Liz Guenther’s Nov. 21 piece, “How Horses Knit a Farm Together: Clearing Land, Skidding Logs, All in Harmony With the Soil,” is pure poetry. Please keep Guenther in your stable of fine writers, and trot her out for us often!
Judy Pond
Norwich
I began reading Paul Keane’s Nov. 25 Perspectives column, “All the Presidents’ Lies,” with approval. I was pleased with his recognition of Jimmy Carter’s truthfulness, and was even prepared to overlook his implication that it was George Washington himself who made up the story about the cherry tree (it was not; it was an early biographer, Parson Weems).
But the piece soon turned into an egregious example of “whataboutism” — that temptation of our political moment that disregards all nuance and explanation. Some of the falsehoods cited were just that — lies — but does Keane completely discount the possibility that George H.W. Bush may have meant what he said about taxes when he said it, and then learned more about the federal budget as his term progressed? Does he know for a fact that Gerald Ford made a pardon deal with Nixon, or is he merely taking Seymour Hersh’s word for it? Can he admit the possibility that John Kennedy meant that he had no intention of sending U.S. troops into Cuba, as opposed to a force of Cuban exiles?
His worst “whatabout,” though, is citing FDR’s “Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars,” when we all know what happened little more than a year later. The follow-up to this citation is the nastiest part of Keane’s essay: “At least (Trump’s) lies have not caused thousands of war deaths. … We can’t say the same of the Bushes, Nixon, Johnson, Truman, or Roosevelt.”
Does he really think Franklin Roosevelt was the cause of thousands of American — or of any country’s — war deaths? I’m fully prepared to believe that Roosevelt’s “Your boys …” line may have been an outright falsehood. It probably was. But had he not made that statement — had he said, “I’m going to send your boys to fight” — he might well have lost the 1940 election. Maybe Charles Lindbergh would have become president, and made peace with Hitler and the Japanese warlords. Truth would have been served, and FDR wouldn’t have made Paul Keane’s hit parade of presidential liars. Different liars would have won the war, and they would not have taken kindly to being shamed for their falsehoods.
William G. Scheller
Randolph
Congratulations on an excellent article on the costs imposed on the public by the wholesale elimination of regulations by the current administration. Unfortunately, the headline for the story made it appear that the regulations impose the “costs.” Regulations are instruments for protection of the public from harmful activities. The article describes the many instances of cost imposed on the public when regulatory protections are weakened or eliminated, an important distinction.
Gerald Rosenthal
White River Junction
Though the Seattle Times rightly argues in the editorial you republished that “access to birth control is crucial to ensuring women can control their lives (and) plan their families” (“A Necessity, Not a Novelty; New Rules Deny Birth Control Coverage,” Nov. 27), the number of employers allowed to deny birth control coverage on “religious grounds” has steadily increased and shows no sign of stopping — let alone turning back. But since insurance companies are more than willing to furnish such coverage at no cost (simply to reduce the number of pregnancies they have to pay for), all the companies have to do is send their female subscribers (with their insurance papers) to Planned Parenthood. After furnishing birth control to all such applicants without charge, PP could send a list of them to the insurance company — whereupon the company could make an appropriate donation.
I’m betting this way of circumventing the obstructionism of employers such as Hobby Lobby could withstand any legal challenge they might bring.
James Heffernan
Hanover
I wrote this before the 2016 election, and I stand by it here: Donald Trump is the single greatest threat to the republic that this nation has ever faced.
A soulless narcissist, Trump cares only about being worshipped. He lies as he breathes. When spoken ill of he attacks and destroys. Whether through claims of fake news or fraudulent elections, he stirs up his wild-eyed supporters and readies them to go to battle for him — all under the guise of the patriot. Trump is Mussolini, Amin, Erdogan. His followers bathe in the froth and frenzy of anti-intellectual rage that he conjures. His detractors (me included) rant and rage around the dinner table, but do nothing of substance to defend those whom he marginalizes.
When defeated in 2020, he will claim the election was stolen by cheaters and he will casually foment civil strife, all in the cause of sheltering his pre-adolescent ego. When impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, he will claim crimes against him, that the presidency is being stolen from him, and that all freedom-loving people must rise to defend him, for the nation is in peril. The curtain has been drawn back. The fascist has been exposed. The United States is not immune to the ministrations of the dictator. Our collective arrogance has landed us here.
If history teaches anything, it is that the road back to a commitment to democracy takes a collective will: There must be resolve to stand with and defend the marginalized and scapegoated, and to stand up for what is right and true in the face of potential reprisal. This is not about ideology, left and right, Republican and Democrat. It is about living in a country in which the people, not the rulers, are sovereign. Trump does not believe this. He does not believe in democracy. And if we are not vigilant, he will destroy it.
Dan Weintraub
Quechee