To the Editor:
Re “For Lots of Us, Jan. 6 By no means Ended,” by Aquilino Gonell (Opinion visitor essay, Jan. 6):
This arguably darkest day in American historical past was witnessed by tens of millions of individuals worldwide on tv. 9 folks wound up useless and greater than 140 cops had been injured defending the legislators contained in the Capitol constructing and democracy itself. Mr. Gonell, a sergeant within the Capitol Police on the time, and the remainder of the defenders of democracy are the true patriots.
Jan. 20, 2025, will probably be a defining day within the historical past of democracy in america when President-elect Donald Trump takes workplace. He has mentioned he’ll pardon the rioters — or patriots, hostages, warriors, peaceable protesters, as he has referred to as them.
If Mr. Trump follows by on his promise to pardon these concerned, it is going to be a desecration of democracy and a travesty of the justice system. He’ll affirm his stature as an enemy of democracy inside.
John Garteiz
Munich
To the Editor:
“A minimum of I get to listen to my son name me his hero,” writes Aquilino Gonell, a former Capitol Police sergeant. Mr. Gonell, please know you and your courageous colleagues are heroes to all of us who take care of and work to help democracy. I, for one, give you my profound gratitude and respect.
Ellen Steinbaum
Boston
To the Editor:
We thought the rebellion 4 years in the past on Jan. 6 had failed, and Donald Trump had fled Washington in shame.
Implausibly, right here we’re 4 years later with the previous president as soon as once more about to develop into essentially the most highly effective man on this planet. These insurrectionists, since discovered responsible in our courts of legislation, will probably quickly obtain presidential pardons for his or her violent actions in opposition to our nation and our democracy.
The rebellion, it seems, was solely delayed, as greater than 77 million People have granted the lawless man one other shot at authoritarian rule, all for the empty promise of cheaper eggs and satiation of their hostility towards different people.
America has proven the world who we actually are.
David Pederson
Excelsior, Minn.
To the Editor:
Re “How Trump Flipped Script and Made Jan. 6 an Asset” (entrance web page, Jan. 5):
Donald Trump and the G.O.P. initially rescripted the occasions of Jan. 6, 2021, from a Trump-fomented insurgency to an indication that was infiltrated by a violent leftist antifa ingredient posing as Trump supporters. Regardless of the dearth of any credible proof to help this ludicrous conspiracy principle, it resonated together with his base.
Finally Mr. Trump dropped the antifa smokescreen, praising the insurgents as patriots who had been merely reacting to a stolen election. Each Home and Senate Republicans coalesced round this sanitized narrative.
Primarily based on this state of affairs, the Capitol Police have been focused by Mr. Trump and his acolytes because the victimizers, whereas these renegades who stormed the Capitol have been labeled the victims. Mr. Trump’s model of the insurgency has gone mainstream.
For the safeguarding of our fragile democracy, it’s crucial that these concerned, at no matter degree, within the rebellion at our nation’s Capitol be held to account. For in searching for to compromise the legitimacy of our electoral course of, they’ve betrayed the very nation they so jingoistically suggest to make nice once more.
Robert Judkins
Hendersonville, Tenn.
To the Editor:
I’m a World Warfare II veteran, and I discover this rewriting of historical past deeply troubling. My era put their lives on the road to protect elections and the peaceable switch of energy. Some paid the last word worth, together with considered one of my highschool buddies, an solely youngster.
If we purchase this argument, then we’re in actual bother and don’t deserve our democracy.
Leonard Kliff
Laguna Woods, Calif.
To the Editor:
Re “After Jan. 6 Circumstances, Life Was Totally different for These Concerned” (information article, Jan. 6):
I discovered this text and these folks very disturbing. If the rioters had examine and investigated the courtroom circumstances that confirmed no proof that Donald Trump had received the 2020 election and listened to the Republicans in his administration who mentioned he misplaced, they’d not have stormed the Capitol, destroyed property and attacked cops.
As an alternative, they acted on emotion, not details, and ruined their lives, and now many blame the legal justice system. They most well-liked to consider a charlatan than to place within the exhausting work of doing their analysis. Like Mr. Trump, they take no duty for his or her actions.
Carol Shurman
New York
Well being Protection Woes
To the Editor:
Re “My Restaurant Was Named One in all New York Metropolis’s Finest. Right here’s Why It Closed” (Opinion visitor essay, nytimes.com, Dec. 28):
Yannick Benjamin tells a dispiriting story about why his restaurant, Contento, needed to shut regardless of glowing critiques. He explains that unbiased restaurant house owners in america can not afford to supply medical insurance for his or her workers.
Certainly, Mr. Benjamin himself needed to work a separate job whereas working his restaurant to obtain well being protection. Making issues much more troublesome, he had big prices for his wheelchair, and a good portion of these prices weren’t reimbursed by his well being plan.
One feels for Mr. Benjamin and his devoted workers. Culinary employees in america little question undergo extra from a scarcity of well being protection than many different employees, and Mr. Benjamin proposes a particular federal fund to cowl well being take care of this sector — a fund that might strengthen culinary tradition by bettering employee situations.
However there are definitely different small companies which are in the identical boat as small unbiased eating places. Slightly than deal with our well being care issues enterprise by enterprise, we want a nationwide well being plan for all People. It might profit all of us, and it will even be an amazing boon to small companies like Mr. Benjamin’s.
Ellen Oxfeld
Middlebury, Vt.
Investing in Science Schooling
To the Editor:
Re “Trump’s Sputnik Second: China,” by Thomas L. Friedman (column, Dec. 22):
Mr. Friedman highlights the pressing want for the U.S. to answer China’s ever-growing scientific and manufacturing capabilities “the way in which we did to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik” — that’s, “with our personal complete scientific, modern and industrial push.”
However Mr. Friedman doesn’t point out that an essential facet of the U.S. response to Sputnik was a nationwide effort, supported by the federal authorities, to enhance the curriculum and strategies for instructing highschool science. Given the fast progress in all fields of science and the disappointing efficiency of American college students in contrast with college students in peer nations, authorities help for science training needs to be central to making sure this nation’s means to compete with China and different technologically superior nations.
Sadly, Donald Trump’s antipathy towards science and training, and his scant understanding of science itself, don’t bode nicely for this mission.
Joseph D. McInerney
Lutherville, Md.
The author is a former director of the Organic Sciences Curriculum Examine, one of many science-education teams based after Sputnik.
