, Grant on the verge of victory and Lee at the moment of defeat.
As a metals conservator, I can’t in good conscience agree with the destruction of a work of art because the subject matter is or has become controversial. The destruction of the Lee sculpture is reminiscent of the 2001 destruction of the Buddha sculptures in Afghanistan by the Taliban. Relatedly, the U.S. Army saw fit to retain rather than destroy significant works of Nazi art following World War II.
Edward McManus, Washington
The writer, a former objects and metals conservator for the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution, retired as chief conservator for the National Air and Space Museum in 2008 and is a member of the Washington Conservation Guild and the American Institute for Conservation.
We got the coal mine, you got the shaft
As a native of the Buckeye State whose mother was born and raised in Ashtabula, Ohio (and with family still living there), I was quite disappointed to read in the Oct. 24 front-page article “Red-state politics are shaving years off U.S. lives” that the city of Ashtabula is a “once-thriving coal town.”
Where in the world did the reporters get that piece of fiction? Better yet, how do they define “coal town”?
A “coal town” suggests a community whose main employer is a coal-mining firm and whose livelihood is based on the production of coal.
Ashtabula used to be a very active port for the big lake ships that hauled various ore, coal included, up and down the Great Lakes. My grandfather worked on these lake boats as a young man. But there is no coal mine in or near the city of Ashtabula. In fact, you’d have to travel pretty far south of Ashtabula to find a coal mine.
I was so agitated by this odd description that I visited the Ohio Division of Mineral Resources website, whose data and maps show no coal mines anywhere in Ashtabula County.
I’m sure few Post readers care whether Ashtabula was a coal town, but this Buckeye takes umbrage at such digressions from the facts.
David Bates, Takoma Park
A big dose of irrelevance
What was The Post thinking when it put “A big dose of exuberance from actress in drug ad” on the Oct. 20 front page? On an extremely busy news day, space was wasted on that? And it gave free advertising to a drug company.
If this article belonged anywhere in The Post, it belonged in the Style section.
Ray Converse, Arlington
A great athlete — and even better sport
Thanks to The Post for the two moving pieces last week about the death of Frank Howard: Thomas Boswell’s Nov. 1 Sports column, “‘Hondo’ was the Senators’ mythic, gentle giant,” and the Oct. 31 front-page obituary, “‘Capital Punisher’ was a mighty force for Senators.”
My dad and I were at the 1969 All-Star Game in RFK Stadium, in which Howard launched one of his massive bombs into the center field stands. All we could do was look at each other and shake our heads in awe.
Despite the powerful heroics of his career, it seems he will largely be remembered for his kindness to others. Oh, to possess such a lost art in these troubled times.
Tom Ryan, Annandale
We don’t know a lick about alickadoos
I continue to be appalled by the dreadful lack of coverage of certain world sporting events — particularly events in which the United States is not participating or has already been eliminated.
Oct. 28 saw the final of the Rugby World Cup between New Zealand and South Africa in France, the culmination of a seven-week event in which a considerable number of countries took part. I did not expect a detailed description of the final match, but I did expect at least a one-line mention in the Scoreboard subsection, wedged between the interminable details on baseball, college football, NASCAR racing, tennis, golf and basketball. But there was not one mention.
Nick Morriss, Chevy Chase
Are we out of our gourd?
The Oct. 27 editorial page was another disappointment. Where are the substantive reviews by the editors of current events and issues? Starting with the “editorial” cartoon, the “editorial” part is missing. The cartoon by Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby was cute, but it added nothing to the discussion of important issues (political, social, historical). On top of that, these days there is only one editorial. Maybe there is a goal of adding more room for letters like mine, but l look to The Post to help me think about major issues of the day, hearing from people who are more connected to the players than I am.
Mary McComb, Washington
Uber Eats, shoots and leaves
I was shocked to read the Oct. 31 Metro headline set up as:
12-year-old
admits to
robbing Uber
Eats driver
My mind put in a period after Uber, and that made the headline extremely disturbing.
Pete Bucky, Ashburn
It was spelt wrong
I was reading with gusto the Oct. 27 Style article about the state dinner, “U.S. and Australia hold state dinner with muted mood,” when my gusto turned to distaste as I read that “Farrow and beet salad with popped sorghum” were part of the meal. I could not believe that farrow, which is a litter of pigs, was served with beets. Nor could it have been faro, a card game. And I was certain it couldn’t have been Mia Farrow who was served with the beets.
When I realized the author meant farro, a grain that is becoming quite popular these days and is often served with beets, my distaste turned again to gusto, and I enjoyed reading about the rest of the meal.
Edie Kramer, Washington
Throw readers a life preserver, not an anchor
Too much of a good thing, in this case, continues to be too much.
Although I respect George F. Will for his knowledge and his command of the English language, my tolerance needle as I read his material is pegged at the limit most of the time. I realize that, in any given column, a paragraph, per se, should not be individually “dissected” because the risk of context loss is severe.
