to the Editor:
To Margaret Renkel’s challenge – “Don’t like the politics of the South? Move here and vote” (Opinion, July 20) – my response is that I don’t need to and I don’t know why I would. I may not vote in the South, but my money can.
One thing we learned from Donald Trump is that every elected office is a national office. I am happy to contribute for good candidates in states other than myself.
This is my way of nationalizing every election in the South and fighting against the regional interests and narrow political views rooted there. If more voters across the country made each contest their own, local politicians could not compete.
Richard W. Poyton
Lenox, Mass.
to the Editor:
I am very grateful to Margaret Renkel for her essay encouraging liberals to go south and vote. I hope to do something.
As a lifelong and fairly generous Southerner, I grapple with despair and despair as I have seen many of my neighbors fall for lies told by a defeated former president. The divisiveness he has promoted is only making America mean – not great.
I’ve been saying that I need to move into a more liberal zone, and if it weren’t for my kids and grandchildren, who all live nearby, I would have.
Thank you, Ms. Renkel, for helping me remember the other good reasons to stay home and work for change.
Chandler Rosenberger
Suwani, Ga.
to the Editor:
Margaret Renkel urges more liberal voters to go south. He should know that in choosing a house people make decisions based on what is best for them. Any family that may someday have members of childbearing age must now consider where they will all be safe.
If people already living in the South vote against the health and safety of their citizens, they cannot expect others to step in to protect them.
carlene boisaubin
Eggersville, NY
to the Editor:
I love Margaret Renkel’s essay. This is all true of what we found in the South when we moved there because of a granddaughter five years ago. Southern hospitality is a real thing. Neighbors will help with a lost pet or a flat tire at any time of day or night.
We are balanced liberal voters who want to respect everyone, whatever their politics. I sometimes wish Trump signs weren’t so big or that pickups remove their big Confederate flags, but I’ve never met a mean person in five years.
We plan to be snowbirds soon, Colorado in the summer and the Florida panhandle in the winter. I’m looking for more of you who think like Margaret Renkel.
Marcella Anand Ruchu
Colorado Springs
to the Editor:
Margaret Renkel has accurately mentioned the many virtues of the South. Beauty, hospitality and kindness live there.
However, as a mother of two daughters who live in Nashville, I now live in fear of what might happen if one of them suffered a pregnancy complication and more recently Dobbs’ decision to seek lifesaving care. been denied.
I must respectfully disagree with Ms. Renkel and caution, “Liberals, run for your life.”
Carrie Montagu
Sparks, Mohd.
to the Editor:
Both my parents came from Kentucky, so I spent a lot of time in the South when I was younger. I laughed when I read the author’s description of Southerners being generous and always ready to help if your car breaks down or anything. My observation was that this can happen if you are white and if they see you as Christian and heterosexual.
I would not live in the American South for any amount.
glynn chestnut
Glendale, Calif.
to the Editor:
Like Margaret Renkel, I’m a Tennessean. I am a Southern Democrat who is constantly troubled by the insanity of many of our neighbors and fellow citizens in the volunteer state and beyond.
I think he’s clear about today’s America, but not being mean or spiteful. In today’s desert of introspection and concern for the Commonwealth, she provides us with an oasis of concrete perspectives.
Kudos to him for his willingness to briefly address these thorny issues in the belly of the Red South. And congratulations to The New York Times for hosting your blue-ribbon authors’ essays and all the other works.
Matt Thomson Sr.
Jackson, Ten.
Biden vs. Trump over January 6
to the Editor:
Ray “Biden Lashes Trump Over Capital Riot, Says He ‘Lacks Courage to Act'” (News article, July 26):
President Biden lets Donald Trump go too easily. Perhaps his actions were deeper; Perhaps he had planned a rebellion and was waiting to take control. We have to stop the naivete and consider that his plans may be far more dangerous to our democracy.
Pat Alexander
Cortland Manor, NY
to the Editor:
I think President Biden has done it wrong. Trump had “the courage to act”… in his own self-interest!
Brent Thomas
Cold Spring, NY
to the Editor:
We misrepresent the former president too easily. He did not lack the courage to act against the mob attack on the Capitol; He lacked the stature of a president. In choosing not to act, he failed the presidency.
Harold A Mao
Fort Myers, Fla.
Don’t ignore covid for long
to the Editor:
“Endemic COVID-19 Looking Brutal,” by David Wallace-Wells (Sunday Opinion, 24 July) overlooks one of the most dangerous aspects of endemic Covid-19: increased cases of prolonged COVID-19.
Too often, prolonged Covid is buried under media coverage that counts infection rates, deaths and hospitalizations as markers of the pandemic. We cannot predict the full impact of the long COVID in the coming decades, especially as the number of affected persons continues to rise.
Long-term Covid victims are adults of all ages, and even children. They are parents, scholars, athletes and valued community members. Most of them once led full and active lives but now spend their days at home. Many people can no longer work but have been denied disability benefits.
Comprehensive covid journalism gives rise to comprehensive covid policy. We cannot discuss only endemic covid without including covid for a long time. Otherwise, we discourage action against a largely disabling incident, the impact of which we have just begun to measure.
Emma Zimmerman
Brooklyn
prayer in schools
to the Editor:
I am old enough to remember when there used to be prayer in schools. When my elementary school class read the Lord’s Prayer, I murmured or kept silent, knowing it was not my prayer.
Judges, please don’t make my grandchildren feel the same inconvenience. These are government schools, they belong to everyone.
Burt Solomon
Arlington, Va.