To the Editor:
Re “V.A. Workers See Chaos in Services for Mental 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 useless on stretchers to help stations or graves registration. After returning dwelling in 1971, I went again to high school and buried the battle.
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 subsequent 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 accomplished earlier than. I consider all of the V.A. well being companies as we speak are nonpareil.
About 6 % of the nation’s inhabitants are veterans, and surveys have discovered that greater than half of Individuals have an in depth 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’ companies. In the event that they need to be re-elected, they need to get some spine and communicate out for the V.A. and all veterans.
This isn’t a political problem however one affecting the well being of the nation. Their deafening silence is a gross dishonor. Let’s put some substance behind “thanks in 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 taking place at Veterans Affairs amenities across the nation?
With DOGE chopping jobs and driving medical professionals to give up by essentially altering their positions, what’s taking place is unconscionable. And extra lives will probably be misplaced because of this.
President Trump mustn’t get to specific assist for our navy after which flip round and pull the rug out from below them. Our veterans — and the psychological well being work pressure that treats so a lot of them — deserve significantly 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 psychological well being professionals conduct remedy calls in an open-floor workplace violates the privateness pursuits of their sufferers, and displays an identical mistake of the Reagan administration’s opening coverage, which it was compelled to reverse.
President Ronald 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 dimensions 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, who sued Mr. Stockman in federal courtroom, was joined by different lawmakers in claiming such funds weren’t topic to impoundment.
Mr. Stockman, who averted the draft throughout the Vietnam Warfare as a result of he was a divinity scholar, in the end agreed to the discharge of funds, thereby securing dismissal of the lawsuit. President Trump, who averted the draft throughout the Vietnam Warfare 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 lawsuit towards Mr. Stockman.
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 subsequent 12 months after I was deployed to Vietnam, and in every letter I despatched dwelling to my household, I put this on the surface of the envelope in giant capital letters: I.A.C.W.B. (“It’s a merciless world, child.”).
Although I grew to become cynical in how I considered the battle effort, I made it again in a single piece, and I take into account myself to this present day 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 individuals risking their lives serving the nation within the navy as losers. And now, in a depressing try to trim wasteful authorities fats, he’s placing veterans at even higher 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 need to shed some pounds, I can do it considered one of two methods: I can restrict consuming fattening meals and lower energy in order that the burden comes off with out placing my well being in danger.
Or I can lower 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 average by 73 percent in less than 50 years. Life on earth hasn’t seen losses this steep for the reason that dinosaurs. Not like the dinosaurs, nevertheless, we’ve the ability to cease and even reverse a lot of the injury.
Our planet is barreling towards unfavorable tipping factors that, if crossed, may have dire penalties for not simply nature, however for individuals as properly. That will sound alarmist to some, however the well being of even a single species inhabitants can have shocking ripple results and could possibly be the set off for a extra expansive tipping level.
Take the ocean otter. As a predator, it retains ecosystems in stability. When fur merchants nearly wiped the species out within the 18th century, sea urchins overwhelmed the kelp forests it referred to as dwelling, hurting fish shares and lowering coastal safety from storms.
However the sea otter’s saga didn’t finish there. Conservation efforts sparked a outstanding restoration, boosting ecotourism and native economies. On this manner, 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 Soon Be Smarter Than Humans. Let’s Discuss,” 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 isn’t a risk to human beings.
A.I. is an unimaginable instrument when used correctly. Its primary worth is in its predictive skills. It could sift by way of large 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 could by no means write a piece of literature. Sure, it could emulate previous authors, however it could accomplish that solely in predictive methods. Or random methods.
What it can not do is create the sudden. That’s one thing solely a gifted creator can do. And by “sudden” I don’t imply random. I imply the exact flip of occasions that creates essentially the most shock within the reader’s thoughts, and in addition the sense that what occurred was, the truth is, exactly what ought to have been anticipated.
Solely a human thoughts can try this. So relaxation assured: A.I. is not going to change us.
David Frank DeLuca
Palm Bay, Fla.
