To the Editor:
Re “V.A. Employees See Chaos in Companies for Psychological Care” (entrance web page, March 24):
I’m a Vietnam veteran. I served with the first Cavalry Division as a sanitary inspector and shoe-leather epidemiologist. I spent greater than 1,000 hours flying to bases between Saigon and the Cambodian border. We carried the wounded and lifeless on stretchers to help stations or graves registration. After returning residence in 1971, I went again to high school and buried the conflict.
In 1990, Operation Desert Protect opened up a can of trauma for me and plenty of vets. I couldn’t settle for that I, who had not carried a gun, was traumatized by my service. Over the following 30 years I went to household remedy, {couples} remedy and particular person remedy. However it was solely after Covid that I signed up for well being care at Veterans Affairs. The trauma remedy there exceeded any I had performed earlier than. I consider all of the V.A. well being providers immediately are nonpareil.
About six % of the nation’s inhabitants are veterans, and surveys have discovered that greater than half of Individuals have a detailed relative who has served within the navy. But I don’t hear or see my senators nor, with some exceptions, my representatives, objecting publicly and loudly to what President Trump and his appointees are doing to our veterans’ providers. In the event that they wish to be re-elected, they need to get some spine and converse out for the V.A. and all veterans.
This isn’t a political subject however one affecting the well being of the nation. Their deafening silence is a gross dishonor. Let’s put some substance behind “thanks to your service.”
James C. Wright
Gladwyne, Pa.
To the Editor
The suicide charge amongst veterans is staggering — a greater than double that of the civilian inhabitants. How, then, can a Republican administration that pins gun violence on the inaccessibility of psychological well being care justify what’s occurring at Veterans Affairs services across the nation?
Between DOGE chopping jobs and driving scientific professionals to stop by essentially altering their positions, what’s occurring is unconscionable. And extra lives might be misplaced consequently.
President Trump shouldn’t get to precise assist for our navy after which flip round and pull the rug out from below them. Our veterans — and the psychological well being work power that deal with so lots of them — deserve a lot better.
Thomas E. Templeton
Latham, N.Y.
The author is a licensed psychological well being counselor.
To the Editor
The Trump administration’s order that Veterans Affairs’s psychological well being professionals conduct remedy calls in an open-floor workplace violates the privateness pursuits of their sufferers, and displays the same mistake of the Reagan administration’s opening coverage, which it was compelled to reverse.
President Reagan’s first official act after his inauguration in 1981 was to impose a hiring freeze. David Stockman, the director of the Workplace of Administration and Price range, declared the freeze essential to “management instantly the scale and price of presidency.” Appropriated funds for hiring psychological well being professionals for Vietnam veteran counseling facilities established by Congress have been to not be spent. The authority Mr. Stockman relied on to halt the expenditure was the Impoundment Management Act of 1974.
Consultant David Bonior, chair of the Vietnam Veterans in Congress Caucus, sued Mr. Stockman in federal courtroom, was joined by different lawmakers in claiming such funds weren’t topic to impoundment.
Mr. Stockman, who prevented the draft in the course of the Vietnam Struggle as a result of he was a divinity pupil, finally agreed to the discharge of funds, thereby securing dismissal of the lawsuit. President Trump, who prevented the draft in the course of the Vietnam Struggle due to alleged bone spurs, ought to likewise rescind his actions harming emotionally troubled veterans.
Joseph C. Zengerle
Bethesda, Md.
The author, a disabled Vietnam veteran, was counsel to Mr. Bonior and different plaintiffs within the referenced lawsuit.
To the Editor
I used to be drafted into the Military in 1967, a 19-year-old boy from Brooklyn, as inexperienced as they arrive. I grew up actually quick the following 12 months once I was deployed to Vietnam, and in every letter I despatched residence to my household, I put this on the skin of the envelope in giant capital letters: I.A.C.W.B. (“It’s a Merciless World, Child”).
Although I turned cynical in how I seen the conflict effort, I made it again in a single piece, and I think about myself to at the present time to be a really fortunate man.
What President Trump and Elon Musk are doing to the veterans is an abomination. Mr. Trump has made it clear that he views anybody risking their lives serving the nation within the navy as losers. And now, in a depressing try and trim wasteful authorities fats, he’s placing veterans at even larger danger.
I’m all for eliminating authorities waste, however why goal Veterans Affairs? How about turning your trimming knife to the Pentagon and the bloated protection funds, which grows yearly?
If I wish to drop some pounds I can do it certainly one of two methods: I can restrict consuming fattening meals and minimize energy in order that the burden comes off with out placing my well being in danger.
Or I can minimize off my legs.
Len DiSesa
Dresher, Pa.
Losses in Nature
To the Editor:
Re “What the Dodo Tells Us, 300 Years After Its Extinction,” by Renée Bergland (Opinion visitor essay, nytimes.com, March 9):
Dr. Bergland rightly notes that extinction is nothing new. However because the chief scientist on the World Wildlife Fund, I’m disturbed by the present charge of nature loss.
Monitored wildlife populations have declined on common by 73 % in lower than 50 years. Life on earth hasn’t seen losses this steep for the reason that dinosaurs. In contrast to the dinosaurs, nonetheless, we’ve got the facility to cease and even reverse a lot of the harm.
Our planet is barreling towards unfavorable tipping factors that, if crossed, can have dire penalties for not simply nature, however for folks as effectively. That will sound alarmist to some, however the well being of even a single species inhabitants can have shocking ripple results and may very well be the set off for a extra expansive tipping level.
Take the ocean otter. As a predator, it retains ecosystems in steadiness. When fur merchants practically wiped the species out within the 18th century, sea urchins overwhelmed the kelp forests it known as residence, hurting fish shares and lowering coastal safety from storms.
However the sea otter’s saga didn’t finish there. Conservation efforts sparked a exceptional restoration, boosting ecotourism and native economies. On this approach, the ocean otter is only one of many examples of how thriving communities and a wholesome pure world go hand in hand. We flourish, or falter, collectively.
Rebecca Shaw
San Francisco
A.I. and People
To the Editor:
Re “A.I. Will Quickly Be Smarter Than People. Let’s Focus on,” by Kevin Roose (The Shift column, Sunday Enterprise, March 16):
I want to level out that regardless of all the present fear-mongering, synthetic intelligence will not be a menace to human beings.
A.I. is an unimaginable device when used correctly. Its foremost worth is in its predictive skills. It might probably sift via big quantities of information and discern patterns that the human mind, as predisposed to pattern-seeking as it’s, can not.
However A.I. can not change human thought. It might probably by no means write a piece of literature. Sure, it might probably emulate previous authors, however it might probably accomplish that solely in predictive methods. Or random methods.
What it can not do is create the surprising. That’s one thing solely a gifted writer can do. And by “surprising” I don’t imply random. I imply the exact flip of occasions that creates probably the most shock within the reader’s thoughts, and likewise the sense that what occurred was, in actual fact, exactly what ought to have been anticipated.
Solely a human thoughts can do this. So relaxation assured: A.I. won’t change us.
David Frank DeLuca
Palm Bay, Fla.
