To the Editor:
Re “In Outburst, Trump Calls Somali Immigrants ‘Garbage’” (news article, Dec. 3):
Every day, we are subjected to President Trump’s outrageous and boorish behavior. Millions of Americans long for the class and decency of his two predecessors.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden always acted in ways we think of as presidential.
Every day, Mr. Trump dishonors the office of the presidency. He diminishes the United States in word and in deed.
Eric Beldoch Bronx
To the Editor:
This human being who is our leader calls another country and its inhabitants “garbage.” He calls those who have come to the United States from there “garbage.” Disgraceful.
Here is a man who cannot accept nor understand that Somalis (and many others) are simply human beings, like him. But unlike him, they were not born with the opportunities and wealth that he was. It is impossible for me to believe that Americans who call themselves Christian can keep quiet.
Dee Baer Wilmington, Del.
To the Editor:
What does it say about us as a people that during this time of strife, danger and momentous decisions we have placed our trust and elevated to leadership such a flawed, self-serving, venal, willfully ignorant person?
It appears we have fallen far from our ideals, from what it has meant to be an American.
This does not have to be the end of the American dream, unless we no longer care; we can reclaim our power and our ideals. We may have to fight for them, because evil will not willingly give up its place on the throne. Yet isn’t what we built here worth that effort?
Bruce Higgins San Diego
Rubio’s Cruel Deportee Deal
To the Editor:
Re “Senator Criticizes Rubio’s $7.5 Million Payment to Equatorial Guinea” (news article, Nov. 13):
The Trump administration’s $7.5 million transfer to the West-Central African nation of Equatorial Guinea should alarm us all. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is Africa’s longest serving dictator. His brutal regime has now been paid to incarcerate undocumented immigrants from the United States.
As a former United States ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, I can attest to its inhumane prison conditions. Playa Negra (Black Beach) prison in the nation’s capital was built in the 1940s during the Spanish colonial period. Prisoners there are regularly beaten and tortured while denied adequate food and medicine. Rampant infectious diseases go untreated.
When I was ambassador, a recently released Black Beach political prisoner showed me his torture wounds. A political opposition party member sent to another prison in the country told me he saw a young woman being repeatedly gang-raped in a cell with men. As a physician, he did what he could for her and other sick and injured inmates.
Equatorial Guinea’s prisons are in many ways worse than San Salvador’s infamous Terrorism Confinement Center, where torture and inhumane treatment of migrants sent by the United States have already been well established. Undocumented immigrants sent to Equatorial Guinea will also be subjected to cruel abuse.
Mark L. Asquino Santa Fe, N.M. The writer is a retired senior Foreign Service officer who was the U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea from 2012 to 2015.
Beyond Tech Bans
To the Editor:
Re “Banning Social Media” (The Morning newsletter, nytimes.com, Nov. 9):
If cellphone bans are not sufficiently addressing the mental health needs of young people, it is because they need more than just limits placed on screen time and social media. Schools need to proactively fill the tech void with more collaborative and physically embodied learning experiences that reconnect young people to themselves and one another.
Consider arts education — be it dance, music or theater — and its benefits: Students experience belonging in an ensemble and form friendships while working together toward a common goal, like a performance. They use and move their bodies. They have the opportunity to give expression to moods and emotions in healthy, constructive ways.
They are applauded, and in turn, cheer for their peers. Cellphone bans are important, but insufficient alone. It’s time to get physical and creative!
Jermaine Jones New York The writer is the executive director of the National Dance Institute.
The post Trump’s Xenophobic ‘Garbage’ Rant appeared first on New York Times.
