To the Editor:
Re “In Search of the Misplaced Altar of Oblivion,” by Linda Kinstler (Opinion visitor essay, June 16), about how America continues to be processing the occasions of Jan. 6 and different traumas:
Like Dr. Kinstler, I too have been unable to search out any surviving hint of an “altar of oblivion” on the Acropolis in Athens. Maybe the plain reply is that there by no means was one. In spite of everything, the traditional Athenians had been far too sensible to erect an architectural contradiction in phrases — a memorial to the very act of forgetting.
However forgetting is what oblivion is all about, and oblivion — not for themselves however for inconvenient truths — is what careerist politicians then and now have all the time craved, keen as they’re to comb embarrassing information underneath historical past’s carpet.
Certainly, the oblivion that Dr. Kinstler celebrates, claiming that it will function a becoming mannequin for our personal political habits right this moment, led to the execution of Socrates, a person many Athenians needed out of the way in which as a result of he believed in reality and didn’t readily undergo phoniness and fools.
Remembering the Jan. 6 riot in all its ugliness, not forgetting it and naïvely shifting on, is exactly what America wants if we’re to protect a democracy value saving.
Stephen Bertman
West Bloomfield, Mich.
The author is professor emeritus of classics on the College of Windsor in Ontario and the writer of “Cultural Amnesia: America’s Future and the Disaster of Reminiscence.”
To the Editor:
Whereas Linda Kinstler’s essay is artistic, it isn’t fairly persuasive for a number of causes. One is scale: Two examples she cites — the Revolutionary Struggle and the Civil Struggle — had been yearslong conflicts that immediately affected the whole nation, so an act of oblivion may justly be seen as the one means that the nation may transfer on.
A second considerations the character of media. Whereas reminiscences and contemporaneous newspaper accounts about such occasions had been accessible, right this moment’s web implies that virtually anybody, anyplace, can entry info, preserve it alive and touch upon it indefinitely. Whereas Dr. Kinstler holds that reminiscence “shouldn’t be infinite,” the web definitely is, and it simply turns into a placeholder for each particular person and societal reminiscence.
When she speaks of Clear Slate legal guidelines, the “altar of oblivion” can actually come to life. Even so, implementation of such legal guidelines relies upon upon the gravity of the offense (e.g., misdemeanors, not felonies), altering occasions (e.g., anti-marijuana legal guidelines now being repealed) or different circumstances that “be certain that punishments are usually not perpetual.”
Briefly, the spirit of her argument can and may dwell on, however solely specifically circumstances that apply largely to people, to not whole societies.
Invoice Dingfelder
Philadelphia
To the Editor:
It’s unusual that Linda Kinstler by no means mentions “reconciliation” — as in South Africa’s Fact and Reconciliation Fee. The one downside is the perpetrators, together with former President Donald Trump, who should admit to the reality.
Nelson Mandela’s imaginative and prescient for South Africa definitely differed from the persevering with mantra of lies that may disappear into oblivion in America.
Edward W. Earle
Belfast, Maine
Trump’s V.P. Components
To the Editor:
Re “Trump Places a Premium on Debate Abilities as He Sizes Up Potential Working Mates” (information article, June 15):
How telling that Donald Trump’s three key elements in figuring out whom he shall choose as his vice-presidential candidate are fund-raising, campaigning self-discipline and debating abilities.
What occurred to health to succeed the president and overseas coverage or legislative expertise? Why isn’t there the identical dialogue about Mr. Trump’s age and well being as there’s with the media’s obsession with President Biden’s?
Gregory J. Stamos
Woodbridge, Conn.
An Age Restrict for Presidents
To the Editor:
As an 81-year-old who has had a distinguished profession within the computing sciences, I can testify that President Biden, 81, is prone to be too outdated to capably serve out the calls for of one other time period.
However so is former President Donald Trump, who’s 78.
Maybe it’s time for a constitutional modification alongside these traces:
“No individual shall be elected president who shall have reached the age of 75 upon the date of inauguration. This modification shall not apply to any individual elected president earlier than its ratification.” (The second sentence ought to take away the dialogue from the immediacy of present politics.)
We will debate whether or not the age must be 70, 75 or another age, however it appears that evidently we’re more and more probably sooner or later to cope with presidents who’re too outdated to satisfy the tasks of workplace. It is a far cry from the talk in 1960, when some thought that John F. Kennedy, at 43, was too younger to be elected.
Hugh C. Lauer
Harmony, Mass.
Ukraine Peace Talks?
To the Editor:
Re “Over 80 International locations Urge Talks to Deliver Finish to Russia’s Struggle With Ukraine” (information article, June 17):
The issue with holding peace talks between Ukraine and Russia is that the latter has already grabbed territory that it claims is a part of Russia by proper and that its dictator, Vladimir Putin, subsequently insists he’ll struggle — presumably with nuclear weapons — to maintain.
Mr. Putin has additionally hinted that he considers no less than parts of the Baltic republics and even Poland to be sovereign Russian territory. If allowed by negotiations to maintain what he has stolen at gunpoint, as he’s been allowed to maintain Crimea, what is going to he demand subsequent? What’s going to he seize at gunpoint subsequent?
We have now been right here earlier than. Greater than 80 years in the past, one other dictator started seizing territory he insisted rightfully belonged to his nation. Time after time he claimed that his newest demand can be his final; time after time that turned out to be a lie.
The West sat on its palms, unwilling to danger battle to guard small, weak nations from being subjugated. It acquired battle anyway, ending in lots of hundreds of thousands lifeless and a ravaged and divided Europe. At present, with nuclear missiles by the 1000’s on the prepared, it might be even worse.
Because the saying goes, those that refuse to study from historical past are condemned to repeat it. I would like peace as a lot as anybody, however not at that value. Mr. Putin must be stopped now and compelled to again down with no beneficial properties no matter to point out for his aggression, simply as that earlier tyrant ought to have been — if it’s not already too late.
Eric B. Lipps
Staten Island
Causes for Avoiding Parenthood
To the Editor:
I learn with nice curiosity Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman’s Opinion visitor essay “Liberal Narratives Go away Little Room for Having Youngsters” (June 16).
I humbly supply that progressives aren’t having as many youngsters as anticipated not due to some exaggerated fatalism in regards to the future, or a consuming need for self-advancement and enrichment, however just because many progressive {couples} require monetary stability as a primary household basis (more and more out of attain within the larger cities) and since many ladies need companions who’re respectful of their wants and totally share the emotional and bodily labor of elevating youngsters.
As a substitute of constructing this a problem of misguided politics or selfishness, why not discover the deeply sensible causes that individuals aren’t reproducing? It is going to yield extra significant solutions.
Monica Bhargava
Berkeley, Calif.
