To the Editor:
Re “At Home and Abroad, Mourning Lives Lost Over Three Long Years” (news article, Feb. 25):
Feb. 24 marked the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I am inspired by, and my heart breaks for, the brave and noble Ukrainians. I wish my president were more like President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Alison Ford
Ossining, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Re “Dueling U.N. Resolutions on Ukraine Highlight Fissures Between the U.S. and Europe” (news article, Feb. 25):
If the United States’ joining Russia to vote against a United Nations resolution to condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine isn’t giving aid and comfort to our enemy, I don’t know what is. Shame on us all.
Eileen Mitchell
Lewes, Del.
To the Editor:
Republicans, historically the party for a strong U.S. foreign policy and an understanding of who our democratic allies are, now remain silent.
As President Trump embraces Vladimir Putin, widely suspected of being a killer of political rivals and journalists, and calls President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator, our Republican senators and representatives should understand that their silence is more than acquiescence.
It should be construed as supporting our current path. So when things go wrong, as they inevitably do when you cut deals with bad actors, don’t you dare pretend you were not a part of this abhorrent change in direction in U.S. policy.
Steve Reich
Short Hills, N.J.
To the Editor:
Re “Ukraine Nears a Deal to Give U.S. a Share of Its Mineral Wealth” (news article, nytimes.com, Feb. 24):
I want to register my objection to the United States’ “mineral rights” demand to Ukraine. Further, any treaty granting our nation such rights must be approved by Congress, which I hope will show a shred of dignity and ensure that it at least gives Ukraine protection and sovereignty in return.
Demanding outsized payments from sovereign nations in return for tepid U.S. military, economic and moral support is completely un-American. It harkens back to the dark days of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when European powers carved up Africa among themselves, sowing the seeds of a century of conflict and suffering on the continent.
I have never felt so ashamed to be American as I do in the face of the current president’s abrupt and illogical betrayal of Ukraine.
Christopher Rizzo
New York
The writer is an environmental lawyer.
To the Editor:
Re “Rubio’s Dilemma as the Secretary of State: Arranging a Deal With ‘Bloodthirsty’ Putin” (news article, Feb. 24):
The 180-degree turnabout by Secretary of State Marco Rubio concerning Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine is characteristic of how many others in the Trump administration have totally changed their positions to placate the president.
It’s understandable and often commendable to change one’s views based on new developments, facts or insights. But these people are undergoing a metamorphosis in their ideology and principles for rank political purposes.
Republicans used to have a term for that: flip-flopping.
Marshall H. Tanick
Minneapolis
To the Editor:
Re “Trump’s Actions Are a Victory for Putin” (editorial, Feb. 23):
What long-held Republican values will today’s Republicans fight for?
Commitment to allies, to NATO, to the sovereignty of national boundaries? Individual freedom, the primacy of the law and the strict construction of the Constitution? The stability of markets and systems, free markets and trade? The separation of coequal branches of government? I don’t know.
What can modern-day Republicans offer to voters other than the promise “I’m with him and I’ll do whatever he asks or says”? Are there any firmly held principles that Republicans maintain? That are their North Star?
John E. Colbert
Arroyo Seco, N.M.
To the Editor:
Anyone who cozies up to Vladimir Putin and uses Mr. Putin’s own disinformation propaganda to blame Volodymyr Zelensky for a brutal war that we all witnessed Mr. Putin start is not fit for office. Period.
Leslie Turpin
Westminster West, Vt.
Advice for Democrats: ‘Go Home and Listen’
To the Editor:
Re “Democrats Worry They Are Missing the Moment to Remake the Party” (news article, Feb. 19):
To the Democratic Party leaders who are struggling to map out their party’s future, here’s a humble suggestion: Go home and listen.
Since congressional Republicans apparently neither want nor need your votes at the moment, just leave (as in vacate) Washington for two to three weeks and meet with as many people in your states and districts as possible.
Don’t take polls; don’t hold rallies; don’t make speeches. Take your staff, actively listen and take lots of notes. Show up in venues large and small: schools, churches, supermarkets, bars, restaurants, convenience stores.
Meet folks as they are, where they are, 12 to 15 hours a day, as if you were campaigning — but don’t campaign! Convey nothing but care, genuine interest and sincere empathy.
Above all, suspend your current barrage of text and email requests for funds. Then return to plotting the party’s future direction, based not on what you want to hear or imagine you’ve heard, but on what people have actually said.
William Kumbier
East Lansing, Mich.
Lab Discoveries Lost
To the Editor:
Re “Trump’s Layoffs Target Talented Young Scientists” (news article, Feb. 18):
I fear that President Trump’s gutting of the National Institutes of Health may have terrible ripple effects beyond the loss of promising young scientific talent.
If programs training new biomedical scientists are not restored, the time might come when nobody alive will even be able to understand crucial cutting-edge research papers generated during the pre-Trump era. In that case, lifesaving clinical applications of lost laboratory discoveries will never be developed.
Donald Mender
Rhinebeck, N.Y.
The writer is a former assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine.
Buy Back Pennies and Nickels
To the Editor:
Re “Does It Make Sense to Stop Minting Pennies?” (The Upshot, Feb. 23):
I wonder if there is a temporary alternative to permanently ceasing production of these coins. Why not stop minting pennies and nickels for one year, and simply buy the hordes of these coins sitting in jars and sock drawers back from consumers at a fraction over face value: pennies at 1.25 cents and nickels at 6 cents each?
You automatically liberate billions of stored coins and save the U.S. Mint a bundle of real money in the process.
John M. Maeglin
Northbrook, Ill.
Re-evaluating Movies
To the Editor:
Re “‘American Beauty,’ an Oscar Winner, Hasn’t Aged Well” (Arts, Feb. 22):
Can we stop re-evaluating movies once they’ve become detached from their historical period? If “American Beauty” is diminished because it’s no longer 1999, then by that yardstick perhaps we should stop making movies at all, since, crystal balls notwithstanding, they might one day be irrelevant.
Douglas Soesbe
Palm Springs, Calif.
