To the Editor:
Re “The World Must Wake Up to the Horror in Sudan” (editorial, July 19):
As the grandson of Armenian genocide survivors, I read your editorial with a painful sense of familiarity. The details may differ, but the pattern is tragically recognizable — with warnings ignored, atrocities rationalized and action delayed until it is too late.
The world often invokes “never again,” yet too often responds to mass suffering with indifference when strategic interests, political calculations or simple fatigue get in the way. The victims change, but the excuses remain remarkably consistent.
Selective outrage is not a moral policy, but a form of complicity. If the international community is willing to condemn some atrocities while overlooking others, then the promise of “never again” becomes little more than a slogan.
The people of Sudan deserve more than sympathy after the fact. They deserve the urgency and moral clarity that history has repeatedly shown to be in short supply.
Stephan Pechdimaldji San Ramon, Calif.
To the Editor:
The attention you have paid to Sudan’s war is welcome but overdue. We have just conducted an academic study of how Sudan is reported on, surveying and interviewing the reporters in the region trying to tell the story and aid workers in and around Sudan.
Both agreed that aid organizations largely control the story because the two armies have made Sudan too dangerous for reporters. But those organizations are constrained in what they can communicate because of their need to maintain access to the people who rely on them.
Both professions complained that the foreign funders of the war are rarely held to account. (Reporting by Nicholas Kristof is an exception). Calls to regional and global powers to intervene should demand, along with an end to the fighting, a full restoration of press freedom.
Chris Paterson Leeds, England The writer is a professor of global communication at the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds.
Talking to Young People About Guns
To the Editor:
Re “Takeaways From Rare Capitol Testimony by 2 Supreme Court Justices” (news article, July 15):
It was disheartening to read Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s testimony that an increase in violent threats led her to having to explain the presence of a bulletproof vest to her young son. As a mother, I can certainly relate.
I have had to explain to my children why they have lockdown drills at elementary school and that a 14-year-old was shot and killed around the corner from our house. After the shooting at Brown University last December, we discussed how to respond should they encounter an active shooter on their college campuses.
However, unlike Justice Barrett, I am powerless to do anything about the scourge of gun violence unique to our country.
Julieanne Ehre Chicago
‘Gray Divorce’
To the Editor:
“Older Adults Aren’t Staying in ‘Empty Shell’ Marriages” (Thursday Styles, July 2) ignores the seismic effect of later-life divorce — whether the marriage is “empty shell” or toxic — on the entire family system. This includes adult children from 18 to 50 and beyond. Even though they are grown, they are significantly affected.
Younger adult children still rely on parents for considerable support as they mark milestone events such as graduations, weddings and births. Middle-aged adult children are experiencing peak responsibility in their own families and at work. They may have been turning to their parents, now grandparents, for help.
The divorce of their elderly parents shifts their concerns to whether there will be enough time and resources for both parents to land on their feet fiscally and emotionally. Are there physical or cognitive impairments? Could there be remarriages that upend the extended family’s finances?
A myopic focus on the reasons for “gray divorce” and the challenges facing the divorcing couple without considering the effect on the entire family system runs the risk of estrangement, even fractures, in family relationships. The last thing anyone needs at this time is yet another loss.
Wendy Fisher House Ann Arbor, Mich. The writer is the author of “The Myth of No Big Deal: Healing From the Overlooked Impact of Later-Life Divorce on Adult Children and Families.”
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