Still, try this, from Will’s Oct. 26 op-ed, “The tragic second life of ‘separate but equal’ ”:
“As Yascha Mounk explains in ‘The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time,’ this century’s most momentous development in political thought is progressivism’s rejection of universalism. This great repudiation sweeps away governance focused on individual rights, which can be protected only by the universalist premise that, in Mounk’s words, ‘for political purposes, all human beings are born equal.’ ”
Harvard- and Trinity-educated Mounk (at 41!) is a highly respected journalist with an impressive repertoire. If Mounk and Will were closer in age, it would be a coin toss as to who might be taking advantage of the other’s gifted style.
I’m just an ordinary reader with a life of my own and precious little time to verify Will’s references. Please just support opinions with suggestions of their origins. I will believe you. Please don’t submerge me with “this century’s momentous development in political thought” being “progressivism’s rejection of universalism.” As it is, I already don an inflatable life vest before reading Will’s columns these days. I know what drowning is all about.
John Hebbe, Fairfax Station
Suffer little children — and help them
The otherwise excellent Oct. 27 Politics & the Nation article “GOP delays more than $1 billion in HIV program funding” failed to mention one important issue: the threat to the 7.2 million orphans and vulnerable children currently receiving food, health care and education under the revolutionary global health program.
Since its inception 20 years ago, the wholly bipartisan President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has directed that 10 percent of all funding be used to protect and nurture children infected or affected by HIV. PEPFAR has enjoyed wild success in this area, yet approximately 14 million children orphaned by AIDS remain in need of care and support.
Not every component of PEPFAR requires reauthorization, but the 10 percent set-aside used to protect children expired Oct. 1. Some lawmakers have curtly dismissed concerns that the money — now part of PEPFAR’s larger pot — might be diverted from children. “Who would hurt kids?” they argue. But the fact is that our country has a pretty poor record of spending on children when it doesn’t have to.
Children represent nearly a quarter of the U.S. population, yet Congress allocated less than 10 percent of the fiscal 2023 budget to them. Children account for 30 percent of all people on the planet, yet just 9 cents of every U.S. foreign-aid dollar goes to kids.
The minimum acceptable solution is a clean, five-year reauthorization of PEPFAR, which would continue to support these children at current levels. An even better solution would be to start putting kids first in all public policy and budget decisions.
Leila Nimatallah, Middletown
The writer is vice president of advocacy and mobilization at First Focus on Children.
Suffering little children
Loay Ayyoub’s Oct. 26 front-page photograph of a young Palestinian boy’s anguish outside a morgue was heart-wrenching [“Rising calls for a pause in violence”]. I hope to see it nominated for an award in the year to come. Perhaps a Pulitzer.
Patricia Heefner, Waynesboro, Pa.
When thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet
I don’t endorse John Chau or his mission, but I still had to take exception to one sentence in Mark Jenkins’s Oct. 27 Weekend review of the documentary “The Mission,” “Doc explores an ill-fated attempt to evangelize a remote society.”
Jenkins wrote that “people who in all sincerity set out to do God’s work are, of course, also doing their own.” With all due respect, this is unfair to many Christians, from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to William Wilberforce to William Christie to numerous others, including my much-missed former pastor.
Numerous people of faith have selflessly helped others with no gain, and often with detriment, to their own interests, and certainly with little or no media attention.
Anthony Porco, Savage
It’s not just ‘Friends’ in low places
The Post covered the struggles and death of Matthew Perry with care and sensitivity, including in the Oct. 30 Politics & the Nation obituary, “As Chandler Bing, ‘Friends’ star became a TV buddy to millions.” As a clinical social worker who has worked for the past 30 years with people who don’t have a place to live and who also struggle with substance use and other mental health disorders, I wish that their struggles were treated the same.
Our national policies regarding substance use have evolved since the days of “Just Say No,” but we have a long way to go.
If we truly wanted to treat substance use disorders as a public health crisis, we would offer a range of treatment to everyone and think about prevention. We would have available a continuum of care, from detox to residential facilities, accessible immediately to all who needed such care. We would screen children as early as possible for adverse childhood experiences (a simple, trauma-identifying screening) and offer intensive support to these children and their families early on to prevent substance use disorder from developing.
We would recognize that, often, substance use disorders develop in response to trauma and loss. We would stop the stigma of blaming people with addictions and judging them. We would stop basing access to care on income and insurance and rather offer such care to all. This would be costly, but the loss of lives is even more so.
Yvonne M. Perret, Cumberland, Md.
The writer is executive director of the Advocacy and Training Center and founder of SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery.
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2023-11-10 12:02:37Z
CBMiXmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9vcGluaW9ucy8yMDIzLzExLzEwL21lbHQtbGVlLXN0YXR1ZS1mcmFuay1ob3dhcmQtbWF0dGhldy1wZXJyeS_SAQA
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